In the spirit of the long poem (Lauren Goodman’s, I think) “Who Would Win”, I’d like to create an absolutely capricious and binary riddled list of who you, dear readers, would prefer to read forced to choose. I take no accountability for historical and canonical accuracy.
WHO WOULD WIN
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Whitman vs. Dickinson
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Pound vs. Williams
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Lowell vs. Bishop
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Goethe vs. Rilke
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Ginsberg vs. Baraka
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Rimbaud vs. Leraine
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Millay vs. HD
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Crane vs. Stevens
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Hopkins vs. Auden
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Creely vs. Oppen
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Levertov vs. Duncan
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Rich vs. Lourde
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Sandberg vs. Percy
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Wilbur vs. Merrill
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Clare vs. Blake
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Keats vs. Cooleridge
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Brooks vs. Clifton
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Levis vs. Levine
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James Wright vs. Franz Wright
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Charles Wright vs. Charles Dickens
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Transtromer vs. Salamum
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Chaucer vs. Joshua Beckman
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O’Hara vs. Ashberry
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Bernstein vs. Silliman
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Elytis vs. Seferis
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Ahkmatova vs. Yuvteshenko
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Cavafy vs. Levertov
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Plath vs. Hughes
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Smart vs. Pope
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Milton vs. Merton
And now my daughter requires attention. Feel free to add more false binaries or correct existing ones.
I’d vote for James Wright, no question. Best, Franz Wright
P.S. Congratulations on your highly literate & witty list–I love “Rilke & Goethe” and “Levis and Levine”:, for example. God, what a relief it is to see proof that someone in this country has actually read some books! Best, FW