Has Contemporary Poetry ‘Abandoned Craft,’ Or Are Its Critics Missing Something Important?

Novelist Rose Tremain and poet Robin Robertson have both railed against contemporary poetry in recent days. Whoops. “Detractors of new poetry make judgments about craft based on conservative assumptions about poetic traditions, forms, style. But radical aesthetics have their own craft and traditions, formed from intersecting political and linguistic concerns. So this isn’t a question of craft at all.”