I think there's something to be said for the term "voice", though
"finding your voice" seems to come out of the get-rich-quick manuals
of the CW industry ("In 6 months you too can FIND YOUR VOICE!!").
Voice of poetry appears when the poet is able to make all those style
aspects that James mentioned, their own. It may be personalized in
the sense of actualization that Robin described, or it may be more
impersonal - the voice of the work. It's a fluency between maker &
work (Franco Ferrucci has a great book on this called The Poetics of
Disguise, where he discusses "the autobiography of the work").
We've all read (& probably written) poems that over-reach - poems that
at their apex or denouement succeed in voicing a pathetic imitation of
somebody else. Some poets spend their whole careers imitating the
others' styles. They can't help it. But they haven't crafted a
new voice. Also, voices change. "Time silvers the plow / and
the poet's voice." (Mandelstam)
Henry
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