Joanna, I like your description of NF.
Here, for petceetters delectation, one smarmy get on another:
http://www.danagioia.net/essays/efenton.htm
Spookily, Gioia cites the *later Auden (who I can't read for long) as
an influence on Fenton.
"All young poets have early influences, but only a few have single
ravishing passions. In a weak poet, such early fixation can stunt
creative growth, but for a strong imagination une grande passion can
focus and clarify artistic development. At Repton, Fenton discovered
the poetry of W. H. Auden, which would prove the most important
influence on his own work. Significantly, his reading began with
Auden's more didactic and discursive later work. (The first volume he
read was About the House, which appeared in England in 1966, Fenton's
last year at public school.) Auden's influence was not hard to come by
at Repton, which had not only educated Auden's father but also
Christopher Isherwood. Repton's church, St. Wystan's, had even
inspired Auden's Christian name. The young Fenton's literary
acquaintance with the work of the elder poet was reinforced by a
personal encounter when Auden accepted an invitation to read at his
patron saint's school. Their meeting began a sporadic friendship
between the poets that lasted until Auden's death in 1973."
It's all a little ...cosy. None of that gay, pinko, left-wing,
shagging yr way round Germany for the Young Fenton. Is it me, or is
the Young Fenton something of a creep? When Auden was at Oxford in the
later years, I believe he used to regale his guests with *shocking*
tales of Germany, then go piss in the sink. Or something like that. My
memory fails.
And the article drags in Larkin. Christ! In the Claypit!
BTB, I occasionally glance at Fentons weekly article in the Saturday
Guardian and sometimes it really is a bunch of reactionary tosh.
Roger
On 1/23/07, Joanna Boulter <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> So, let's see if I've got this straight.
>
> You are talking about poetry which can be / is to be scanned in two ways at
> once, each of them strict and without the little relaxations which give the
> poetic line its subtlety?
>
> What is the point, except to see if you can? You might as well wear two
> straitjackets at the same time.
>
> That's not for me!
>
> joanna
>
> joanna
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Robin Hamilton" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 12:28 PM
> Subject: Re: is dipodic a no-no?
>
>
> >> OK so I'm wrong again!
> >> At least I'm not alone.
> >> Roger
> >
> > Ah, depends which dipodic you mean, but. The term does seem to drift
> > around a bit, meaning something quite different (earlier) in classical
> > quantitative scansion, for instance.
> >
> > I think Joe and I are both singing from the same hymn sheet (hm -- are
> > hymns dipodic?), but I've been stressing the origins while his latest neat
> > post directs towards the way it occurs in non-folk poetry.
> >
> > [I'm unsure where to place the comment you forwarded from Joanna. If
> > there were an equivalent here to Dana Gioa among the New Formalists, it
> > might just be James Fenton. Except he's a bit too daring for them. Does
> > Gioia mention him anywhere, or stick to trying to rehabilitate Charles
> > Causley?]
> >
> > R.
>
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