Thanks to Nate for pointing out the review of Glyn Maxwell's selected, 'The
Boys At Twilight' in the NYT today -
>I liked this sentence:
>"The feeling that life is somehow being missed is a central theme of modern
>English poetry, from William Empson to Philip Larkin. ''The Boys at
>Twilight'' belongs to this lyric tradition."
So do I Nate, mind, I would have put it like this: 'The feeling that life is
somehow being missed is a central theme of modern English poetry, from
William Empson to Philip Larkin, and a jolly good thing too.' Mind, I always
enjoyed Empson and still do. Maxwell however is one of those writers who
bores me not because he is a bad writer (I have no idea if he is good or bad)
but because I am just not interested enough in what he is going on about (or
am i not interested because he cannot make me?). This low-key obsession with
being English and the chancy universal 'significance' of that is not what got
me into poetry and if it was all there was available then it would certainly
drive me out.
Tim A.
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