Hi Cassie,
thank you for answering my query. I thank you again for pointing out a poet
I have never read. I will seek out her work. I agree with the assessment
that it is not what you say, but how you say it since there is nothing new
under the sun to quote a tired cliche. (-:) Sending my best yrway. Joanne
----- Original Message -----
From: <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2000 8:40 AM
Subject: A thought on Plath & all things miserable


> Dear Joanne,
>
> That's a difficult question. The 'cult' of Sylvia Plath probably
contributes
> to her percieved tiresome aspect. yet perhaps it's unfair that she's so
> commonly seen as purely internal and insular- most of us would seem that
way
> if the diaries of our youth were widely published.
>
> Poetry needs shade as well as light to work, it's almost a prerequisite,
so
> I guess what we're talking about is attitude, style and tone rather than
> subject matter.
>
> Personally, having just read Louise Gluck's 'The Wild Iris', I am
staggered
> by her deftness with dark subjects. Here's a quote from Helen Vendler from
> the back cover:
>
> "Her poems... have achieved the unusual distinction of being neither
> "confessional" nor "intellectual" in the usual senses of this word, which
> are often thought to represent two camps in the life of poetry...What a
> strange book 'The Wild Iris' is...written in the language of flowers...It
> wagers everything on the poetic energy remaining in the old troubadour
image
> of the spring, the Biblical lilies of the field, natural resurrection."
>
> What is a personal hell? Is it so different from an impersonal one? Does
it
> really matter whether we're talking about death and resurrection in a
> garden, or in Russia (as in Akhmatova's 'Requiem' Cycle) or in Sylvia's
> mind? I think it comes down to one of the best phrases I picked up in high
> school: it's not what you say but how you say it.
>
> How very intellectual of me! But as readers we have interpretitive choices
> too: I tentatively feel that three's much existentialism in Plath's work,
> along with all the nihilism.
>
> But if it was a choice between a night out with Anna and Louise, and one
> with Sylvia, I'm pretty sure which one I'd take.
>
>
> Best wishes,
>
>
> Cassie
>
>
> On Wed, 5 Jul 2000 08:05:28 -0700, [log in to unmask] wrote:
>
> >  which brings me to a question I believe passed by this list a short
time
> >  ago, but I am afraid I wasn't paying attention. What is the consensus
of
> >  poets who think writing poetry of a personal hell is self indulgent
> drivel?
> >  I for one am moved and enjoy the honest emotions that can come from
such
> >  self revealing work. What do others say? Humm? just wondering, Joanne
> >
> >   ----- Original Message -----
> >  From: <[log in to unmask]>
> >  To: <[log in to unmask]>
> >  Cc: <[log in to unmask]>
> >  Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2000 5:57 AM
> >  Subject: Re: Plath as a miserable, self-obsessed b*****r
> >
> >
> >  > Dear Ally and Susanne,
> >  > I have to disagree with this assessment of Plath, who was fully
> occupied
> >  > most of the time and had a clear and precise eye: her poems attest to
> her
> >  > intense interest in things outside herself -- for me they often have
> the
> >  > attention and accuracy of Hopkins' letters.
> >  > Mairead
> >  >
> >  > On Tue, 4 Jul 2000, Ally Kerr wrote:
> >  >
> >  > > Dear Susanne,
> >  > >
> >  > > Jane Austen, in Persuasion, suggests that folk who are depressed
> should
> >  avoid reading poetry....  She's probably got a point: so many poets are
> >  miserable self-obsessed b****rs like Plath!  On the other hand, when us
> >  students were depressed in the 60s, we used to listen to a Leonard
Cohen
> LP
> >  and then we knew there was someone who felt worse than we did.  Cheered
> us
> >  up no end. The Rev Sydney Smith said read humour and get out a lot.
> >  > >
> >  > > Cheers
> >  > >
> >  > >
> >  > > Ally Kerr
> >  > > __________________________________________
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> >  > >
> >
>
>
>
>
>
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