>>I wonder if anyone has ever done some sort of study or
theory-construction around this, namely the extent to which the *I* in a
poem can be identified with the author<<
I have always liked Sam Hammill's definition of the "I" in a poem, which I
am paraphrasing here, since I am not where I can lay my hands on the book in
which he did it: The "I" in a poem is the first person impersonal (or
something like that). In other words, it is a first person speaker, but it
is not autobiographical and, as such, is an invitation to someone other than
the author to enter the poem and experience it as his or her own. Hammill
goes on to say a good deal about the author's responsibility to and in that
first person impersonal, but that I will not paraphrase. If someone is
interested, though, I think I have somewhere, but not on this computer, a
pdf of the essay in which he talks about this and I'll be happy to send it.
Richard
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