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Christian Wiman Responds

by Christian Wiman

Daniel D’Arezzo is correct in assuming that I am tired of being a cheerleader for poetry. As I say in the essay, all such cheerleading “is defensive and misguided, not because there is no hope for elevating poetry’s importance, but because its power is already greater than any public attention can confer upon it.”

I’m sympathetic to Tim McGrath’s fatigue with Modernism but disagree with his overall assessment. I’m with W.B. Yeats, who thought that Modernism produced the greatest English-language  poetry since the Renaissance. We’re still (rightly) wrestling with that inheritance.

Originally Published: December 4, 2012

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