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How to peel a poem:

Five poets dine out on verse

By Charles Simic, Donald Hall, Cynthia Huntington, Paul Muldoon, and Heather McHugh

Poetry has been described, in eras past, as “the natural language of all worship,” “the hop-grounds of the brain,” “devil’s wine,” and “the bill and coo of sex.” Contemporary assessments tend to be less poetic. Poetry today is something that the federal government should fund, that our publishing houses must support, that the public schools ought to permit a larger place on the syllabus, that our creative-writing programs might give more recognition, that we honor each year (as we do “Quality,” “Math Awareness,” and “Medical Librarians”) with a “National Poetry Month.” Rarely does the public discourse on poetry speak directly to the value of poems; rarer still is the suggestion that poems simply be read and heard and enjoyed. Hoping to correct this oversight, and taking a cue from the Chinese proverb “Recite poetry only with a poet,” Harper’s Magazine invited five practitioners of the art to dine together at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City. Each was asked to bring to the table a poem he or she truly loved, and then to tell us why.

DONALD HALL is the author of fifteen books of poetry, the latest of which, Without, received the 1999 PEN-Winship Award for the best book of 1998 by a New England writer.

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SEE ALSO: American poetry; Appreciation; “During wind and rain” (Poem); English poetry; Pound, Ezra; O'Hara, Frank; MacNeice, Louis; “Music” (Poem); “The lake isle” (Poem); “The taxis” (Poem); Hardy, Thomas; “Traveling through the dark” (Poem); Stafford, William

Response: December 1999, page 9 · December 1999, page 9 · December 1999, page 10 · December 1999, page 10

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