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I was listening to a recent podcast at the Poetry Foundation’s Web site on the “I” in poetry. The critic asserted that since the Confessional Poets (Robert Lowell, Anne Sexton, Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, for example) of the 1960s, “I” is the most overused word in poetry. This has lead to an abundance of “me” poetry: me to a lover, me to my parents, me to my children, something bad has happened to me. And it all wraps up in a nice little bow—my relationship to the rest of the world.
So I wonder: is the “I” overused? Have poets lost the ability to write detached, objective poetry? Have we lost our ability to write about the universal? Can we write a poem about things and situations but not have it relate to ourselves directly?
As one who writes in the confessional vein, I welcome your thoughts.
I think many not good poets use the "I" of poetry to make it seem like they are presenting a universality. That just because it was their experience everyone should be interested in that experience and do not craft the poem, but poeticize the experience.
I don't think it's inherently bad to write in the first-person. Nor is it inherently better to write in the third person. I think (to paraphrase Pound third-hand) the distinction between first-person and third-person poetry is false, there is only good poetry and bad poetry.
And, realizing that I may not have made much sense, I'm off to try to sleep for a few hours.
I think you're right, Thomas. The "I" is an easy way to write a poem. But isn't that how fledgling poets, especial creative writing students, get interested in poetry--write about yourselves. Write about your own experiences. The trouble is, not enough poets go beyond that, or try other voices or forms. There just seems to be a glut of "I" poetry around, but what can you expect from a "me me me" culture.
That being said, as a reader I find it difficult to get into poetry that doesn't touch me in some way. And as a writer, it really is a challenge to keep the "I" out of my work. But I do try occasionally, and that keeps the writing process challenging.
Maybe there is no distinction, as you say, between the first and third persons in poetry, just good poetry and bad poetry.
I sometimes write poems in the first person, but the narrator is not necessarily me. I just happen to think that the first person voice works well for the piece I am writing. If by confessional you mean writing about myself, I don't write a whole lot of confessional pieces though I do write in the first person.
