Gilbert: You poets are incorrigible optimists.
Ernest: What makes you say so? Aren’t poets always complaining that no one reads their work?
Gilbert: With some justice, too. Poetry is in a state of perennial deflation: unlimited supply, hardly any demand.
Ernest: Brad Leithauser says as much in his book Rhyme’s Rooms: The Architecture of Poetry. He says the “possible ‘decline’ of the role of poetry in American life” is the longest lasting subject of academic discussion.
Gilbert: That’s optimism for you.
Ernest: How so?
Gilbert: You guys are always writing books about poetry, as if it were a going concern. One book suggests that everyone can write the stuff; a second argues that hatred of poetry is a poet’s prerequisite, a third feels that it’s okay to hate poetry but spare some love for poems. What’s Mr. Leithauser’s like?.
Ernest: The title itself is an echo of John Hollander’s Rhyme’s Reason, arguably the best book out there for the novice.
Gilbert: Hollander exemplified the forms in addition to defining them. Is this what Leithauser book does?
Ernest: No, but it introduced me to a great poem by Malcolm Lowry called “Strange Type”:
I wrote: in the dark cavern of our birth.
The printer had it tavern, which seems better:
But herein lies the subject of our mirth,
Since on the next page death appears as dearth.
So it may be that God’s word was distraction,
Which to our strange type appears destruction,
Which is bitter.
Gilbert: That’s an admirable piece of writing. What does the author say about it?
Ernest: He dwells on the postponed rhyme of “better” and “bitter.”
Gilbert: Nice to think that some poets still know about rhyme, meter, and form, and can make the case for constrictive forms.
Ernest: Yes, he’s the rare reader who appreciates the rhyme of “sultry” and “adultery.”
Gilbert: Byron is underrated, isn’t he?
Ernest: Agreeed. But the best chapter in the book is about song lyrics, which Leithauser writes about with passion, acumen, and good taste: lyrics by Lorenz Hart, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin.
Gilbert: Thank you for recommending Rhyme’s Rooms. May I borrow it for the weekend?
Ernest: Yes, but it won’t necessarily support your thesis that poets are optimistic.
Gilbert: You poets are a disputatious lot.
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Author: The Best American Poetry
