The New Criterion
America’s leading review of the arts and intellectual life
- Harry Mount, the London Telegraph
FeaturesOctober 1998 Partying on Parnassus: the New York School Poets by John Simon Occasioned by David Lehman's The Last Avant-Garde: The Making of the New York School of Poets David Lehman’s The Last Avant-Garde: The Making of the New York School of Poets[1] examines the lives, work, and influence of John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara, Kenneth Koch, and James Schuyler in what seems to be order of importance. To put my cards on the table, as Lehman would have a critic do, I declare that none of these poets has written what I would call a single poem of any importance, although some of them have written plausible light verse. Lehman states the problem succinctly: Though he is America’s best-known poet, with a strong readership in Britain and a larger international following than any of his contemporaries, Ashbery remains an issue and for some a litmus test. A respected editor declared that one cannot like both Ashbery and Philip Larkin, and ... This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 17 October 1998, on page 31 Copyright © 2012 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/lehrman-simon-2991
rate this article for your user profile
E-mail to friend
|
Christopher, for better & for worse On the critic, polemicist & raconteur Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011).
Webcasts
Anthony Daniels on the Euro Crisis
Andrew C. McCarthy: The Muslim Threat
Roger Kimball: The Grim Future of Statism Weblog 
|
add a comment
you must have an account to post a comment. {register now}