MODERN VERSE
Some modern verses I read
in fear and dread. They start
enticingly, at times;
pleasant rhythms, even rhymes.
The lines pellucid, meanings clear;
I suppress my mounting fear.
I await the non-sense,
into which they descend,
or the sublime heights
to which they ascend.
Then I reach it: a point
where all I think I knew
is suddenly, chaotically,
flung askew.
No matter how hard
I focus, how eagerly
I attend; I am, inevitably,
lost at the end.
The meaning flies away,
leaves me for dead;
wiping perspiration
from my obtuse head.
I’ve written before in this blog about how I find some modern poetry to be wilfully obscure. I know that poetry is not supposed to be transparent and as easy to read as a nursery rhyme, but some poets seem to me to be deliberately enigmatic and elusive. Poets like T.S. Eliot and Elizabeth Bishop tantalise me by hinting at clarity and meaning, and then pull the rug away from under my feet. Other poets – Wallace Stevens, Ezra Pound, Geoffrey Hill and (my particular bête noir) John Ashbery, for example – are completely opaque from start to finish.
stewartstanzas 