Peter:
>There's a force of conformism within the concept "innovative"
>which can be overwhelming. I sometimes worry about all those British
>popular poets of the early 20th Century, people like Binyon, Masefield, de
>la Mare, Housman, Drinkwater, Belloc etc etc -- how certain are we of how
>bad (or good) they were, since the paths laid out by the modernist mafiosi
>persuaded us not to read them?
Do you not perhaps sometimes overestimate the degree of that
'conformism'? Of the poets you list here, I've read de la Mare and
Belloc with some pleasure during the last year, and Masefield a bit
further back.
Not just trying for a debating point here, Peter, but to suggest that
sometimes in your desire to correct perceived imbalances you
introduce some of your own. The 'branding' as mainstream or
innovative often is imposed from outside, and is usually reductive.
Best,
T
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