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> Aside from the gender issue (again), do people really rate Wendy > Cope that highly as a poet? I'm interested because most poets / > critics that I've spoken too seem to dismiss her poetry without > really discussing it as undemanding light verse aimed at a sort of > Classic FM / Daily Mail / middle class audience. I rate her highly as a poet. The poem at issue here is not one of her best. Some of the poems in "Serious Concerns" are small miracles of concision, I think, getting a whole relationship ruefully into a few lines. The tight form contains and regulates a real sadness and need. I can't quote offhand, because someone's stolen my copy (usually a sign of a book worth reading). Most poet/critics dismiss her verse because she's not doing what they want poetry to do. Maybe she belongs in a tradition with Dorothy Parker, and maybe Edna St Vincent Millay. George ______________________________________________ George Simmers Snakeskin Poetry Webzine is at http://www.snakeskin.org.uk %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%