The Irish philosopher John Scotus Eriugena is associated with the idea of via negativa – that you can’t define God by saying what he is, but only by saying what he is not.
Ben Lerner, hip postmodern writer of such books as 10:04, applies this to poetry. For him every poem is proof that the ideal poem can never be realised – poetry as proof of the failure of poetry.
His ‘hatred’ of poetry is undermined by the existence of many great poems, something he admits later in the book. The idea, however, is a useful provocative conceit to write a very interesting book on poetry.
He sees the failure of poetry in the hilariously bad poetry of William McGonagle but also knowingly incorporated in the structure of Emily Dickinson’s brilliant creations.
There is criticism of Walt Whitman for his attempt at universality and praise for African-American poet Claudia Rankine’s work for her examination of anxieties over identities.
The work offers many joys (“Warhol is the Whitman of the actual”) and despite it’s vanguard -of -the- postmodern feel it ends with an expression of idealism.
The Hatred of Poetry is a knowing, ironic and heartfelt love letter to poetry.
