Reading the reviews about Young's work and taking the pop-quiz on Tuesday set me thinking about what defines a poet's work. What features of a poem are derived uniquely from one poet, different from another? I decided to focus on one thought brought up in the review of Embryoyo:
David Sewell writes, "Listing, or exemplifying, is a mode [Young] falls into regularly, and this mode’s success depends on how interesting/fresh/moving the little lists are." I thought that this was a key insight. I think that aspect of Young's writing style is what made his poems seem much more accessible to me than Greenfield's. Profound thoughts are followed with more detail or several examples.
Another tactic is extreme clarity in his descriptions. Every artist tries to paint some sort of image in his/her audience's minds. However, Young seems to be particularly keen on making sure that his audience understands exactly what he is describing on his most central points. For example, in "Sean Penn Anti-Ode", he writes, "Must Sean Penn always look like he’s squeezing/ the last drops out of a sponge and the sponge/ is his face?". And in "White Crane", he writes, "...the Japanese beetles/ infesting the roses and plum/ no matter what my neighbor sprays/ in orange rubber gloves."
But Young does not employ this tactic in every line. There are definitely some lines where he is decidedly vague. For example, in "Bivouacked and Garrisoned Capitol", he writes, "The dream/ confabulates, triangulates/ our fears and desires until/ the flood comes loose/ in the baby-crying room, your fault/ your fault, key to the lighthouse lost,/ ten-foot gap. How can love survive?" This line has so many parts and potential meanings- very different from the previous two examples.
I appreciate Young's playing between descriptive but vague and extreme clarity. It allows readers to have the freedom to experience the poem for themselves with their own interpretations while still giving them certain stops where they can catch up to the thinking of the poet.
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"The list" (or "catalog") is a time-honored tactic in American poetry-- Walt Whitman being our most famous cataloger. Given the mini-debate on Thursday about whether Dean Young's poems 'accumulate' or 'fly apart,' I'd say that his LISTS are the best place to frame this debate. Do you feel that Sewell did critical justice to his mention of this tactic, or did he just say 'they are good sometimes, sometimes not'?
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