If [Whitman] sometimes changed his pronouns, or shifted the order of poems in order to blur the nature of a particular allegiance, and if he betrayed his own sexuality when confronted head-on, it would nonetheless be absurd to expect him to have been any more radical than he actually managed to be.
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
Mark Doty on Walt Whitman
Today, W.W. Norton released poet Mark Doty's latest book—What Is the Grass: Walt Whitman in My Life. My thanks to Octavio Roca for passing along this excerpt, which Literary Hub has published. Here's one tidbit:
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3 comments:
"absurd" — absurd itself and more Wilde's word than Whitman's! Still I look forward to reading Doty on Whitman (more so than rereading either poet).
In case you haven't already seen it, here is the WP review: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/in-what-is-the-grass-mark-doty-looks-at-walt-whitman-through-an-autobiographical-lens/2020/04/28/41136028-8633-11ea-878a-86477a724bdb_story.html.
WP Doty
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