Popularising poetry – what’s wrong?

Garrison Keillor – anecdotalist, radio host and laureate of small-town wholesomeness – is publishing a book of poetry, 77 Love Sonnets . Interviewed about the book , Keillor found himself discussing the reaction to an anthology he published a few years ago; specifically, the admired modernist poet August Kleinzahler ‘s full-frontal assault on Keillor’s “appalling taste” . I looked it up: a dismissive review that took two and a half thousand words in the dismissing. It’s been said that criticising PG Wodehouse is like ” taking a spade to a souffle “. This was something similar; and if you hit a souffle with a spade, you get egg on your face. Keillor’s taste in poetry may differ from Kleinzahler’s, and his understanding of what it’s for may differ – caricaturally, he thinks it does the soul good, and that makes Kleinzahler wince with embarrassment. (Not that the does-you-good school of thought isn’t without well-respected adherents: FR Leavis , for instance, or George Eliot , who said: “If art does not enlarge men’s sympathies it does nothing morally.”) But it strikes me as odd that the response is not indifference but active rage: “The indefatigable and determined purveyor of homespun wisdom has wandered into the realm of fire, and for

Posted by on April 10, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.