Conversation Pieces: Poems That Talk to Other Poems

by Harold Schechter (Editor), Kurt Brown (Editor)

This utterly delightful anthology gathers poetic responses to other poems in a dialogue conducted across space and time.

Here are poems that answer, argue with, update, elaborate on, mock, interrogate, or pay tribute to poems of the past. We hear Leda's view of the Swan; feel sympathy for La Belle Dame sans Merci, and find out how Marvell's coy mistress might have answered his appeal. Raleigh's famous reply to Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" sparked a centuries-long debate that John Donne, William Carlos Williams, C. Day Lewis, and Ogden Nash could not resist joining. In these pages we see Denise Levertov respond to Wordsworth, Randall Jarrell to Auden, Ogden Nash to Byron, Donald Justice to César Vallejo. We also see contemporary poets responding to their peers with the same intriguing mix of admiration and impatience.

Whether they offer approbation or reproof, the pleasures of a jazz riff or a completely different perspective, these remarkable poems are not only engaging themselves but also capable of casting surprising new light on the poems that inspired them.

Genres: Poetry

256 pages, Hardcover

First published March 20, 2007

About the author

Aka Jon A. Harrald (joint pseudonym with Jonna Gormley Semeiks)

Harold Schechter is a true crime writer who specializes in serial killers. He attended the State University of New York in Buffalo, where he obtained a Ph.D. A resident of New York City, Schechter is professor of American literature and popular culture at Queens College of the City University of New York.

Among his nonfiction works are the historical true-crime classics Fatal, Fiend, Deviant, Deranged, and Depraved. He also authors a critically acclaimed mystery series featuring Edgar Allan Poe, which includes The Hum Bug and Nevermore and The Mask of Red Death.

Schechter is married to poet Kimiko Hahn. He has two daughters from a previous marriage: the writer Lauren Oliver and professor of philosophy Elizabeth Schechter.

Reviews

[Sylvester (Taking a break in 2023) · Rating 4 out of 5]

5* for the concept, 2-3* for the poem choices.
This is one of the more interesting poetry collections out there. I would imagine it was tough work compiling it, there would be so many unknown poem conversations out there, only some would be obvious. The most famous of these "conversations" is "The Passionate Shepherd To His Love" (Christopher Marlowe), which is answered by "The Nymph's Reply To the Shepherd" (Sir Walter Raleigh), whereupon John Donne pipes in with "The Bait", C. Day Lewis takes it from the fields to the city in his "Song", William Carlos Williams takes sides with "Raleigh Was Right", Ogden Nash adds some humour "Love Under he Republicans", W.D. Snodgrass modernises it in "Invitation", Douglas Crase confuses me with grammar in "Covenant", and finally (in this anthology anyway - I'm sure the conversation has continued long into the night beyond the covers of this book), Greg Delanty tells us, no, "Williams Was Wrong", and enjoys his very peaceful (he claims) walk on the beach.

The collection continues under these chapter headings:
Variations on a Theme
He Said, She Said
Rebukes and Rebuttals
Homages
and
In Good Fun

For anyone interested in the way literature influences writers - I highly recommend this collection. You don't have to like the individual poems to appreciate the relationship and development of ideas that comes from these "conversations".

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Think of this as poetry summer reading. It's published as part of the Everyman's Library Pocket Poets series, so it's a compact hardcover with a ribbon bookmark that's the perfect size for a beach bag, glove compartment or larger purse. (I confess the production of this book gives me the warm fuzzies and a desire to collect them all regardless of the quality of the poetry within.)

Conversation Pieces is an anthology comprised of what are often called response poems. We are first provided with the poem that has elicited the response, such as The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe, which is generally considered the poem with the most targets on its back and the most shots taken. For this poem there are even responses to the responses, showing how it echoes across generations of poets.

Until reading this volume, I hadn't realized that Yeats' Leda and the Swan has the second most targets on its back and that Anthony Hecht wrote a poem titled The Dover Bitch in response to Arnold's Dover Beach.

While most of the response pairings do cross generations, some of them are between contemporaneous poets. We even have Sharon Olds responding to one of her earlier poems.

These response poems don't appear to have been written for this volume. Rather they were already in existence (certainly many were) and were gathered together by the editors. Kudos to them for doing such a great job of gathering them.

The editors have further fulfilled their duty by consciously arranging the poems into categories:
Replies to the Shepherd (yep, this one gets its own section)
Variations on a Theme (the largest category)
He Said, She Said (2nd largest category)
Rebukes and Rebuttals
Homages
In Good Fun

If you're a poetry "insider," you'll get to revisit some old familiar poems and poets. If you're fairly new to poetry, you'll get to eavesdrop on conversations across centuries that will give you a different perspective (perhaps wry or amused or annoyed) on the poetry scene.

Not long ago I saw someone attacking (rightly or wrongly) an "instagram poet" and frothing accusations of plagiarism over a likely hocking of a phrase from Neruda. Apparently the critic didn't understand the nuances of allusion and the instapoet didn't understand how to indicate in her poem when she's using a phrase from another poet to allude to her/his work. If the critic had read this book, seeing the back and forth exchanges that can occur, there may have been less fervor on the point of plagiarism in the review.

If you're a poet, reading these may make you want to jump into one of these conversations yourself.

In any case, if you're looking for a mildly pleasant, amusing, and potentially nostalgic, poetry anthology that can be read through or dipped into while at the doctor's office or lying on the beach, pick this up.

[Bryan J. Pitchford, MFA · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know, maybe 5 stars is a bit much, but I wouldn't go any lower than 4.8 stars. I have enjoyed ekphrastic poems ever since I started truly studying poetry. I enjoy poems inspired by art, music, and literary works. I don't know that poems written in response to each other is ekphrastic, but I think they fit somewhere in there.

There are several gems in this collection and a handful of pleasant surprises! Some poets are represented more than once, which was never tedious owing to the quality of their work. I think you could publish several volumes of poems in conversation with other poems and poets in conversation with each other.

I wanted this book as soon as I found out about it; it was on my purchase list for ages and then my TBR pile. It didn't take me two years to read it once I sat down and committed to it and I am glad I did!

[JD Waggy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is delightful, and a great introduction to many poets I've never before encountered via poems that I know rather well. I love the deep and broad conversation that is poetry and, while I for sure didn't love every poem included here, I very much enjoyed the variety of discourse. Some of them felt a little stretched in terms of calling one poem indebted to another, but this is a great little volume nonetheless. I'm happy to keep this on my poetry shelf and return to it often.

[Tandava Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great theme for a collection—poems that relate to other poems. Part of the fun of poetry is in responding to other poets. I came across this because I’ve been specifically creating “sets” of poems for my middle schoolers this year in our Poem of the Day series. The ones in this book that would work for them were generally ones I’d already thought of. But still, it was fun to read and see the other selections as well.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

ItReally wanted to love it. Love the concept. But I felt like the scope they considered was narrower than it could have been and the "conversations" much thinner than I was expecting. A wider pool of editors might have made all the difference.

[Lawrence Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Everyman's Pocket Poet Series is the best, and the idea of this volume, of poems written in response to other poems, is brilliant (cf. Billy Collins' fine introduction). However, this book often fails to live up to expectations.

[Allie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came across this little book when someone else requested it. It is exactly what I like in a poetry book: funny, heartfelt, well-documented (footnotes are ideal, but a side-by-side reference and referent will do great), and nuanced. Poems can be so interestingly referential, but I hardly ever know the reference point. This mini-anthology draws from such a wide range of poets across the globe and across time, which is a particular delight since I am not super well versed in poetry. I think the narrow scope is very endearing and the selection of poems and poets is quite thoughtful.

Additionally, I really love the Everyman's Pocket Poetry books. They're so small and lovely and are just terrifically designed. On this one the spine has a pattern made from small quotation marks and the title page has a pattern of exclamation and question marks, but in a small and sweet way, not in a tacky way. I like being able to tuck this away and carry it with me. That's where it belongs.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the way I like to read poetry. I like to think about poetry and its relationship to more poetry and to writing in general. It's a bit of a stretch to categorize this as a book "on writing," perhaps, because it's really just an anthology with nothing but the poems, but Billy Collins' introduction is great, and really, putting together poems that are inspired by others or responding to others or making fun of others is a statement on writing.

It's also just a nice, handily sized collection of good poems, and I love the balance between old classics and contemporary poets, between male and female poets, between funny and serious poems.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always been interested in poems that "talk to other poems." In fact, this was a unit in a recent workshop I taught. This book has many conversations betweeen poems and poets, as well as a few arguments and wrestling matches. (I'd give it 4 stars if I could figure out this bleeping rating system). The Neruda-Frishkorn pair-up is especially good. The idea of "conversation" as having its roots in "lifestyle" is very evident in her response.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rough language in some of the modern poetry selected but excepting that, I ended up enjoying this collection of poems that "speak" to each other. Surprisingly, no commentary-just the poetry. Not most people's cup of tea but if you loved Marlowe and Raleigh's Passionate Shepherd/ Nymph "conversation" as I always have-you may appreciate this little book. Three and a halfish stars...

[ABC · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the idea that poems can talk to each other. Reading this collection helped me get a sense of the continuity of the art of poetry, especially the super old poems talking to the modern poems. I also like it when contemporary poems talk to contemporary poems. Hey, I'm easy to please.

[Alejandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This sounds like such a neat idea, poems that talk, communicate, and respond to each. It was simply good when it could have been great.

[Mark David Gan · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://absorbedinwords.blogspot.com/2...

[H]

and wasn't it seamus heaney who said something like, "whoever said the first and last line of a poem signify its beginning and end?"

a delight to see harold, kimiko, and meg together in one book.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sadly, out of print.
A wonderful resource for teaching poetry: both the writing and reading of. Very enjoyable, interesting selection of paired poems.