Logan’s Auden review is the worst kind of review: eager to show off superior judgment and would-be witty turns of phrase. While he isn’t wrong about some things (Auden’s long poems aren’t, generally speaking, him at his finest), it reads like someone writing under the influence of the worst of Auden, musing about the worst of Auden. I’m too far removed from academia to know whether Elizabeth Bishop has somehow outstripped Auden’s reputation there, but in the world at large, Auden seems to come up more often than most poets as a cultural touchstone (“Sept 1, 1939” in the aftermath of 9/11, for example). Nothing against Bishop — her “One Art” is perhaps my favorite villanelle. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen her referenced outside academia.
Logan’s Auden review is the worst kind of review: eager to show off superior judgment and would-be witty turns of phrase. While he isn’t wrong about some things (Auden’s long poems aren’t, generally speaking, him at his finest), it reads like someone writing under the influence of the worst of Auden, musing about the worst of Auden. I’m too far removed from academia to know whether Elizabeth Bishop has somehow outstripped Auden’s reputation there, but in the world at large, Auden seems to come up more often than most poets as a cultural touchstone (“Sept 1, 1939” in the aftermath of 9/11, for example). Nothing against Bishop — her “One Art” is perhaps my favorite villanelle. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen her referenced outside academia.
Thank you. Just preordered two of those!