Firstly Wallace Stevens. I read the Collected about four years ago
and was struck by the brilliance of the verse in `Harmonium'.
But I felt he didnt really get down to poetry till
he wrote `The Rock'.
REgarding Elizabeth Bishop I fear her reputation is much inflated.
The poem I always remember is the lyric about the boy in BRazil,
cant remember the tile offhand, but is is a longish piece.
A lot of her poems that are rated leave me pretty cold.
And the same goes for Sidney Graham. He is not for me.
Although, as I said, Douglas Dunn did find some attractive early
Greenock poems for his Anthology.
The above is all my personal taste, which is anachronistic cos
in my teens I tended to lean on Palgrave for sustenance.
And I dont like all this intended PLath-bashing.
When you look round among the women poets you see she is
a major contender. I think what she lacked was applying a cohesive structure
to her poetry but the individual brilliance cant be denied.
Sour grapes all round.
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