Chapter 47 - Amy Clampitt, Culture Poetry, and the Neobaroque

Summary

Amy Clampitt holds a unique position in American poetry of the late twentieth century. The poet Karl Shapiro, another World War II veteran, coined the phrase culture poetry more than a half century ago to describe the work of many of these poets, always refined and didactic, which dives back into the historical situation, into culture, instead of flowering from it. The Kingfisher, her first book, appeared when she was sixty-three. She combined her old-fashioned commitment to high culture with the patience and attentiveness necessary for deep reading, looking, and listening. One other major poet of the second half of the century shared with Anthony Hecht a deep learning, a fondness for formal experimentation, and a commitment to the entire range of Western civilization and art. The authors have called the long sentences of Gjertrud Schnackenberg, Clampitt, and their predecessors, baroque.