Merwin gets at what I have been feeling as I begin to read contemporary work: I often miss the connection between the words on the page and any "conceivable experience." Where is the tipping point?
In my opinion, this is not a technical or "literary fix" issue, but a psychological one. The poet often does not go deep enough into the self because it's too risky or because they feel they aren't brave enough
I think I see what you are saying, but the language of some recent poetry -- and I have read very little -- seems so tightly wound around the writer's psychological self-exploration that I can't follow it.
Each poem has to find its place on a fulcrum between music and sense. Poetry is a broad umbrella that can include many approaches; one is more austere, focused on language and the motions of thought more than rhythm, sound, voice, and so on.
Merwin gets at what I have been feeling as I begin to read contemporary work: I often miss the connection between the words on the page and any "conceivable experience." Where is the tipping point?
In my opinion, this is not a technical or "literary fix" issue, but a psychological one. The poet often does not go deep enough into the self because it's too risky or because they feel they aren't brave enough
I think I see what you are saying, but the language of some recent poetry -- and I have read very little -- seems so tightly wound around the writer's psychological self-exploration that I can't follow it.
Each poem has to find its place on a fulcrum between music and sense. Poetry is a broad umbrella that can include many approaches; one is more austere, focused on language and the motions of thought more than rhythm, sound, voice, and so on.