On Wed, Apr 14, 2010 at 9:13 AM, John Herbert Cunningham <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I think a great deal of the 'slovenly self-indulgence' is a legacy of
> Robert
> Lowell and Sylvia Plath and confessional poetry.
>
Hi, I find that very interesting, because I've been told that several times
recently, one time, when I was trying to, probably unfairly, blame the
Beats.
I find Sylvia Plath an extraordinary craftswoman. Her work post-juvenilia
is general not in form, although you can often feel her working at the anvil
of accentual regularity, but it has a tightness and aptness, that is rarely
seen replicated in those who claim her to be their model. I certainly have
never been able to fathom how people could so casually compare Anne Sexton
to Plath, which to me feels like comparing a crooked ember to an acetylene
torch. Lowell is also hard for me to endure, and if Plath did learn from
him, did she perhaps not learn more about subject matter than she did about
wordsmithing? And is it not reasonable to separate confessional thematics
from slovenly craft?
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