09-09-2014, 10:08 PM
I agree to a certain extent--sometimes culturally familiar can be taken to mean popular, and I don't believe that there is any reason for us all to be stuck making the same allusions. The allusion should be culturaly familiar to the poem and its theme, in its relevance to the poem. If there is any significance at all it will be understood sometime by someone, somewhere, or even by the same reader but much later when they happen across the source. The poem should be able to survive to that point though--so the reader will remember the poem and make their own discovery.
sometimes it's not just about cultural familiarity, but the audience as well. If you want to reach a wider audience then it's still ok to have some esoteric allusion, but the poem shouldn't be wholly dependant on it, and there should be something else in there for the reader who doesn't study obscure text.
If you are studying greek and write a poem full of allusion to greek mythos because you expect it to only be accessible to your professor, classmates, and others in the same feild of study, then fine.
If you plan to give the poem to your mother, who happens to love Emily Dickinson, then, by all means allude heavily to E.D.
A critic who doesn't read E.D. can still provide insight on the phrasing, cohesiveness, rhythm, meter, syntax, line and strophe structure etc.
sometimes it's not just about cultural familiarity, but the audience as well. If you want to reach a wider audience then it's still ok to have some esoteric allusion, but the poem shouldn't be wholly dependant on it, and there should be something else in there for the reader who doesn't study obscure text.
If you are studying greek and write a poem full of allusion to greek mythos because you expect it to only be accessible to your professor, classmates, and others in the same feild of study, then fine.
If you plan to give the poem to your mother, who happens to love Emily Dickinson, then, by all means allude heavily to E.D.
A critic who doesn't read E.D. can still provide insight on the phrasing, cohesiveness, rhythm, meter, syntax, line and strophe structure etc.