Big news in the poetry world: Louise Gl\u00fcck<\/strong> has been awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. Like many, I was inspired to revisit my poetry shelf. Yes, I was familiar with the name\u2014Gl\u00fcck has achieved considerable renown\u2014and yet, I could not call to mind a single poem or line. I found her first four books, in a single collected edition, as well at The Wild Iris<\/a><\/em>. I flipped through them, waiting for that spark of recognition. It never came. I had to admit, despite being a receptive reader, that her work does not speak to me on any level. It is sparse, elliptical, often first-person though not Confessional. The diction is unfailingly deadpan. It\u2019s not quite cerebral, not quite emotive. In fact, it\u2019s largely devoid of affect. Interestingly, I could not discern any major shift or growth between her first book and her later works. For some poets, that comes from having a unique, compelling voice. But I don\u2019t find Gl\u00fcck\u2019s voice to be particularly distinct, which is to say, I can\u2019t tell the difference between a line by Gl\u00fcck and a line by, say, Jorie Graham.\u00a0 In The Wild Iris<\/em>, it\u2019s initially intriguing to see so many poems with the same title (e.g., \u201cMatins\u201d and \u201cVespers\u201d); but rather than collectively present a Cubist view of a subject, they each seem self-contained and interchangeable, and eschew any dialog amongst themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, my initial enthusiasm at seeing an American poet honored with a Nobel prize was undercut by the uneasy suspicion that the committee had made yet another questionable decision in an effort to stay relevant or divert attention from its salacious recent history. And though I hesitate to disparage the work of any poet, I\u2019m sure that a few critical words from me will do nothing to sully Gl\u00fcck\u2019s reputation, or detract from her widespread acclaim. There are clearly many people, in positions of authority, who find more in her work than I do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Louise Gl\u00fcck: The Wild Iris Big news in the poetry world: Louise Gl\u00fcck has been awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. Like many, I was inspired to revisit my poetry shelf. Yes, I was familiar with the name\u2014Gl\u00fcck has achieved … Continue reading