I remember Jonson's *plays* having a bit of a vogue about 30 years ago, but
as for what the young read, phew. The only young person I know (outside list
land) who reads poetry from the canon for pleasure is a 24 year old
historian (mediaevalist) with two MA's already under her belt and PhD on the
way, not exactly typical.
On 26 March 2010 22:20, Robin Hamilton <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
> Do the young still read Jonson? He was enormously important in my own
>> formation.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Mark
>>
>
> Dunno, Mark. I'm inclined to think Jonson, especially the poetry, is not a
> common taste. I certainly came on the poetry relatively late, having loved
> the plays from highschool. But when I tried to teach the Jonson Line in
> Renaissance Poetry, a la Yvor Winters (and having to edit an anthology from
> scratch in order to do so -- this was the days before the Web made texts
> easily available), I didn't have much success.
>
> But then neither did I have with Pound or Langland or Stevie Smith. Dunno
> if this was me, or the Zeitgeist. Never had the least bother convincing the
> kids that Henryson was marvellous, once they got over the ritual screams of
> horror at the funny language and spelling. "The Testament of Cresseid"
> always went down a bomb.
>
> But hey, isn't Kaspar the youngest among us? What's he got to say on this?
> Or Patrick?
>
> Robin
--
David Bircumshaw
"A window./Big enough to hold screams/
You say are poems" - DMeltzer
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