Here’s a thoughtful, if negative, review of Rae Armantrout’s Versed. The author, Tom Holmes, is on target, it seems to me. Compare his view with Marjorie Perloff’s attempt to read greatness into one of Armantrout’s slightest poems and you’ll appreciate, I think, how aesthetic tribalism and sloppy criticism have conspired to leach the red blood cells from so much American poetry.
Oh, and thanks for compliment on the blog design, Jim! There are small changes I'd like to make but can't figure out how to do it, so this will probably do for a while….
I like Armantrout better than it may seem from this and the post linked in it. I've read her with off-and-on pleasure over the years. But she's not the second coming of Emily Dickinson, and her range seems narrow to me. I have yet to see her supporters offer a detailed reading that persuades me she's a great as they say she is. Perloff surely doesn't!
Nice new look for your blog, Joseph. <br />I'll look at those reviews…but I'm Armantrout fan by and large.<br />Jim Finnegan