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Dec. 17th, 2011 06:26 amI should put a warning label on procrastination entries. They're not like other entries.
I've gone back to the three late long poems a few times, "Auroras" rather a lot because it and some bird poems featured in my thesis, and of course "Sunday Morning" and the other anthology darlings pretty often for classes or kicks. But I haven't spent time with him this way since 2004, at Capilano, when I'd read around in Palm at the End of the Mind in empty rooms or stairways between classes (I didn't have much in common with 18-20 year old wealthy suburbanites, who gave the impression of trying junior college in exchange for their parents buying them Escalades, though most were nice enough). And it was a neat way to read him - I probably ended up rereading everything a few times, then ran through Collected Poems a bit later to see what I'd missed. Not a lot - there's something to be said for a 60% selection like Palm. Not even the best poets can muster a batting average much past that. Even Shelley I'd put at 66-75, even Wordsworth through Poems in Two Volumes (past which you're fine with 6%). And the good/not-good selection boundary will often be a lot less controversial than the great/merely-good one. But I guess once you're reading 60% of somebody you're likely to go ahead to the rest; though you'll think much more highly of the poet, helping you get through that best 60% in the first place, if the off-40%'s been sequestered somewhere else.
There's a few of those around for Romantics - the Oxford World Classics selection of Shelley isn't far off from how I'd have done it, the Oxford Authors Wordsworth (though it lacks the 2-Book Prelude). I think their Blake and Keats volumes were along the same line, Tennyson too. Penguin's large Byron selection is about all you'll ever want of him if you add their well-annotated Don Juan. I have a hardback somewhere with like 20-25 Shakespeare plays. You usually need to read a bunch of these people to grasp them. Might help make the case I always wish to but wouldn't know where to start, that knowing the dozen or so best poets is one of the few things you can reliably do to make your life less like death. And reading the dozen or so runners-up can clear your sinuses.
Someone really needs to do this for Dickinson, though for her that's pretty much the greatness cutoff. But on second thought she did it herself.
I've gone back to the three late long poems a few times, "Auroras" rather a lot because it and some bird poems featured in my thesis, and of course "Sunday Morning" and the other anthology darlings pretty often for classes or kicks. But I haven't spent time with him this way since 2004, at Capilano, when I'd read around in Palm at the End of the Mind in empty rooms or stairways between classes (I didn't have much in common with 18-20 year old wealthy suburbanites, who gave the impression of trying junior college in exchange for their parents buying them Escalades, though most were nice enough). And it was a neat way to read him - I probably ended up rereading everything a few times, then ran through Collected Poems a bit later to see what I'd missed. Not a lot - there's something to be said for a 60% selection like Palm. Not even the best poets can muster a batting average much past that. Even Shelley I'd put at 66-75, even Wordsworth through Poems in Two Volumes (past which you're fine with 6%). And the good/not-good selection boundary will often be a lot less controversial than the great/merely-good one. But I guess once you're reading 60% of somebody you're likely to go ahead to the rest; though you'll think much more highly of the poet, helping you get through that best 60% in the first place, if the off-40%'s been sequestered somewhere else.
There's a few of those around for Romantics - the Oxford World Classics selection of Shelley isn't far off from how I'd have done it, the Oxford Authors Wordsworth (though it lacks the 2-Book Prelude). I think their Blake and Keats volumes were along the same line, Tennyson too. Penguin's large Byron selection is about all you'll ever want of him if you add their well-annotated Don Juan. I have a hardback somewhere with like 20-25 Shakespeare plays. You usually need to read a bunch of these people to grasp them. Might help make the case I always wish to but wouldn't know where to start, that knowing the dozen or so best poets is one of the few things you can reliably do to make your life less like death. And reading the dozen or so runners-up can clear your sinuses.
Someone really needs to do this for Dickinson, though for her that's pretty much the greatness cutoff. But on second thought she did it herself.
