from review of The Modern Element : Essays on Contemporary Poetry

"Here (in the United States) poetry is such a minor, sidelined pursuit that its practitioners seldom even consider the possibility that their art has a duty to a larger cause. ... The moral crisis of Eastern Europe under Communism gave poetry an urgency and stature it can never have in the United States, where it is largely a hobby confined to writing workshops."

Kirsch's frustrations with particular American poets stems from his disappointment that they don't seem to want to commit themselves to "a larger cause." Kirsch expects poets to have the moral seriousness and political vision of Sophocles or Solzhenitsyn. Instead, he finds that most of them play in their own little worlds or use poetry as therapy - that they're more or less talented slackers.

By clicking on the link below, you can read the review in its entirety:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/27/RVEGU13JS.DTL