In the long-awaited just out September issue of Stand there's an very short
article, or polemic, by Glyn Maxwell entitled 'Strictures'. It's tone is
rather different from Henry's delicate explorations of possible solidities,
substantialities to hold to, here's a couple of quotes for consideration:
'Those who reject form in poetry reject form in the body. What they do is
alien to what's human.'
'A good poem is strung upon a version of itself that is mechanical, fixed,
monotonous..'
'Obscurity cannot be poetry because the body is not obscure. Obscurity in
verse is language taking leave of its senses.'
Broken pentameters get mentioned too. So, all you extra-terrestial
free-versers, dare you show your faces in Britain, and somebody might skewer
you on his Clockwork Poetry Kit, made with specially sharpened Meccano,
while injecting you with tranquilisers and waving his kidneys or intestines
in your face.
david bircumshaw
----- Original Message -----
From: Henry <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2001 9:53 PM
Subject: Re: henry's prosody
> In a few poets, like Shakespeare & Zukofsky, the way the meter works in
> unison with the sound & length of the individual words has the uncanny
> effect of turning poetry into prose, or para-prose. Does anyone else
> have this sensation? It's as though poetry suddenly takes on the
> solidity of iron or bronze. They must have absorbed this from
> Latin. What I mean by "prose" is that the verse achieves a strange
> "steadiness" or objectivity. Like burning bronze.
>
> Henry
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