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As a matter of interest, what is the "Post Avant"? How does one get to be labelled as such? Bear in mind that, like MJW, I'm from across the pond. Roger On 4/16/07, joe green <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > There are worlds and worlds unaffected by Vendler. Do not the poorhouses of Post Avant verse and and on and on and on yet remain? Aren't there still horrible reviews in Poetry magazine?. Doesn't Silliman flourish even though he is capable of statements like "we must go beyond gender-fuck?" > > Vendler and Bloom both got where they are because they are priestess and priest in the Ivy temples and because they are singular unwearying forces. And Vendler -- long ago -- published essays on Shakespeare and Donne and Herbert that were and are remarkable. > > She became (I guess she is) the vile arbiter of taste in certain precincts because of the usual connections, because she is capable of a certain sort of attention and, luckily, because she is a scholar (that is knows what the hell she is talking about anent the ancient ones). Somehow we got lucky. We could have ended up with Dana Goia. > > Her critical reputation has its source in English departments of the old sort. Last of her breed. Moved to the throne by fellows (mostly fellows) now in their eighties who dug Donne and finally conceded that Hugh Kenner was a damn fine critic when they were confronted with the likes of Terry Eagleton. > > They are all going down to the dark soon in any case. > > But -- given all the ghosts wailing outside her window that she does not see -- who is there that pays such bright particular attention to poems? > > I'm just happy that there is someone reading someone in this way. > > > > Kenneth Wolman <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Hokay, so I will allow that Vendler is not covering Margaret Hamilton's > lines. Frankly if someone put me in the position Vendler has occupied > for over 20 years, I would not be modest and do a Wayne & Garth "We're > not worthy!!" But. Someone or some combination of forces made Helen > Vendler the power she has become in American poetry. I personally do > not remember anyone since (ta-da) Eliot and Pound who can work to > promote personal favorites to great heights. Someone made her a king- > and queen-maker. Who? How do the critical reputations of critics--not > of poets--happen? I grant too she is not omnipotent. Philip Levine > didn't quit writing. > > ken > > > > --------------------------------- > Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell? > Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos. > -- My Stuff: http://www.badstep.net/ "Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious." Oscar Wilde