The Poetry Foundation has a great interview up with Elinor Wilner, a poet not previously known to me. She has a pronounced distaste for the use of the first person in poetry, both literally and figuratively, saying to her interviewer, “People, by and large, are not that interesting.” She also thinks that the preference toward the confessional “I” is an American addiction, because we are all so obsessed with ourselves and our identities and histories. The interview goes on to note that much of her poetry is grounded in historical facts and narratives, which we assume she finds more substantial and worthy of her poetic attention.
Maybe I’m part of the problem myself, but much of my work is certainly rooted in the personal, in the “I.” I am a shameless Americanist though, as far as literature, so perhaps that’s no surprise! It makes me think of poets like Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, and wonder if there isn’t a concealed disdain for traditionally feminine modes of communication in disavowing the personal.
What do you think (all irony intended, as I blog about rejecting the confessional)?
