Posted: September 15th, 2005, 9:44 am
Dear Still, old friend:
I'm not certain which remark of mine you might be referring to about Sylvia Plath, but if I hinted she was "irrelevant" ( as a poet), I should be clubbed for it.
What I probably said, and say often, is that the soap opera of Sylvia Plath's life, as opposed to her art, is irrelevant.
As an artist, she was strong, careful and imaginative-- sharp-tongued and meant to be that way-- effective.
The "irrelevant soap opera" aspect of Anne Sexton ( another very strong poet) and Sylvia Plath and their suicides gets in the way of seeing their poetry.
Elizabeth Bishop and Louise Bogan, their slightly ( but very slightly) earlier contemporaries, are poets I often point to whose powerful and brilliant work is not obscured by their recurrent depressions and alcoholism. But I could name many more female poets whose lives would not make "dramatic" movies with "moving" scenes, but nevertheless are first-rate artists.
I have mentioned Marianne Moore. I could mention Adrienne Rich, Muriel Rukeyser, Amy Clampitt, Jane Kenyon, Shirley Kauffman-- I could go on and on.
It's the poetry, not the life, which ought to be the primary focus.
Hart Crane was a forlorn, love-torn homosexual with impossible longings who floated in alcohol until he sank in the Gulf of Mexico, commiting suicide by drowning .
But he was a great poet, his lines still seem original ninety years after he wrote them, and the art comes first, that's all.
There's a new book out on Whitman's alleged "homosexuality", but it's the brilliant parts of "Leaves of Grass" and WW's best prose work that really matter.
Peace,
Zlatko
I'm not certain which remark of mine you might be referring to about Sylvia Plath, but if I hinted she was "irrelevant" ( as a poet), I should be clubbed for it.
What I probably said, and say often, is that the soap opera of Sylvia Plath's life, as opposed to her art, is irrelevant.
As an artist, she was strong, careful and imaginative-- sharp-tongued and meant to be that way-- effective.
The "irrelevant soap opera" aspect of Anne Sexton ( another very strong poet) and Sylvia Plath and their suicides gets in the way of seeing their poetry.
Elizabeth Bishop and Louise Bogan, their slightly ( but very slightly) earlier contemporaries, are poets I often point to whose powerful and brilliant work is not obscured by their recurrent depressions and alcoholism. But I could name many more female poets whose lives would not make "dramatic" movies with "moving" scenes, but nevertheless are first-rate artists.
I have mentioned Marianne Moore. I could mention Adrienne Rich, Muriel Rukeyser, Amy Clampitt, Jane Kenyon, Shirley Kauffman-- I could go on and on.
It's the poetry, not the life, which ought to be the primary focus.
Hart Crane was a forlorn, love-torn homosexual with impossible longings who floated in alcohol until he sank in the Gulf of Mexico, commiting suicide by drowning .
But he was a great poet, his lines still seem original ninety years after he wrote them, and the art comes first, that's all.
There's a new book out on Whitman's alleged "homosexuality", but it's the brilliant parts of "Leaves of Grass" and WW's best prose work that really matter.
Peace,
Zlatko