Thursday, January 25, 2007

Engagement

Charles Jensen has some interesting thoughts about "engagement" in poetry. My comment:

Even "difficult" poetry has to engage the reader somehow—has to provide some sort of opening to let the reader in. For that matter, even clear, straightforward, "accessible" poetry has to provide some sort of resistance to be fully engaging. The difficult must provide a bit of access; the accessible must provide a bit of difficulty. Without both elements—no engagement!

1 comment:

Donald Brown said...

Hear, hear!