Difficulty in Poetry

There's quite a lot on the issue of difficulty vs. accessibility in poetry in this blog. To encounter the tip of a considerable iceberg (including an inconclusive debate with Josh Corey), click on the label below. Today, though, an interesting article appeared in poets.org, a summary of a panel discussion with Carl Phillips, James Tate and Kay Ryan. If you know these poets, I'm sure you can well imagine why I call this "difficulty lite". However, our late friend Reginald Shepherd really gets in the meat of the matter with this essay that catalogues and discusses the ways (or most ways) poetry can be difficult. I think it's the most thorough treatment of the subject I've come across.