Think of all poetry written in English in the twentieth century, in the U.S. and the British Isles and elsewhere. We have Pound, Eliot, and Auden, Zukofksy, Yeats, H.D., Stein, Larkin, Heaney, Langston Hughes and Ted Hughes, Sharon Olds, Susan Howe, Ron Silliman, Ted Hughes.
Ok, now think of a single word or concept that would encompass all of this. You know, "English-language poetry with its typical _______."
That should be easy, right? I certainly couldn't do it.
Now think of poetry written in Spanish during the same period. We also have more than one continent. Within Spansh America, we have several distinctive regions: the Southern Cone, the Andes, the Carribean, Mexico, Central America. We have avant-garde movements and neo-conservative reactions on both continents. There is politically engaged poetry and poetry that is written in opposition to this engagement. Poets who hated each other, like Jiménez and Neruda with their famous feud. I won't say there's as much variety as in English speaking poetry, but only because I don't know how to quantify such a thing.
Do you see where I'm going here?
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Yep. Spanish poetry has too much damn duende.
And English poetry has two Ted Hugheses.
At least two!
When what we really need is half a Flann O'Brien.
But are you saying, Jonathan, that it's much easier to characterize a different linguistic group's literature than one's own? very interested to have you spell out your meaning.
Hey Tony, do you ever use plastic chocolate molds?
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My point is that I get tired of people talking to me about duende. It's a characterization of Spanish-language poetry that is based on one essay by one poet. It would be as though someone tried to extract one concept from TS Eliot that would be applicable to all poetry written in English in the US and England and Ireland and Australia. We can't think of such a concept in English-language poetry because we know too much. Knowing very little of a tradition allows for a ready-made stereotype.
Jordan,
I'm not sure what a plastic chocolate mold is. Why do you ask?
I don't subscribe to the "social struggle makes better poetry" line at all. That's just pure sentimentalism. Neruda's social poetry is crap, for the most part. Try reading Miguel Hernández's war poetry. (Just for a few notorious examples.) That's just as reductionist as the "duende.." I can't even conclude that Spanish language poetry has surpassed English language poetry, even though I think Spanish has one of the richest traditions. If you think the British scene is more vital than the American, or that all American poets are University professors, you have a lot of reading to do.
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