Stephen Burt (left) and Michael Scharf at the symposium discussed in this article
A response to the conference titled “Poetry Criticism: What is it for?”— speakers Marjorie Perloff, Helen Vendler, Stephen Burt,and Michael Scharf, moderated by Susan Wheeler, at Wollman Hall, Cooper Union Engineering Building, 51 Astor Place, New York City, sponsored by the Poetry Society of America, early in 2000.
ACCORDING TO a recent article by Ian Hamilton in the London Review of Books, Randell Jarrell's descent into madness, and his speculated suicide, were in part provoked by a negative review in the New York Times accusing him of “doddering infantilism.” Jarrell, who was hailed on the Poetry Society of America's panel “Poetry criticism: What is it For?” as being the model poet-critic, apparently could not take the blow, after having dished out a fair share of them for so many years as “poetry's high-purposed body guard.”
S. Burt and Ch. Bernstein, On Experiment (Rutgers, April 10, 2014) (audio files)
On Experiment, Rutgers - New Brunswick conference, orgnized by Rachel Feder
April 10, 2014
In which Burt argues for experimental poetry and I argue against it, in an Alice-in-Wonderland-like reversal.