Great Poetry Does Not Have To Be

Free Verse Seemed Democratic Because It Offered Freedom Of Access To Writers. And Those Who Disdained Free Verse Would Always Be Open To Accusations Of Elitism, Mandarinism. Open Form Was Like Common Ground On Which All Might Graze Their Cattle - It Was Not To Be Closed In By Usurping Landlords.

Among Those Today Who Believe That Modern Poetry Must Do Without Rhyme Or Metre, There Is An Assumption That The Alternative To Free Verse Is A Crash Course In Villanelles, Sestinas And Other Such Fixed Forms. But Most... Are Rare In English Poetry. Few Poets Have Written A Villanelle Worth Reading, Or Indeed Regret Not Having Done So.

English Poetry Begins Whenever We Decide To Say The Modern English Language Begins, And It Extends As Far As We Decide To Say That The English Language Extends.

Lyric Poetry Is, Of Course, Musical In Origin. I Do Know That What Happened To Poetry In The Twentieth Century Was That It Began To Be Written For The Page. When It's A Question Of Typography, Why Not? Poets Have Done Beautiful Things With Typography - Apollinaire's 'calligrammes,' That Sort Of Thing.

An Aria In An Opera - Handel's 'ombra Mai Fu,' For Example - Gets Along With An Incredibly Small Number Of Words And Ideas And A Large Amount Of Variation And Repetition. That's The Beauty Of It. It's Not Taxing To The Listener's Intelligence Because If You Haven't Heard It The First Time Round, It'll Come Around Again.