Old versus new?

[Erthona]

I like parts of Ginsburg's "Howl", a lot of Whitman, most of Dickinson, Elliot's Prufrock, a poem or two of Yeats, Coleridge's big three, Milton by Blake, and on and on. Most modern poetry I can do without, and post-modern seems to lack depth. Contemporary or continued post-modern seems generally to lack honesty and seems to be engaged at peering at it's own reflection, or seeing how much it can expose itself in an effort to appear emotionally honest. I think the better poetry always tells us something important about being human, that is it has a universality that transcends the common boundaries we erect, such as gender, religion, or political viewpoint. Overt religiosity does not work for me, but then neither does overt atheism. There are certain spiritual qualities in man that cannot be proved, but that only a fool stuffed full of his own self would try to deny. However it's not like in the Faery Queen where there are stated morals we should value and uphold, it's not allegorical, nor is it instructional. It is in the epic of Gilgamesh, and in El Grecco's the beggar. The style doesn't matter, except the writer has mastered it. I would say we have lost the quality of it, but people always say that in each generation, and someone eventually comes along to prove them wrong. I don't even know if poetry will continue as an art form, but something will. Ultimately the form is unimportant. So not only do I not prefer a certain type of poetry, I don't really prefer a certain form of art over another. Which is best Billy? What an outrageous question to ask!

Dale