Having ancestors and sons in the Navy (one of whom has been what they call today a fire controlman), I love this poem. And thanks for bringing up "Sam McGee" -- my daddy still recited the entire poem when he was in his 80s and we all loved to listen to him!
'A minor American generation of poets?' Ah, the arrogance of the Now. The generation(s) you speak of include Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, HD, T. S. Eliot, and Ezra Pound, among others. Most poets do not have long shelf lives. This will be true of most if not all of the hot lights of Now. And that's ok.
You completely mistake this line. (1) See our opening manifesto for this newsletter's denunciation of the historical forgetfulness of present poetry (https://poemsancientandmodern.substack.com/p/here-we-stand). (2) The poets you name reach across 150 years (Whitman b. 1819; Pound d. 1972), which is anything but "a generation." And the modernists you name would have called Rooney's particular pre-modernist generation minor (except maybe for Robinson). Finally, (3) the line is in italics to indicate that it's a sneer that I imagine someone might make, not what I myself think. Try to read with a little more clarity and charity.
I will do that, Joseph Bottum. I see I was confused by your use of the word 'generation'. I would like to read with more charity, yes, and more clarity, too.
Having ancestors and sons in the Navy (one of whom has been what they call today a fire controlman), I love this poem. And thanks for bringing up "Sam McGee" -- my daddy still recited the entire poem when he was in his 80s and we all loved to listen to him!
'A minor American generation of poets?' Ah, the arrogance of the Now. The generation(s) you speak of include Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, HD, T. S. Eliot, and Ezra Pound, among others. Most poets do not have long shelf lives. This will be true of most if not all of the hot lights of Now. And that's ok.
You completely mistake this line. (1) See our opening manifesto for this newsletter's denunciation of the historical forgetfulness of present poetry (https://poemsancientandmodern.substack.com/p/here-we-stand). (2) The poets you name reach across 150 years (Whitman b. 1819; Pound d. 1972), which is anything but "a generation." And the modernists you name would have called Rooney's particular pre-modernist generation minor (except maybe for Robinson). Finally, (3) the line is in italics to indicate that it's a sneer that I imagine someone might make, not what I myself think. Try to read with a little more clarity and charity.
I will do that, Joseph Bottum. I see I was confused by your use of the word 'generation'. I would like to read with more charity, yes, and more clarity, too.
Sorry for being snappy and snippy and unkind. An irritable morning that I should not take out on you. And thanks for your gracious answer.