Saturday, September 17, 2011

Conclusion musings

No one really writes on Herrick, and no one really has for years. He's so out of critical fashion. Why is that? The poetry seems too cute, too playful, too much like "light" verse?

Thom Gunn used to say that Herrick is the English poet most perfect in his craft.

2 comments:

Flavia said...

Yeah, it's a puzzle. I think you're right about the playfulness, cuteness, etc.--and maybe the "perfect in his craft" is part of it too.

Everyone loves Herrick, but maybe it's that we don't take seriously enough the writers who don't seem tortured enough, either in craft or in life; there just seems less of a way in to their works.

It's a theory I hold about my fella the prose writer as well: he seems happy and playful and stylistically in control, and historically no one has had very much very smart to say about him, either.

Sulpicia said...

There was this, early last year, though I've not seen a copy as yet: http://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&calcTitle=1&title_id=6323&edition_id=9319