14 contemporary poetry
It is important to note, however, that contemporary poets use
established forms as a guide, such as the villanelle, epic poem with
its terza rima and sonnet structures. Annie Finch and Susan M.
Schultz’s edited collection of essays Multiformalisms: Postmodern
Poetics of Form revises any alignment of formalism with a return
to didactic structures.^25 According to Finch, ‘poetic formalism is
now much more widely recognized as an infi nitely complex set of
poetic possibilities than it was ten years ago, and younger critics
and scholars are increasingly realizing the numerous theoretical
possibilities for addressing poetry in form’ (p. 11 ). Finch’s aim
is to redeem the idea of that formalism no longer perceived as
anachronistic, or hopelessly out of touch with contemporary life.
She hopes that ‘Another truism this book may shake up is the idea
that formal poetry has an inherent connection with rational or dis-
cursive kinds of discourse’ (p. 12 ). Finch questions whether ‘the
subversion of syntax is the only way to foreground and complicate
poetic language? Recent work... shows that metrical poetry can
easily coexist along with the subversion of grammatical and syntac-
tical conventions’ (pp. 12 – 13 ). In contrast, Schultz’s focus is on the
relationship between form and politics and race. Pertinently she
poses: ‘How must considerations of form in contemporary poetry
be adjusted to look at the work by minority writers, whose relation-
ship with the tradition [aka the Western tradition], is more fraught
with peril than that of majority writers?’ (p. 15 ).
The most stunning example of a contemporary poet’s engage-
ment with formal structure must be Caribbean poet Derek
Walcott’s epic Omeros ( 1990 ). Michael Schmidt has declared that
for Walcott:
Herrick and Herbert belong to him as much as they belong to
Larkin... To hear Walcott (on the page) can make it possible
for a poet in St Lucia, Auckland, Delhi or Vancouver to hear
his or her language more precisely.^26Divided into seven books, the epic adventure of Homer’s Iliad and
Odyssey was refi gured by Walcott by also drawing on Renaissance
poetry and setting the volume in modern St Lucia. The title itself
is the Greek for Homer. However, Walcott retains the epic format