Poetic Genres

William Matthews' 'Four Subjects of Poetry' has been getting a bit of attention lately, and I suppose with National Poetry Month in the USA, with many people aiming to write one poem a day, there will be plenty more birds hatched to slot into those pigeonholes.

I wonder if there are serious & statistical generic analyses of contemporary poetry out there somewhere? Something like the very useful and interesting 'index by genre' in The Penguin Book of Renaissance Verse 1509 - 1659 would be fascinating. The Renaissance's hierarchy of genres and sub-genres is an intricate matter; today's de facto equivalents are no doubt no less subtle & diverse.