(Can't keep out of this any longer!)
An 'I' has its uses, like any other technique.
I can't see that the gender of the poet makes much difference.
The lyric 'I' itself may or may not have a gender or be perceived
by the reader as having one.
Is it a fiction? For me, when I use it,
it is *at the same time* a fiction and a deep truth.
Janet
> I'd agree wholly with you here, Alison, but was only making the point
> that for me, the 'I' tends to be a problem, & perhaps I would add, it
> can be a problem by now, in what are more trad lyrics, to white male
> poets in the West anyway. I am not really all that interested in those
> USAmerican poets remembering nostalgically their youth, etc.
>
> On the other hand, Robert Creeley (& he's not the only one) found an
> 'I' that was amazingly complicated in some of the ways you mention.
>
> And, yes, it is a fiction, but then how the maker makes it work as one
> is the question, isn't it....
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Janet Jackson <[log in to unmask]>
Poems at Proximity: www dot proximity dot webhop dot net
Our humanity is diminished when we have no mission
bigger than ourselves.
Bono
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