Robert Bly on Thomas McGrath: the Church; the Literary Elite; Poetic Language

In this discussion, complete with eclectic digressions, Robert Bly addresses issues related to McGrath’s literary reputation and to the force of his political vision. Using personal anecdotes, including an account that references poets David Ignatow and John Ashbery, Bly raises the question, vis-à-vis Ignatow’s insights, whether the American republic can survive with a poetry devoid of political substance, setting McGrath’s prosody in opposition to the pared-down aesthetic he describes. Bly also offers a miniature critique of contemporary American culture where, he argues, “the heat of family, of love, the heat of political opinion, the heat of concern” are being destroyed. McGrath’s poetry, he insists, contains this “heat” and is thus marginalized by dominant American literary forces, while a diminished poetic vision prevails. Additional topics include the effect of the American South on McGrath’s writing and Bly’s assertion that McGrath’s use of language is as “eloquent” as that of T. S. Eliot.