Archive for 'CPR'
“Without a Net”: Ernest Hilbert on Optic, Graphic, Acoustic, and Other Formations in Free Verse in the Contemporary Poetry Review
Many strategies have emerged to cope with the open field of free verse, several of them before Frost was even born. When moving away from oppositional definitions—free verse is non-metrical, non-strophic—one is confronted with such a vast array of possibilities and examples that it is necessary to summarize and, at times, simplify them for the sake of argument. The possibilities are staggering, but one must begin somehow.
Full Story“I fancy I know more about Seamus Heaney’s back than anyone not related to him”: Anthony Moore Reviews Seamus Heaney
“He was sweating heavily. Since his clothes had stuck to him, I helped him shed his fustian academic gown and his Donegal tweed jacket, so he could drink in shirtsleeves. I was thanked with a pint of Guinness.”
Full Story“Serendipity does not happen often in either the social or the literary realm—but when it does it can be a life-changing experience”: “Poetry and the Problem of Standards” by Jan Schreiber
Ordinary readers, literary editors, and some English professors confront an inescapable question of judgment: In principle, is it possible, faced with an overwhelming body of work in print, to cull out excellent poems in the way one can cull out fine diamonds or superb soufflés? Consider the matter carefully: the diamond expert knows the criteria for excellence with great assurance; he can spot an exceptional gem quickly when it comes before him, and his criteria do not change. He may never find an ideal diamond, but he can tell you what it would look like. Similarly a chef who knows her craft can enumerate the qualities of an ideal soufflé and can tell you the precise ways in which any given actual specimen falls short.
Full Story“Is prosody merely an onomatopoetic setting of propositional sense? And if not . . . well, again, what does it mean?”: “The Dark Pool” by David Rothman
Robert Benchley, the actor, critic and member of the Algonquin Wits, once quipped that “There are two kinds of people in the world, those who believe there are two kinds of people in the world and those who don’t.” At the risk of murdering to dissect and conferring ontological status upon a distinction that is a mere abstraction and obviously untrue, I would like to begin by suggesting that there are exactly two things happening in every poem: what a poem says and what a poem does. Describing, explaining and evaluating these two things or actions is the job of the critic and, perhaps after more time has passed, the scholar. Further, despite heroic efforts by Roman Jakobson, W. K. Wimsatt, John Crowe Ransom, John Hollander, Terry Brogan, and before them, Pope, Johnson, and many others, it has always been the case, as it is now, that critics and scholars are likely to be better at doing one of these things—and it is always the same thing, which is to explore what a poem says—than they are at doing the other, which is to explain what a poem does.
Full Story“Some writers in the throes of creating may agree with Dali and with Picasso who said Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness”: “Learning and Teaching Taste” by Marilyn Krysl
My grandmother read me Longfellow’s Song of Hiawatha. At four I learned to read. There were as many words as bits of limestone gravel on the road, so white it looked like a path to heaven. At ten, on the assumption that the longer a book the more pleasure awaited me, I checked out the longest book in the library: War and Peace. Out words came, Greek and Roman mythology, The Secret Garden, Little Women. In fifth grade I read Moby-Dick, alternating each chapter with a chapter from the adventures of Nancy Drew.
Full Story“These Go to Eleven”: E-Verse Eleventh Anniversary Party, Saturday, June 27th, Philadelphia, Hold the Date
Yes, that’s right, this July 1st will mark a full ten years of E-Verse Radio (and the start of the eleventh year)! We’ll celebrate with a Saturday night of drinks and music at Ruba. June 27th. 9PM. Free and cheap drinks, live music, dancing. Yeah! Ruba Hall 414 Green St Philadelphia, PA 215-627-9831 Please RSVP [...]
Full StoryTop Five Cynical Christmas Movies
5. Gremlins (1984) 4. A Midnight Clear (1992) 3. Trading Places (1983) 2. The Ref (1994) 1. Bad Santa (2003) ErnieErnest Hilbert is founder of E-Verse Radio.Website – Twitter – Facebook – More Posts
Full Story“Sweat to Death!”: Top Five Cheap Beers Consumed by Five Young Metalheads in New Jersey During the ’80′s
The guitarist for Judgement [sic] (Ernie’s old heavy metal band) sends in Top Five Cheap Beers Consumed by Five Young Metalheads in New Jersey During the ’80′s: 5. Meister Brau 4. Old Milwaukee 3. Piels 2. Stegmeier [So obscure, no pictures exist of this brand. - E] 1. Schmidts Runners up, added by Ernie: Löwenbräu [...]
Full StoryE-Verser Introduces a New Drink: Oleg’s Choice
E-Verser Erica discovered a new drink last night while surveying her liquor cabinet: the Oleg’s Choice! One part Fresca. One part Maker’s Mark. Pour over ice. Drink. Disclaimer: E-Verse Radio has not personally tried this drink. Do so at your own risk! And, in case you were wondering, here’s Oleg: ErnieErnest Hilbert is founder of [...]
Full StoryCoolest Barbie I’ve Seen
Yes! This is a Barbie version of Tippi Hedren’s character Melanie Daniels in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1963 psycho-thriller The Birds, based on the Daphne Du Maurier short story (adapted for the screen by Evan Hunter). It’s a bit pricey for me, but I think it’s very cool. It could use a bit more blood, but [...]
Full StoryErnest Hilbert Interviews X.J. Kennedy
From the Contemporary Poetry Review. “Celticly Wild, Teutonically Fussy,” an Interview with X. J. Kennedy X. J. Kennedy was born in Dover, NJ in 1929, the son of a boiler factory timekeeper. After collecting degrees from Seton Hall and Columbia, he spent four years in the US Navy as an enlisted journalist. He and his [...]
Full Story“Nothing is Beneath Consideration”: Christopher Bakken reads letters of Lowell, Wright, Clampitt
This is a wonderful piece by Christopher Bakken that I published in this month’s issue of the Contemporary Poetry Review: By my count, the greatest collection of letters ever produced by a poet advances at least one exquisitely rendered thought per page, and many of these thoughts match in wit and wisdom, and often in [...]
Full StoryContemporary Poetry Review Party, 10th Anniversary, Slideshow
I’m back from a long weekend (working) in San Francisco. While I was away, Paul put together this funny slide show video of the Chelsea Hotel Party. Paul and I hope to put together some shows soon. I’ll be heading to Peru at the end of the month, and then Paul’s heading to Australia. We [...]
Full StorySome Photos from the Contemporary Poetry Review Party at the Chelsea Hotel
I hosted a party with Garrick Davis for the Contemporary Poetry Review at the Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan last Thursday, the opening night of the AWP conference. Left to right, Jan Schreiber, Ernest Hilbert, Garrick Davis, and Dan Brown. Left to right, Joshua Mehigan (not entirely pictured), Bill Coyle, David Yezzi, and George Green. The [...]
Full StoryFunny Frontispiece
I’m back from a long weekend in NYC. I hosted Contemporary Poetry Review parties at the Chelsea Hotel and (the next evening) at the Madison Belvedere. On Saturday I met with my publishers, who had flown in from the west coast on a GulfStream private jet. I also spent some time in the recording studio [...]
Full StoryAmerican Premiere of The Lifeblood, New Verse Drama by Glyn Maxwell
AMERICAN PREMIERE OF THE LIFEBLOOD BY GLYN MAXWELL, FEBRUARY 1, 2008 AT PHOENIX THEATRE ENSEMBLE Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, a New York artist-directed theatre company, announces that the American premiere of Glyn Maxwell’s remarkable drama The Lifeblood. The dramatic telling of the last days of Mary Stuart begins performances on Friday, February 1 and plays through [...]
Full StoryWhat We Owe the New Critics
Mark Bauerlein on the New Critics and Garrick Davis’s forthcoming book in the Chronicle of Higher Education: When Garrick Davis told me he had assembled an anthology of New Criticism, I reached across the table and shook his hand. Davis is the founder of the Contemporary Poetry Review (http://www.cprw.com), an online magazine that covers the [...]
Full StoryThe First Confessionalist: Ernest Hilbert Interviews American Poet W.D. Snodgrass
From the Contemporary Poetry Review Interviewer’s note: William DeWitt Snodgrass is commonly credited with inaugurating the “confessional” era in American poetry in 1959 with his first collection, Heart’s Needle. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize, and there is evidence that it influenced Robert Lowell’s own pioneering collection Life Studies. Snodgrass went on to [...]
Full StoryNeither Does it Strengthen the Soul: Anthony Hecht, 1923-2004
Neither does it strengthen the soul: Anthony Hecht, 1923-2004 by Ernest Hilbert [In 2004, the Academy of American Poets asked me to write an in memoriam for the American poet Anthony Hecht. It appeared in their magazine American Poet. His widow, Helen Hecht, wrote me a very kind note to say how pleased she was [...]
Full StoryKathleen Rooney watches Poetry at the Movies
In the new issue of the Contemporary Poetry Review, Kathleen Rooney writes about poetry in movies. This is a piece I suggested to her about a year back, and as the editor of the CPR I have worked quite closely with her on it. I think she’s done an excellent job. I’ve added links to [...]
Full StoryErnest Hilbert Introduces a Special Issue for Louis MacNeice
As editor of the Contemporary Poetry Review, I have assembled a special issue devoted to one of my favorite British poets, Louis MacNeice: Just as Ben Jonson bore the unfortunate fate of living in what would become known as the “Age of Shakespeare,” Louis MacNeice lives in the long shadow thrown by his exact contemporary, [...]
Full StoryLouis MacNeice: “His Own Unchanging Self”: An Interview with Jon Stallworthy
Sunil Iyengar interviews Jon Stallworthy on his biography of Louis MacNeice for the new MacNeice issue of the Contemporary Poetry Review: Jon Stallworthy’s blood quickened after a poetry reading he gave earlier this year, not because he admired his own recitative powers, but because of something an audience member told him. This man, who turned [...]
Full StoryJohn Drexel’s “Classic Reading” of Louis MacNeice’s “Sunlight on the Garden”
John Drexel offers us a “Classic Reading” of Louis MacNeice’s poem “Sunlight on the Garden” in the new issue of the Contemporary Poetry Review: Reviewing Stevie Smith’s Collected Poems in 1976, Seamus Heaney touched on “the whole question of poetry for the eye versus poetry for the ear.” One might be forgiven for momentarily thinking [...]
Full Story“Re-Collecting MacNiece”: Maria Johnston on the new Faber Edition of Louis MacNeice’s Collected Poems
In the new issue of the Contemporary Poetry Review, Maria Johnston reviews the new collected poems of Louis MacNeice: In a note on Louis MacNeice’s poetry penned in 1964, Louise Bogan observed that, “the Collected Poems 1925-1948 should, although not so arranged, be read in chronological order, for it is an added pleasure to watch [...]
Full StoryThe Tawdry Halo of the Idle Martyr: Katy Evans-Bush on MacNeice’s Autumn Journal
In this month’s issue of the Contemporary Poetry Review, Katy Evans-Bush takes us back for another look at Louis MacNeice’s classic book-length poem Autumn Journal: In 1963, after Louis MacNeice’s premature death of pneumonia, Philip Larkin wrote that “his poetry was the poetry of our everyday life, of shop-windows, traffic policemen, ice-cream soda, lawn-mowers, and [...]
Full StoryExplaining the Modernist Joke: James Matthew Wilson Considers W.H. Auden, Louis MacNeice, and Letters from Iceland
In this month’s issue of the Contemporary Poetry Review, James Matthew Wilson examines the famous collaboration between Auden and MacNeice: Like many odd literary creatures from the British 1930′s, W.H. Auden and Louis MacNeice’s Letters from Iceland (1936) is referred to more frequently as a representative period piece than as an achieved work of art. [...]
Full StoryAndrew Goodspeed lauds the daring of Kevin Ducey
In this month’s issue of the Contemporary Poetry Review, Andrew Goodspeed writes about the Kevin Ducey’s book Rhinoceros: “Kevin Ducey’s great strength is his daring. He frequently appears silly, he risks silliness in his work, and this silliness sometimes succeeds admirably. Few modern poets have that sense of daring, and it is a point to [...]
Full StoryTupelo Press Announces a Sarah Hannah Memorial and Reading
Tupelo Press announces a Sarah Hannah Memorial and Reading. “Please join us October 25th from 7-9PM for a memorial for Sarah Hannah (1966-2007) including readings from the new book Inflorescence by poets and friends at Poet’s House, 72 Spring Street, second floor, New York, NY 10012.All are welcome and encouraged to attend. For information about [...]
Full StoryJames Rother returns with Part Three of the Prose of Poetry
In the current issue of the Contemporary Poetry Review, the infamous critic James Rother continues his series on the Prose of Poetry: “Where poetry can but clutch and cling, prose is free to root about, its snout on the alert always for any scent of a truffle. Poetry might put down roots where only rhizomes [...]
Full StoryJames Matthew Wilson Examines the History of Expansive Poetry
In this month’s issue of the Contemporary Poetry Review, young critic James Matthew Wilson continues his controversial series on poetry and the academy with a look back at the history of the Expansive Poetry movement in the United States (“expansive poetry” is the more obscure, but more accurate, term for what is generally known as [...]
Full Story
