Uncommon Wealth: An Anthology of Poetry in English

W.J. Keith is a retired professor of English at the University of Toronto and author A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada.

In this anthology, over 400 poets—some more accurately described as
poetasters—from more than 30 countries (or tribes) are sardined into
just over 800 pages. The majority are therefore represented by one
(often short) poem. Most, though by no means all, of the
“mainstream” poets are included, but they are joined—swamped?—by
hosts of names unfamiliar to most traditional poetry readers. Tradition,
indeed, gets a low rating; here 64 percent of the contributors were born
in this century, almost 10 percent of them since 1945. I note also that
the most conspicuous omissions—Graves in England, Johnston and Skelton
in Canada—are precisely those who lay most stress on technique and
prosody, and regard poetry as a learned art demanding an arduous
apprenticeship.

The editors claim to have “included poems worth reading, discussing,
and remembering—regardless of their position in or out of canon, or
their indebtedness to local or foreign traditions.” Possibly; it is
evident, however, that a main criterion is that poets should be
oppressed, marginalized, and rebellious, and hold politically correct
convictions on such matters as colonialism and feminism. Clearly, they
are expected, like Ginsberg, to address “critical issues such as
homophobia, xenophobia, racism, imperialism, and genocide.” Whether
they write well or badly is, it seems, secondary.

Who, one wonders, is likely to use such an anthology? Perhaps those who
complain about literature written by dead white male authors—but such
confusions shouldn’t be encouraged. The editors argue that a new
experience is gained if Emily Brontл is read alongside American and
Ojibway contemporaries; in my (old-fashioned) view, however, Sojourner
Truth’s work suffers when read immediately following Keats’s

“Grecian Urn.” Few notes are provided, and many obscure allusions
pass unexplained. Does it help to be told that Avison’s poetry is
“informed by a simple (if difficult) challenge”?

All this would be hilarious if it didn’t signal the casual
abandonment of centuries-tested standards of poetic art. In short,
Uncommon Wealth is an unmitigated disaster; by comparison, the notorious
“Oxford Books” of Yeats and Larkin seem models of taste and
discretion.