Recognizing Excellence in Poetry Kennedy & Gioia, Ch. 29

1. Recognizing Excellence in PoetryKennedy & Gioia, Ch. 29 Alling ENC 1102

2. To judge the quality of a poem:(No absolute specifications) • Understand it • Define troublesome words • Consider contexts (artistic, historical, biographical, etc.) • Consider goals of the poet • Resist generalizations & hasty judgments

3. To judge the quality of a poem:(No absolute specifications) • Involve yourself with it • Read it a few times • Hear it spoken by different readers • Seriously imagine the meaning • Consider it with what you know about poetry • Compare it to other poems

4. Failure in poetry • “Bad” poems = fail to move us or engage our sympathy (985) • In response to “bad” poetry, we might: -doubt that poetry has value -doubt that poet is in control of language & vision -grapple with antipathies -feel an impulse to laugh or mock

5. Reasons for “bad” poetry (985): • Poet fails to fit statements into a formal pattern (ex. “Womanizer”) • Profusion of adjectives(ex. “her lovely skin, like dear sweet white old silk”) • Conventional poetic diction (ex. “whilst the dew nestles on the valley blossoms”) • Abstract diction (ex. Beauty, love, life, death, time, eternity) • Old fashioned contractions (ex. o’er, ‘tis, where’er) • Self-indulgence, or purposely vague or subjective (ex. “Vile Rottenflush” 986) • Sentimentality, or failed hyperbole (ex. “Gossip” 989) • Bathos, or evokes comedy, rather than sympathy (ex. “wet-eyed and sighing for bucket” 990)

6. Reasons for “successful” poetry: • Contains much for us to understand -Yields meaning every time we read -Stands the test of time • Uses specific (or concrete) imagery • “Poem succeeds at what it is trying to be” -Achieves what poet intends (biographical) -Achieves what the genre/language intends (formalists) -Achieves multiple levels of meaning (deconstructionists) -etc. • Achieves the function of poetry (written in verse, engages intellect, & conjures emotions)