Montag: (Q14) How would you respond to the suggestion that in your poems the vantage point of the poet is essential to the meaning of the poem, that where you stand establishes what we will be able to see and understand. For instance, the distance of third person in "Harvest" (p. 52) compared to first person.
Benet: I am not sure I understand the question completely, but here are a few thoughts that come to me upon reading and re-reading it: First, I want to make an important distinction - at least an important to me, as someone who has been trained not only in literature, but also theatre: The vantage point of the poet is not the same as where the speaker of the poem stands. In other words, the speakers of my poems, if not exactly characters, are "personas." They are not me, nor the me that’s the poet, though they borrow from my life, often liberally. They get me as their instrument. I give them my voice. In turn, they bring me a greater knowledge of the world through their eyes -- their vision. Susan Stewart, in her (much too) erudite book on Poetry and the Fate of the Senses talks about the origins of the word "persona" as rooted in "per-sonare," or sounding out. It is in this sense that I view my "personae" in my poems as masks through which voices that are often different from mine can "sound" out almost as intimately as if I were speaking. When I don’t get the process right, that sounding out of a breathing persona, then, often, the mask turns into a masquerade (and don’t quote me too closely on this one, because I think that the business about "mask" and "masquerade" is also in that Stewart book... well, quote me if you must, but with this caveat, at least!). So yes, whether the poem speaks in the third or first person is essential... not just to the meaning of the poem, but also to "characterization" of the speaker (which, I want to remind you again, is not always the same person as the poet!). Montag: (Q15) Your poems seem to encase little dramas. Some rise and fall is being played out in them. You apprehend the drama and give it voice. How would you respond to such a characterization of your poems? Benet: Well, it seems that my answer to the previous question has already addressed some of the issues you bring up in this one. My poems do encase little dramas because, as some dramatists will tell you, character (persona) determines plot, or manifests in drama. Besides, even as a poet and champion of the lyric and the power of images, I do believe that we humans are driven to tell stories. We make sense of time through stories, as if in revenge for the ravages of time. In an ideal world, or another life, I would love to be a storyteller, a novelist. I think that I am poet because I failed at telling my stories in other forms.... Montag: (Q16) You sometimes seem to tell first-person dramas in the third person? Why? What do you think this device does for the art of your poems? ("Harvest," p. 52, for example.) Benet: Well, this one I already answered when I responded to Question 14. The choice of third or first person (and even second person) has to do with the "persona" or character who is speaker in the poems. Sometimes, though, as in "Harvest," this choice also has to do with the setting itself. That’s because, in these instances, the setting is also a character and the drama might be between the speaker and the setting. Having just finished reading your essays in Kissing Poetry’s Sister, I know that you are intimately acquainted with the notion of place as character! Montag: (Q17) You sometimes seem to use parallelism from stanza to stanza in a poem as an organizing principle – in "Budapest Gothic" (p. 45), for instance, and in other poems as well. Would you talk about your use of that device? Benet: Hmm, my use of parallelism from stanza to stanza... All I can say is that I use this device when I feel that the repetition of some element, be it in the content or just a matter of form, will texture the poem. But I don’t think it’s a conscious decision as such.... I am, it seems, quite out of words when it comes to your questions that have to do with my specific crafting of specific poems. Continued at BENET INTERVIEW - 7, below
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