Romantic vs. Modernists vs. Chelsea

I keep questioning, “What is art? What is poetry? And how did this poem make it into the Norton?” I enjoyed Elliot, Dickinson and Stein’s work for this week because of this particular matter. These poems/papers really answer some questions that I have been asking throughout this course. This week was productive in answering my questions in a few ways and stirring up further thoughts.

Elliot mentioned that good poetry is not about yourself and your emotions but outside of the author. Dickinson did very well in creating a character outside of herself in “348”. Elliot also mentioned good poetry evoked feelings without actually saying those feelings. These were constructive criticisms and very helpful, although hard, for me to work on to become a better poet. I can deal with trying to be outside of myself as a poet and I will work on this new type of creativity and astounding poetic ability that Dickinson portrays. I can agree with Elliot and Dickinson in their works to encourage others to use less experiences and impressions in straight forward manner, but, Stein just didn’t tickle my fancy. I completely disagreed with her! She went way beyond the ideas of Elliot and Dickinson to take away other aspects that I believe are necessary to being human no less a poet. I actually wrote a poem to her and about her “Masterpiece” paper. I was very upset and thought that her “calling out” of masterpieces was not right. I still wonder who is to judge a masterpiece. I remember in high school learning that all poetry; all art is “good” art to the viewer. I learned from Stein that good poetry and especially masterpieces have to no identity, no necessity, no familiarity, no memory, and no human nature. Good poetry is about the human mind. This is how I received Stein’s work and I was/am furious. I could be interpreting art way differently but I believe that there are “good”/successful works out there that encapsulate identity, time, familiarity, necessity, memory and human nature. I suppose we could get in to a psychology battle and argue whether we use human nature or human mind. I would like to say we are human and our nature is outward in everyway. One cannot shut out memory, identity, and human nature to write a poem. This is impossible. She is saying masterpieces are few because they must involved or not involve these things. I cannot wait for my poem to be workshopped, the one where I write a letter to Ms. Stein. I will not be in class on Thursday, but hopefully if I interpreted this article in a wrong way, someone please let me know so I can change my poem and letter to Gertrude.