[MMMMMM]

By the way, Kurn, I am sorry if I have slighted a poet you greatly admire. I tend to compare everything to the greatest, and that may be a personality flaw of mine. However it gives me a yardstick and grounds for aspiration in any endeavour.

Specifically, I haven't seen in cummings' poems (yet, anyway;-)) the degree of technical mastery that certain other poets had, and which seemed almost to flow naturally in their writings. Nor has it struck me that he is great at "capturing" the essence of a thought or feeling as economically and totally as certain others have. I'm not saying cummings isn't good, and there is plenty of room to read, ponder and enjoy. But I guess I am prejudiced, for I also think that the greatest classical music is generally overall of a higher level than the greatest modern music (not that I don't think some modern music isn't also great).

I have spoken to John Cole about this before--that I don't know of any modern poets truly as good as some of the older poets. Maybe that's just me but I feel in my heart it is true. Also I am surely missing some good stuff because I have been a bit turned off to modern poets in general--overall their works tend to be quite inferior to the greatest older poets. Find me a modern poet truly as great as Keats, Shelley, Burns, Wordsworth, Longfellow or possibly Frost--and by that I mean: as good technically, conceptually, creatively, and artistically, with a dash of genius sprinkled in--and I'll change my mind and thank you a hundred times over.

Well, maybe cummings is a master as you say--but then what are the poets listed above?