Sorry to be dropping in an out: I get overwhelmed in spates. Sorry if I bring up issues that have already been belabored at length: I haven't followed all the discussions.
On some reflection, I have a question for Trevor -- what exactly does it mean for a poem to be "conceived as a political critique from the bottom up"? I wish I could understand the "from the bottom up" part better. E.g. are Pound's Cantos such works? To the (seemingly great) extent that they convey a political message or vision, how exactly do they differ from the "standard sentimentalisms" of the "I feel, I think" variety?
I also wanted to mention W.H.Auden, whom I have been reading (Faber's The English Auden, specifically) -- and again finding poems that I like amid the stuff that doesn't move me. I recommend "Brothers, who when the sirens roar" and "What was the weather on Eternity's worst day?" as political critiques. I wonder sometimes why I never hear Auden mentioned in innovative & avantgarde circles, where he seems to be unliked. Is it because he often favored metrical forms (people can get so hung up about that...)? He is certainly often "antiabsorptive" and at places he did (quite brilliantly too) much of the kind of stuff that the LANGUAGE poets reinvented quite a bit later. Would be interesting to hear some thoughts on this.
Cheers to all!
Philip
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