I second that.  You've put it far better than I could have.

Carrol Cox wrote:

>charles moyer wrote:
>
>
>>>    Since we are on the subject of Modernism here is what I read in
>>>
>>>
>>yesterday's Cleveland Plain Dealer concerning our poet laureate's appearance
>>at John Carroll University tonight.
>>    "There's a waiting audience out there that was frightened away by
>>Modernist poetry in school.
>>
>>
>
>Randall Jarrell wrote a beautful little essay trashing this nonsense.
>Two core points in it if I remember correctly from about 40+ years ago.
>(1) All those complainers about modern poetry's complexity don't read
>any other poetry _either_. (2) In some Latin American cities you will
>find that the waiter in the hotel restaurant is a poet. What kind of
>poetry does he write? Surrealist poetry! Jarrell has some lovely sneer
>to the effect that because someone can't read The Wasteland he has given
>up on Shakespeare and Wordsworth, or something to that effect.
>
>:-)
>
>Delicately put, those who say they have been frightened away from poetry
>by the complexity of modern poetry are mostly fucking liars.
>
>Carrol
>
>
>

--

Dirk Johnson
676 Geary #407
San Francisco, CA 94102

[log in to unmask]
Home: 415-771-7734
Office Direct: 510-208-8200
Office Fax: 510-208-8282