I can't find Milosz "austere" like you, Frederick: I find his work often
glowing with colour, often of an autumnal kind (and how superbly translated
they are; imagine how good the Polish must be!). Just shows how differently
one connotes words. But I do find him & Z. possess that "nobility" you
describe & appreciate.
<we go from modernism and free verse> ~ it's not that simple, Sevanthi,
being a poem by a notorious putter-downer, whose work is informed by great
modernists such as Pound, Lewis & Ford & is certainly "freer" than New
Formalists. Much of his work is very acerb, abrasive even, much expresses
great sadness, but it's usually in a pared down style which has nothing of
the affected character of "look at me being wonderfully formal". It's more
that modernist objection to "letting it all hang out". Donald Davie was
similar in that, and he was good friends with Edward Dorn, pretty abrasive
too but certainly not poetically reactionary! But try "In insula Avalonia"
to get an impression of Sisson at his best.
Oh, I do want to read that Dowson biography, Frederick, but apart from the
cost of books, where can one put them all, not forgetting all the CDs & LPs?
What one needs is a circulating library... I could try the Deutsche
Bibliothek, I suppose. I used to feel guilty about enjoying Dowson, back in
the days when Leavisite principles were a crutch to a very impressionable
mind. The Carcanet volume _Three poets of the Rhymers Club_ has a delightful
selection, but it's probably all on the Net.
Regards, Martin
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