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A DIGITAL SLAM
Schmidt in this 'coffee table style' book (isbn 978-0857382467) selects 50 poets to represent English poetry of the 20th century.Inevitably,each of us would have included a number that he omits,(mine would have included T E Hulme,the father of Imagism,which had such a profound impact upon the development of all later 'open-form' poetry and the innovative Adelaide Crapsey whose American cinquain is illustrative of the shorter poetic forms that influenced the now widespread 'lay poetry writing ',so prevalent in this digital age),Also,for me, perhaps 25 would have been better,thus permitting a longer appraisal of each ,in the manner of Schmidt's earlier,excellent 'Lives of the Poets'.Notwithstanding these subjective observations,the masterstroke with this publication is undoubtedly the inclusion of an audio CD of 17 poets reading some of their work,emphasing the basic key aspect of poetry as 'sounds aloud' and therefore greatly aiding both the student and lay reader alike.All told yet ,another book that places Schmidt alongside both Johnson and Sissons as a contemporary observer of their poetics.
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