Speaking of the period style, I just got a great idea. Heriberto suggested I write an essay for a Mexican magazine called "Alforja." I am going to write about how translations of Latin American poetry in the 1970s fed into and created the period style of "soft surrealism." I believe I coined this phrase myself in a post a few months back, but I am not sure. I saw Silliman use it a few weeks ago. I'm not sure whether he got it from me, or whether this is a phrase in common use already.

The idea is that a certain kind of translation practice led to a fairly stiff, uncolloquial and portentous style. You can see how poets like Louise Glück and James Tate wrote with a certain colloquial vigor in their first few books, before this style took them over.