New from "Dispatches from the Poetry Wars," this sartorially slanted column by Mark Scroggins, under the heading "La Derniere mode poetique." Scroggins reports on the annual Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture, which he characterizes as a "poetry flashpoint for thirty years." And here is a link to the column he posted on February 25, 2019 on the subject of poetic fashion as exemplified by Byron's "Albanian revolutionary togs," Marianne Moore's tricorn hat, Hart Crane's pinstripes, Mina Loy's robes.
Hats off to Scroggins for focusing on the way that sartorial choices reflect one's sense of style and literary self-presentation. One cavil. The author is under the impression that the North American poet, male of the species, wears "khakis, Oxford cloth shirts , last decade's blaze." That's a preppy 1980s look, and I'm not sure it ever caught on among campus poets. Today's standard male poet (to coin a phrase) is more likely to wear jeans and expensive fitted t-shirts and sneakers, n'est-ce pas? Scroggins is, however, right that "black is still the default color choice for many poet-types" and that more and more men are abandoning their neckties, to my mind a foolish thing to do, as it dispenses with a key element of style. -- DL
https://www.dispatchespoetrywars.com/commentary/la-derniere-mode-poetique-numero-1/
https://www.dispatchespoetrywars.com/la-derniere-mode-poetique/la-derniere-mode-poetique-numero-2/
https://www.dispatchespoetrywars.com/la-derniere-mode-poetique/la-derniere-mode-poetique-numero-3/
The esteemed poet, critic, and editor Joseph Donahue, commenting at the FB page of Mike Boughn, where this post at BAP is linked:
>"It's Scroggins' world, we just get dressed in it . . ."
Posted by: Kent Johnson | March 03, 2020 at 05:44 PM