On writing poetry

 On writing poetry in the 21st Century.

Many poets today write from the “I” perspective or rather about “ME.” They use poetry in identity and attention politics. There is nothing wrong about that at all. Every poet has done that in the past. Not quite, because many poets in the past wrote indirectly. They did not exclusively write about themselves, some wrote poetry for poetry’s sake. There were formal restraints in the past. Poets wrote within the restraints of versification. There were rules. Also poets used stock imagery and tropes. The novelty arose in how you used the materials at hand. There were variations on classical themes and innovations. Dante of course borrowed from Virgil and Homer. We are not sure who Homer drew his inspiration from, but he must have done so. When we arrive at modernism, with Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot among many others, we hear the mantra “Make it New” and yet, if we look at “The Wasteland”, it is built upon classics. The parodic voice is from Robert Browning, even the first lines are Chaucerian. Indeed the poem as are the Cantos of Pound saturated in motifs, references and even structural elements drawn from the classical canon. Today that Western classical canon is joined by a very rich diverse cultural storehouse, all of which can be utilized by poets who are not afraid of the canon. When we get toward the 1950s, there is a trend toward confession and exposure. One writes directly about relations and one’s sexuality. One Howls. Robert Lowell who chaired many workshops in which leading women poets participated, was a stickler for the classics. He referred to the past. Among the three or four key women poets, Adrienne Rich became an advocate of “strong feminism” whilst others took a more compatibilist approach. Even though Rich was very political, and rightly so, she did ground her arguments within the context of the canon. Sylvia Plath was more of a craftsperson than Ann Sexton for example, and her poetry is steeped in references to her readings. Kathleen Spivack was a great fan of Rainer Maria Rilke. Elizabeth Bishop drew upon the Latin American culture. No Woman is an Island. Another point which one might consider is the musicality of poetry. Much of the epic poetry was memorized just like the Koran, the task was made easier by rhythm and rhyme. Numerous poems of the Elizabethan period were songs. You could read them in private or sing them in company. In other cultures such as those with characters, the poet has much more scope. A haiku has many levels to it. The choice of a Chinese character (Kanji) means that the allusions can be threefold or even fourfold. The manner of which it is written is important. What brush strokes were used? What style is it? Even a brush stroke has significance. Like poems in Arabic or Hindi, Chinese, Japanese and Korean poems can be put on the wall and exhibited. An English haiku put on the wall has no more resonance than a bumper sticker.