Read Dana Gioia’s controversial 1991 essay on American poetry, “Can Poetry Matte

Read Dana Gioia’s controversial 1991 essay on American poetry, “Can Poetry Matter,” posted in the Week 4 folder, OR Bob Hicok’s recent Essay “The Promise of American Poetry” (both in the Week 4 Module).
Gioia’s essay is still a touchstone for discussion of American poetry, and still attracts discussion and debate. Gioia’s essay explored the reasons, in the preceding decades, why American poetry had little influence on or relevance to American culture–why it was perceived as elitist, super-personal, “clubby,” or socially disengaged.
Hicok’s essay prompted a huge and testy discussion within the poetry community, as you can see if you sample a few of the comments. Some responders thought Hicok’s essay was an example of, white fragility—a discomfort or defensiveness prompted by evidence of racial injustice—or exemplified some privileged assumptions, especially given the current state of publishing still skews favorably toward whites and particularly white males. Some, however, found his willingness to stand aside—despite the sense of loss to his hope of a legacy—honest and necessary and brave. What do you think?
1. Pull out 2 main ideas from Gioia’s or Hicok’s essays and think about them in the context of the international poetry we have read this term. What sort of social commitment or historical responsibility have you detected in the poets we’ve read this term? How might these international poets respond to these American poets and their arguments about poetry’s power and the poet’s role? What, based on what you’ve read this term, IS poetry’s purpose, from your perspective?
2. Read some of the poems on the Poems of Protest, Resistance, and Empowerment website, How do these American poems seem different from the “poetry of the English speaking world” with which we started the term (such as Bishop and Larkin)? How do they compare to the international poetry we’ve read in this class? For instance, is the U.S. poets’ political agenda more overt, less overt? Can you find a poem from this historically broad selection of protest poems that remind yous of a poem you read from Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, Europe? (You don’t have to answer ALL these questions–just wanted to stimulate your thinking…).
https://www.utne.com/arts/new-american-poetry-zm0z19uzhoe/
https://canvas.oregonstate.edu/courses/1923600/files/100339729/download?verifier=se4BlA14xkmYxEf4yiBq07VAdnXGh7TODtSNIkCS&wrap=1