Exactly the same thing happened in the US, though the noise that the
non-mainstream makes on the web may obscure this. For some reason
English-language poetry has tended to be far more conservative,
post-1940, than poetry elsewhere.
I was talking with a mainstream poet friend last night. He
congratulated me on a translation of mine appearing in a to-him
significant journal. I pointed out that in my world that journal was
barely noticed. So it goes.
Mark
At 01:30 PM 8/25/2009, you wrote:
>I get the feeling that Jeffrey's question has been a bit
>misrepresented by the responses so far.
> From this side of the pond, from a certain angle, there is certainly
>a case to be made for the relatively healthy American follow-on to
>European modernism, compared with what happened in the English
>'English' speaking speaking poetry dominant here in the second half of
>the century. Part of the problem, for anyone trying to track back, was
>the Movement's suppression (witting or unwitting) of anything which
>did not fit its tastes. Some people, while not necessarily agreeing
>with post-Movement poetics, still seem to have swallowed its
>revisionist propaganda.
>
>How much ideas about Wordsworth have to do with this is an interesting
>question. For me there are contradictions in Wordsworthian romanticism
>(e.g. between common speech realism and individual elevation of
>spiritual 'emotion') which have never been resolved by subsequent
>English poetics - it is definitely related to what Jeffrey is talking
>about , but I wouldn't want to speculate further without giving it
>some serious thought.
>
>Tim A.
>
>On 25 Aug 2009, at 11:30, Jeffrey Side wrote:
>
>>New blog post:
>>
>>
>>"Has British Poetry had any significance since Wordsworth?"
>>
>>This may seem an outlandish question, but I think it has some force
>>behind it. Of course, the influence of Wordsworth on contemporary
>>British mainstream poetry need hardly be stressed, and I have
>>written extensively about this elsewhere. It is because of this
>>influence that most of the celebrated British poetry of the
>>Twentieth Century tended towards mediocrity when compared to
>>American poetry of the same period.....
>>
>>
>>http://jeffrey-side.blogspot.com/
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