Great review from the Times on a new book from poet critic,
Camile Pagila. I whole-heartedly agree
with Pagila’s perspective on poetry as summarized thusly by the reporter:
She flies as high as you can go, in fact, without getting into the airless space of literary theory and cultural studies. Not that she has ever regarded those activities as elevated. She has always regarded them, with good reason, as examples of humanism's perverse gift for attacking itself, and for providing the academic world with a haven for tenured mediocrity.
That encapsulates the major reasons why I chose not to attempt
to convert my love of poetry—or any literature for that matter--into any type
of full-time work. I’ll never forget the English professor who
told me he could not respect the work of Faulkner as the novel was intended as
the medium of the voiceless and thus any author who did not use it for that
purpose was a per se failure. How could I ever enjoy working with an ideologue like that for a colleague?
Though I haven’t read the book yet, Pagila’s excerpt on
Wordsworth captures the essence of his work nicely. As a disclaimer, Wordsworth is above and
beyond my favorite poet as the ink on my left shoulder evinces. But I would describe his shutting down of
expanded perception as more of a shuttering of his imagination. Expanded perception tiptoes a bit too closely
to Blake and The Doors connotations for my taste. Then again I did once challenge one of my
good friend’s to a fight after he suggested Coleridge’s work was merely a by-product of opium, so I’m probably over-sensitive.
Pagila’s comments on my second-favorite poet, Wallace
Stevens, are also interesting. I’ve
never taken formal courses on Stevens and my comprehension of him is more
limited as a result; I’ve definitely never felt as intimate with him as I am
with Wordsworth. Pagila’s comments on
his combined sensory descriptions does seem right on though and I’ll look to
that next time I read my favorites of his on my iPod.
I doubt anyone has actually read this far, but if you made
it, do check out Wordsworth’s shorter works (“Expostulation and Reply” is the
starting point in my mind) and Steven’s “Man with a Blue Guitar.” These poems affect life changes in readers
who let them.
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