tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37627577.post116922997208865298..comments2024-02-12T16:32:03.714-08:00Comments on Book of Kells: The Poetry Department of AmericaKelli Russell Agodon - Book of Kellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01798460634708905783noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37627577.post-1169524699145839352007-01-22T19:58:00.000-08:002007-01-22T19:58:00.000-08:00Between Plath and Sexton, I somewhat prefer Sexton...Between Plath and Sexton, I somewhat prefer Sexton overall, though have certainly read both. I can't say either of them are among my favorites. I tend to prefer Adrienne Rich and Audre Lorde, to name two off the top of my head, to either Sexton or Plath.<BR/><BR/>Sexton and Plath seem to me to have written from an essentially conservative aesthetic that often results in a choking off of what the poems are trying to say. (I find the same thing in other poets sometimes associated with them, for example Lowell and Berryman.) Even then, many of the poems of both Sexton and Plath convey a smoldering rage, which occasionally breaks through to the surface the way magma in the earth will from time to time erupt.<BR/><BR/>The "just a housewife" notion is clearly ridiculous. By that reasoning, Chaucer was just a civil servant who wrote in his off-hours, John Donne was just a clergyman with a hobby, and Dante was a jailbird with a prison diary.Lyle Daggetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10731915540520704368noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37627577.post-1169494260028806462007-01-22T11:31:00.000-08:002007-01-22T11:31:00.000-08:00hi justin, I hadn't realzed that about David Lee. ...hi justin, <BR/><BR/>I hadn't realzed that about David Lee. interesting Thanks for mentioning that.<BR/><BR/>K--<BR/>Yes, I thought the idea that Plath and Sexton are interchangeable was bizarre.<BR/><BR/><I> oh course the housewife criticism is ridiculous and sexist...</I><BR/><BR/>What's interesting is that comment was made by a woman. <BR/><BR/>thanks for your note.Kelli Russell Agodon - Book of Kellshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01798460634708905783noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37627577.post-1169410953961894112007-01-21T12:22:00.000-08:002007-01-21T12:22:00.000-08:00Even as I'm getting ready to finish the degree as ...Even as I'm getting ready to finish the degree as well, I'm in agreement with you wholeheartedly.<BR/><BR/>I dearly love both Plath and Sexton, Sylvia for a measured controlled sort of poetry, and Sexton for just letting it all out and making a ruckuss..in some ways being gutsier stylistically and content-wise. Neighsayers also tend to forget that Sexton was very much self-taught and in communique with a host of poets--sending her work to them for critique--probably the first and orginal model of educating yourself as a poet before the MFA system. Of course the housewife criticism is ridiculous and sexist... <BR/><BR/>I've also found it weird that people seem to think they are somehow interchangeable, or that one is a better representative of confessionalism than the the other, and they are really rather different...kristy bowenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03831806047965186923noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37627577.post-1169391935243979782007-01-21T07:05:00.000-08:002007-01-21T07:05:00.000-08:00Dave Lee, possibly the man who has taught me more ...Dave Lee, possibly the man who has taught me more about the writing of poetry than anyone else, has never taken a single creative writing class. Yes, he has his Ph. D., specializing in Milton, but he has since written 15 books of poetry, been shortlisted for the Pulitzer and Poet Laureate for the U.S. (when Ted Kooser was selected) and taught too many workshops t count.<BR/><BR/>You are correct. It's not the degree which makes the poet, but the poems.Justin Evanshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12161484350184865575noreply@blogger.com