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28 October 2004. Recently Anthony Hecht died. I loved his parody of Arnold's "Dover Beach" (a poem I also love), and a few other things he did but didn't think much of his hyper-traditionalist view that only strict formalism can yield poetry of value, and found the few unanthologized poems of his I came across too ascetic for my taste.
I bring him up here not to say anything very worthwhile about him but because David Graham wondered aloud at New-Poetry about his final rank as a poet. That got me thinking, as I frequently do, about levels of accomplishment in poetry. I'm sure I'll be repeating myself, but probably in slightly different words, but I can't think of anything else to write about today, so will give my views about that subject.
I think there are two levels each of major and minor poet. A major (lyric) poet of the first rank is one who achieves (in the view of the person or group judging) more than one of the following: (a) writes a handful or more of unbetterable poems of consequence; (b) adds something of importance to the poet's tool kit; (c) effectively captures a world most people would consider a reasonably full one. A major poet of the second rank would be one who can lay claim to only one of these achievements.
I would tentatively rate Hecht a major poet of the second rank because of (a). He certainly didn't add anything to the poet's tool kit--in fact, tried to take from it (but I probably shouldn't reduce a poet's rank for his misdeeds . . . or should I?) He may have achieved (c); my impression is that he didn't come close to doing that but I haven't read much of his work.
I would consider a minor poet of the first rank to be someone who has (a)composed a handful or more of highly effective, if not unbetterable poems, or (b) effectively used new poetic devices he did not create but few others were using at the time. (A poet can use a device effectively in an ineffective poem, I might add.) A minor poet of the second rank would be a poet who managed only one or two highly effective poems, but also composed a fair number of okay ones, and a handful or more of highly effective passages. Leigh Hunt comes to mind.
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