Vintage Poem of the Week:

One of the most studied and debated poems in the history of the English language.  Perhaps Robert Browning's most famous poem, first published in 1842, my version is copied from the George Mason University academic research systems website.  Click on links for excellent footnotes.

My Last Duchess
(Ferrara)

That's my last duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf's hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will't please you sit and look at her? I said
"Fra Pandolf" by design, for never read

Good Poetry vs. Bad Poetry

WHY EXCELLENCE?

What a conceit: “excellence in poetry”.  We assume excellence, don’t we?  Why state such obvious criteria?  Does anyone aim for mediocrity in poetry?

Hard to tell.  I doubt it.  But since excellence can be so subjective, publishers assume that high quality is their natural benchmark.  But quality might become eschewed when another mission sits center stage.  I’ve read wildly radical poetry that misses the mark but got published anyway because it fit a magazine’s criteria of bold, uncompromising and untraditional.  And I’ve read poems drowning in sentimentality yet published in formalist magazines because, I assume, they fit the magazine’s basic structural criteria.