I get the feeling that Jeffrey's question has been a bit
misrepresented by the responses so far.
From this side of the pond, from a certain angle, there is certainly
a case to be made for the relatively healthy American follow-on to
European modernism, compared with what happened in the English
'English' speaking speaking poetry dominant here in the second half of
the century. Part of the problem, for anyone trying to track back, was
the Movement's suppression (witting or unwitting) of anything which
did not fit its tastes. Some people, while not necessarily agreeing
with post-Movement poetics, still seem to have swallowed its
revisionist propaganda.
How much ideas about Wordsworth have to do with this is an interesting
question. For me there are contradictions in Wordsworthian romanticism
(e.g. between common speech realism and individual elevation of
spiritual 'emotion') which have never been resolved by subsequent
English poetics - it is definitely related to what Jeffrey is talking
about , but I wouldn't want to speculate further without giving it
some serious thought.
Tim A.
On 25 Aug 2009, at 11:30, Jeffrey Side wrote:
> New blog post:
>
>
> "Has British Poetry had any significance since Wordsworth?"
>
> This may seem an outlandish question, but I think it has some force
> behind it. Of course, the influence of Wordsworth on contemporary
> British mainstream poetry need hardly be stressed, and I have
> written extensively about this elsewhere. It is because of this
> influence that most of the celebrated British poetry of the
> Twentieth Century tended towards mediocrity when compared to
> American poetry of the same period.....
>
>
> http://jeffrey-side.blogspot.com/
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