Wednesday, March 12, 2008

The Great Poets of the Twentieth Century

The Guardian's seven part series will include works by Sassoon, Eliot, Auden, Larkin, Plath, Hughes and Heaney.




Intro

Eliot

Auden

And Todd Swift's take on the series:

What is worth noting (though Eyewear in principle supports the mass distribution of poetry to newspaper readers at all times) is that this is completely a list taken from Faber and Faber's stable of poets. Now, they also publish Frost, Dylan Thomas and Wallace Stevens, in the UK, so Faber's top ten would still have been very admirable. And one might have added Lowell, Moore, Berryman and even Thomas Hardy, and they'd have been Faber, too. Ditto for W.S. Graham. Yeats seems curiously missing here - isn't he the greatest 20th century poet? Where is Hart Crane, or Langston Hughes? Other women, besides the iconic Plath? Post-colonial "voices"? An Australian, an Indian, a Canadian...

16 comments:

Falstaff said...

Me, I still can't figure out what Sassoon is doing on that list.

Space Bar said...

I know! I actually left him out and then counted, found there were six and looked up the list again.

Now here's the question: who would you have chosen instead? I'd have plumped for Hopkins but not sure he counts as 20th C.

Falstaff said...

SB: Walcott.

I'm assuming, incidentally, that they're only considering poets writing in English. Otherwise this list is SO wrong.

Space Bar said...

narrower than that. it actually appears to be poets from the uk. which is laughably blind of them.

Falstaff said...

Well, except for Plath. I suppose you could argue she's British by marriage, but it's quite a stretch.

Me, I'm just looking forward to Jeanette Winterson's take on Hughes.

Space Bar said...

come to think of it, eliot shouldn't count either. it's a weird list, whichever way one looks at it.

and i'll bite: what jeanette winterson take on hughes?

km said...

List porn. But leaving Yeats out is pretty unforgivable.

Space Bar said...

km: 'list porn'?! :D yeats - well, over sassoon, obviously. but i wish they'd explained their logic more. it's a bit pompous to call it Great Poets of the 20th C and then leave out so many americans and, like falstaff said, walcott.

and why seven?! is this some mystic number they've chosen after reading harry potter?

Falstaff said...

SB: It's coming up in three days. The foreword to the Ted Hughes booklet (which is what will get put on the Guardian site) is by Winterson.

And counting Eliot as a UK poet is fine, I think. It's actually the way I've always thought of him.

Cheshire Cat said...

"Post-colonial "voices"? An Australian, an Indian, a Canadian..."

This is all very egalitarian and nice, but are there any viable candidates?

I'm quite addicted to list porn myself. It's wrong to just consume and not produce. So here's my list (poets writing in English): Yeats, Frost, Auden, Stevens, Bishop, Larkin, Ashbery.

Space Bar said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Space Bar said...

Cat: I'm quite addicted to list porn myself

You don't say!

I'd agree with Auden, Larkin, Stevens and Bishop. I'd also include Eliot, Walcott and Edwin Morgan.

But it's very unsatisfactory.

Falstaff said...

cat / SB: Hey, no fair. I thought we were only allowed to swap Sassoon.

What makes it really interesting is when you get rid of the poets writing in English constraint and allow translations. It's a whole other list. Neruda, Cavafy, Rilke, Walcott, Auden, Stevens and Plath.

Space Bar said...

falstaff: in that case no faiz on your list? tsk tsk.

Szerelem said...

Ah, I see the Faiz connection now.
Have been falling behind keeping up with new posts cos of work.

Shall try an post a sensible comment to this and Falstaff's poetry post too - when and if I ever get the bloody time to think!

Cheshire Cat said...

"But it's very unsatisfactory"

Yeah, that's the thing about porn...

I notice Stevens is the one guy who's common to all our lists. And justly so...
BTW, Space, including Edwin Morgan is brave, very brave.

If we open the list to translations, my mind starts blowing its fuses. I'm gonna shut my eyes to the madness.