Tuesday, February 03, 2004

Structured Poets

In my commentary on a Wallace Steven's quote (see Mon, Feb 2, 8:01 a.m.), I make the bold statement that one can count on one hand the number of poets writing in structured forms. Seems I should have said that I wasn't aware of many more. Michael Snider offers a rather impressive list in his comment on that entry:
You'd need both hands, both feet, and some friends. There may not be anyone quite as good as Frost (but Richard Wilbur may be better), but there are lots of exciting poets writing metrical verse with just as much attention to craft as Frost used. Enough names to use up my digits and then some: Rhina Espaillat, A. E. Stallings, R. S. Gwynn, Timothy Murphy, Greg Williamson, Dick Davis, Dana Gioia, Rachel Hadas, Jenny Factor, Thomas Carper, Charles Martin, Timothy Steele, Deborah Warren, Anthony Hecht, Robert Mezey, Gertrude Schnachtenberg (sp?), Kim Addonizio, X. J. Kennedy, Wendy Cope, Julia Alvarez, Michael Donaghy, Andrew Hudgins, Adam Kirsch, Glyn Maxwell, and Vikram Seth.
I'm a infrequent visitor to Mike's blog (linked above), but I find him to be knowledgeable. I take his word on this whole list, and will check at least a few out. I have, incidentally, read a novel by Vikram Seth, An Equal Music, and can recommend it.

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