>mild defense of the New Formalists, though, I would say that most of them are
>guilty of nothing more than being rather uninteresting poets, and are fairly
>moderate politically - I would guess many voted for the same guy Charles
>Bernstein did (if he voted).
You're right, Alan. I was being unfair. I'm expressing irritation at the
whole idea of "return to form" as a PROGRAM. As something poets could sign
onto as part of a "movement". Feel the same way about the use of the
word "language" in Language Poetry. Form & language are too important,
too idiosyncratic, too problematical, too mysterious, too personal, too
involved with individual craft & very particular problems of composition;
so that using them that way seems to debase them in the process.
But this is old news.
Henry
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