Letter from Poetry Magazine



	
Letter to the Editor



	

			
Letter to the Editor
		




	

					
	
					by  Henry  Taylor 			





	
	

				Dear Editors, 



Brenda Wineapple's review of Dana Gioia's new book ("Can Criticism Matter?" May 2005) raises the issue of Robinson's Curse: anyone who mentions Edwin Arlington Robinson has at least a thirty-percent chance of calling him Edward. It doesn't matter how much one knows about poetry in general, or American poetry, or even Robinson; nor does the eminence of one's editors matter. It happens, that's all. It may be futile or even dangerous to consider doing anything about it. 		
Bethesda, Maryland
	


	

		Originally Published: October 30, 2005	


	
		
		

	
		

			
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This prose originally appeared in the June 2005 issue of Poetry magazine


		
			

				
						June 2005
				
			

			
		

			
		


		

			
		


	








	
		
			

				

				
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Biography

							
After winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for his book, The Flying Change: Poems, poet Henry Taylor remarked to Joseph McLellan of the Washington Post: "The Pulitzer has a funny way of changing people's opinions about it. If you haven't won one, you go around saying things like 'Well, it's all political' or 'It's a lottery' and stuff like that. I would like to go on record as saying that although I'm deeply grateful and feel very . . . 

							
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Originally appeared in Poetry magazine.

		
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