Dear Bob,
 I felt that you were perhaps confusing 'voice' and 'style'.
            I think every poem has its own particular voice, but overall, we
can often recognise the style of an author.
On another list we had a competition to write a poem on a topic. All the
poems were posted up together, without the author's names. I found I could
identfy most of the authors without any problem because I was familiar with
their style.
 I find I write very few poems using (or pretending to use) the
autobiographical 'I'. That seems to me to be a matter of the voice of each
poem. I'm aware I must use language in a particular way over the range of my
poems, and that must be a matter of style, -though I can't see what mine is.
Kind regards,
 grasshopper

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Cooper" <[log in to unmask]
Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2002 6:18 PM
Subject: Re: The poet's voice


> Perhaps I'm writing this because I've been one of the lurkers on the edge
of
> this voice discussion - and I don't know if I know how to use the word
> voice.
>
> Voice seems a simple word that gets really complex when it's used because
it
> sometimes sounds similar to the paperback self-analysis-therapy-language
> about finding one's true self by following a particular philosophy or
> psychological construct. (I'm not knocking the books! I'm just trying to
> point out that they may not help a poet appreciate, or find a useful
> language to describe, a poet's voice). The search for a distinct voice
(and
> style) can seem so essential and intense that some may feel excluded
> (because they, and I, don't see always see writing poems in those terms).
> I'm also not happy to simplify the discussion down to the point that we
> chose particular words - because poems aren't just words, they're
> grammatical constructs, and spaces and shapes, and goodness knows what
else!
> And, if the voice has to be heard in a poem, it sort of needs all of them.
>
> I recognise, because of what I see when I look at my poems as well as when
I
> read them or hear them, that I've written in different voices when I've
> lived in different places, met and worked alongside different poets, and
> written about different things. In each place I've eventually been told I
> have my own voice, which is distinct and recognisable as mine (But I've
also
> been told I write like so-an-so, which can sometimes surprise me, so I've
> probably scurried home and started to read who I'm said to be like!). And
> I've also had people I've kept in touch with from previous places
> complaining because my voice has changed and they don't recognise, or
like,
> what's now going on!
>
> I'm not worried about using different voices. Even though I recognise
those
> poets like Dylan Thomas, and Frank O'Hara, had distinctive immediately
> recognisable voices (and I sense there are links between their earlier and
> later poems) I also recognise that James Wright's and RS Thomas's voices
> (and styles) changed suddenly and never returned. I also like reading John
> Berryman's poetry, where he writes with a successive variety of voices. So
I
> feel at ease with what's going on with me. I feel as if I need to
experiment
> and listen to what others are saying and wait until enough of my poems
begin
> to show links between each other before I feel happy with what I'm now
> doing. Then I'll feel as if I'm getting into a new voice. At the moment,
> living in yet another place, I feel as if I need to develop yet another
> voice. (Because my last voice doesn't work here!)
>
> I also like (which surprises me) TS Eliot's distinctions between a poet's
> different voices (perhaps the only thing he ever said that I like!). He
> writes about 3 different voices: the poet talking to himself (or herself),
> the poet addressing an audience (mega-big or as small as one), and the
poet
> inventing a character who speaks. I think everything's more complex than
> that, though, these days. But I think he gives me permission to try other
> voices (maybe 1st, 2nd, 3rd person, maybe louder, maybe softer, maybe
> assertive, maybe reflective) and so extend my voice's range (so, I'm
> grudgingly grateful to him for that!). And I think post-modernity is
raising
> lots of questions about self-identity - and I sense our culture is,
> therefore, contributing to how we can use our poetry voices.
>
> Or am I now no longer talking about voice?
>
> Maybe not.
>
> Or maybe I still am if it's other people who recognise and get to know my
> poetry voice... (I mean I recognise that I find it hard to recognise my
own
> speaking voice rattling away on other people's ansaphones etc! I don't
know
> how my speaking voice sounds! But they know what I sound like!) So, maybe
I
> don't want to know how to analyse my poetry voice, I just want to get to a
> stage, once again, where I'm happy when I'm writing, when I'm writing a
lot,
> when I feel at ease with the words I'm using, and what comes after the
last
> line's writ (and re-writ) feels as if it's fresh and working OK.
>
> Bob
>
>
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