My stories have been published in Barbara and Christopher Roden's ALL HALLOWS; in John Pelan's ALONE ON THE DARKSIDE; in WEIRD FICTION REVIEW #4. These and others can be found in my second ebook, IN A SEASON OF DEAD WEATHER. My latest collection, ICE & AUTUMN GLASS, is now available from Leaky Boot Press. I also have a Youtube channel -- check the sidebar below for a link.
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Don't Say It!
I censor myself every day, and for good reason. For example, today on Facebook, someone posted an image of a painting that he wanted to frame.
For someone (me) with limited poetry experience, could you recommend some good poets? Thus far I've read the complete poetry of: Clark Ashton Smith, George Sterling, Robert E. Howard, Donald Wandrei, and Leah Bodine Drake. I also have a few books of poetry which haven't been read yet: Nora May French, John Keats, Dark of the Moon, Dreams of Fear, Pastels in Prose (Stuart Merrill).
Not really, no. I have a long list of my favourites, but how they might speak to someone who is not me remains unclear.
Your best bet would be to keep on reading, and, when you discover poets who can speak to you, do your best to find out who inspired them. If you have access to good libraries, take books off the shelf at random and read a few poems; I discovered many good poets that way.
You might encounter many famous poets who say nothing to you, along with obscure poets who say everything. These are happy discoveries, and they are best revealed by stealth and by accident.
I like poets who remain brief. The exception would be dramatic poets like Marlowe, Shakespeare, John Webster, Cyril Tourneur, and even John Ford. Someone who followed this tradition was Thomas Lovell Beddoes, whose own poetry was forgettable, but whose verse plays, as unfinished and as ridiculous as they are in plots and characters, have language that can light fires in my head. I recommend his plays to anyone I can grab.
Because I love Elizabethan and Jacobean wildness, I can't work up interest in the 18th Century poets. I respect someone like Pope for his technique, but I don't often go back to his books. I also feel overstuffed when I read English Romantics and most Victorians (Too much! Too much! Edit! CUT!), but I always return to Blake, and I recommend Keats to anyone who writes.
What I love in poetry is verbal precision, visual perception, economy of means, music, passion, and metaphors drawn from personal experience. And so, for example, while I can't understand most of Emily Dickinson's work, I always keep reading because of her genius for metaphor. No one else could have written her phrases, but the moment I read them, I can see and feel just how right they are.
Beyond that, I read more poetry than most people should. I like traditional forms, because they give me a basis for comparison, contrast, and evaluation.
I read Mervyn Peake, Leconte de Lisle, George Sterling, Clark Ashton Smith, Elinor Wylie, Robert Frost, Archibald Lampman, Herbert S. Gorman, John Donne, Louise Bogan, Mark van Doren, Robert Gittings, Wallace Stevens, William Butler Yeats, Weldon Kees, E. J. Pratt, Roy Campbell, Roy Fuller, Sara Teasdale, Stanley Kunitz, Sidney Keyes, on and on and on, and I keep on finding more. I love to try obscure poets, even if only one or two of their poems appeal to me. Leigh Gordon Giltner? Lizette Woodworth Reese? Leonie Adams? Joseph Auslander? John Myers O'Hara? John Evelyn Barlas? Who the hell are they? Minor, minor poets, who still made me fall in love with certain of their poems.
Sometimes, a poet is more of a poet outside of poetry. I love the verses of Ambrose Bierce, but they are good public speeches; I find a more personal use of metaphor and imagery in his fiction. I feel the same way about Walter de la Mare. His poems are very much worth reading, and I love many, but his short stories wander into places where the poems rarely go.
Other poets have a limited but genuine appeal. I love Edwin Markham's first book, THE MAN WITH THE HOE, but nothing he wrote after this works for me. Earle Birney's "David" is a great narrative poem, but I can't stand anything else he wrote. Edwin Muir has a lot to say, and he says it well, but his images and metaphors never click with me at the goosebump level; this applies to many good poets. I can understand their appeal, but I can't feel my way into their work.
This is why, for me, the best way to discover poems and poets is by random choice: take a book off the shelf, read a few pages, and see if anything speaks to you. In one book, you might find only one poem, but it might haunt you for decades. I never let obscurity stop me from sampling, and as long as I have eyes, I will keep on searching.
Any such list would be pointless; after all, many writers I would call my favourites I have not read since the 1970s, and who knows if their stories would hold up for me? I could only find out by going back to them, and while I could once read a book every day, now I'm lucky if I can read one short story every two weeks.
And really, what would a list give you? A bunch of obscure names. What matters are the writers you discover for yourself, and in most cases, this will be purely by accident.
8 comments:
For someone (me) with limited poetry experience, could you recommend some good poets? Thus far I've read the complete poetry of: Clark Ashton Smith, George Sterling, Robert E. Howard, Donald Wandrei, and Leah Bodine Drake. I also have a few books of poetry which haven't been read yet: Nora May French, John Keats, Dark of the Moon, Dreams of Fear, Pastels in Prose (Stuart Merrill).
Thanks!
>>Could you recommend some good poets?
Not really, no. I have a long list of my favourites, but how they might speak to someone who is not me remains unclear.
Your best bet would be to keep on reading, and, when you discover poets who can speak to you, do your best to find out who inspired them. If you have access to good libraries, take books off the shelf at random and read a few poems; I discovered many good poets that way.
You might encounter many famous poets who say nothing to you, along with obscure poets who say everything. These are happy discoveries, and they are best revealed by stealth and by accident.
I appreciate your thoughtful response.
Also, I'm interested to know your favorite poets if you're open to sharing that.
Thank you
Sure!
I like poets who remain brief. The exception would be dramatic poets like Marlowe, Shakespeare, John Webster, Cyril Tourneur, and even John Ford.
Someone who followed this tradition was Thomas Lovell Beddoes, whose own poetry was forgettable, but whose verse plays, as unfinished and as ridiculous as they are in plots and characters, have language that can light fires in my head. I recommend his plays to anyone I can grab.
Because I love Elizabethan and Jacobean wildness, I can't work up interest in the 18th Century poets. I respect someone like Pope for his technique, but I don't often go back to his books. I also feel overstuffed when I read English Romantics and most Victorians (Too much! Too much! Edit! CUT!), but I always return to Blake, and I recommend Keats to anyone who writes.
What I love in poetry is verbal precision, visual perception, economy of means, music, passion, and metaphors drawn from personal experience. And so, for example, while I can't understand most of Emily Dickinson's work, I always keep reading because of her genius for metaphor. No one else could have written her phrases, but the moment I read them, I can see and feel just how right they are.
Beyond that, I read more poetry than most people should. I like traditional forms, because they give me a basis for comparison, contrast, and evaluation.
I read Mervyn Peake, Leconte de Lisle, George Sterling, Clark Ashton Smith, Elinor Wylie, Robert Frost, Archibald Lampman, Herbert S. Gorman, John Donne, Louise Bogan, Mark van Doren, Robert Gittings, Wallace Stevens, William Butler Yeats, Weldon Kees, E. J. Pratt, Roy Campbell, Roy Fuller, Sara Teasdale, Stanley Kunitz, Sidney Keyes, on and on and on, and I keep on finding more. I love to try obscure poets, even if only one or two of their poems appeal to me. Leigh Gordon Giltner? Lizette Woodworth Reese? Leonie Adams? Joseph Auslander? John Myers O'Hara? John Evelyn Barlas? Who the hell are they? Minor, minor poets, who still made me fall in love with certain of their poems.
Sometimes, a poet is more of a poet outside of poetry. I love the verses of Ambrose Bierce, but they are good public speeches; I find a more personal use of metaphor and imagery in his fiction. I feel the same way about Walter de la Mare. His poems are very much worth reading, and I love many, but his short stories wander into places where the poems rarely go.
Other poets have a limited but genuine appeal. I love Edwin Markham's first book, THE MAN WITH THE HOE, but nothing he wrote after this works for me. Earle Birney's "David" is a great narrative poem, but I can't stand anything else he wrote. Edwin Muir has a lot to say, and he says it well, but his images and metaphors never click with me at the goosebump level; this applies to many good poets. I can understand their appeal, but I can't feel my way into their work.
This is why, for me, the best way to discover poems and poets is by random choice: take a book off the shelf, read a few pages, and see if anything speaks to you. In one book, you might find only one poem, but it might haunt you for decades. I never let obscurity stop me from sampling, and as long as I have eyes, I will keep on searching.
Any such list would be pointless; after all, many writers I would call my favourites I have not read since the 1970s, and who knows if their stories would hold up for me? I could only find out by going back to them, and while I could once read a book every day, now I'm lucky if I can read one short story every two weeks.
And really, what would a list give you? A bunch of obscure names. What matters are the writers you discover for yourself, and in most cases, this will be purely by accident.
Enjoy the discoveries!
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