"St. Praxed in a glory, and one Pan / Ready to twitch the Nymph's last garment off"

[larryhammer]

In 1915, Jessie B. Rittenhouse wrote in her introduction to The Little Book of American Poets: "It must be remembered that the technique of poetry changes and that work excellent, even supreme, in its own period, may not meet the standards of ours."

Judging by the result that follows, the same can be said of the art of anthologizing.

---

Okay, that's not entirely fair -- after all, the reason I collect old anthologies is to chart for myself how tastes have changed. And parts of this are exactly what I'm looking for: the coverage of the last few decades is all over the place, vividly demonstrating that the canon was still shaking out. And, before then, there's a uniformity of manner and matter that show Rittenhouse was selecting to a settled canon. It's just, well -- let's just say that, judging by this volume, one could conclude that Victorian American poets had all the prolixity of their British counterparts without their energy.

---

I should probably admit that one reason I'm posting so much about poetry is that it's what I've been reading, because it's what I can read. Since February, I've read only a dozen books in prose -- something about the stuff bounces off my brain, while poetry and manga slides right in. Very weird.

---L.

Comments

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

I go through long periods where all I can read is poetry. It usually coincides with the times my brain is trying to master a new prose writing skill.

Soon as it clicks I get to go back to prose. It's very strange, but very true.