Subject heading of the day

[muckefuck]

Greeting card verse--History and criticism.

Comments

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

I've said for years that Maya Angelou's poetry sucked, but I'd have thought more people would get that when she *signed a contract with Hallmark*.

[lhn.livejournal.com]

As I've noted before, it's the last refuge of scansion and to a lesser extent rhyme (at least outside of music), which puts it ahead of quite a lot. (This isn't meant primarily as a criticism of free verse¹ so much as the "shove as many syllables as necessary into a line and end with a forced and often imperfect rhyme" school that, say, prilicla's and my family seem to belong to.)

¹Though I admit that all things being equal, I'm more impressed with a poet who can work within a chosen structure and produce something worthwhile.

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

You might want to check out poets Marilyn Hacker and Willis Barnstone. MH's Love, Death, and the Changing of the Seasons is a nearly perfect book of poetry.

[lhn.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recommendation-- I've requested Love, Death,...etc. via ILL.