Jason Gray Introduction I have just read through The New York Times Book Review (2/3/08), and surprisingly, there was poetry reviewed, Robert Pinsky's Gulf Music ("The Civic Poet"). Terrific to review it, but the disturbing thing is the reviewer chosen, Joel Brouwer, who has reviewed poetry for the NYTBR before, seems not to understand what blank verse is. He quotes a passage from Pinsky's book, and claims it as blank verse, which it is not. It's iambic, that's about as much as you can say (there are lines ranging from four feet to arguably seven). By his own admission, later in the piece about another poem, he says, "A sharper prosodist than I will doubtless point out something I've missed[.]" His honesty at his own ignorance is refreshing, but it should have been a red flag to the editors of the book review either not to run the review, or to have someone else review the book.
Now, blank verse is not the be-all, end-all, of poetry; far from it. But the ability to recognize it is vital for anyone who wants to be a poet, regardless of whether one writes in it or not. It's about as basic as poetry gets. It's a sad state of affairs when the preeminent American book review of the day can't find a reviewer to do justice to the very little poetry it discusses, and Mr. Brouwer ought to pick up a poetry primer.
I bring this up for what I imagine are obvious reasons to the readers of Unsplendid. In this new issue we have several poets who would have no difficulty in telling blank verse from non-, and who have worked well in its idiom: Ned Balbo's ekphrastics, Juliana Gray's "Housesitter's Note," and Charles Martin's rhymed pentameter, "Chommoda Dicebat," among others here. Unsplendid remains interested in poems that utilize these traditional methods, while always searching for innovative uses of these techniques while always searching for innovative uses of these techniques, such as Shane McCrae's unsettling, exciting broken pentameter.
Meter, rhyme, are just tools, but they are important tools, and ones which any poet practicing ought to know, if only for the best understanding of poetry written before the 20th century, and quite a bit written since. I suppose I risk being labeled a curmudgeon or worse, which is very far from the truth, since I like, and write, non-metrical as well as metrical verse, but I do see the lack of training in these and other poetic methodologies a pity. So I hope you enjoy the following poets who have certainly gone beyond mere recognition of metrical patterns to a commanding excellence in their deployment of traditional prosodies.
Columbus, OH
Feb. 5, 2008