Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Two Bens

Another Paradise Lost entry coming later.

But first, I couldn’t let this pass. I was skimming through the new issue of Poetry Review (Spring 2008) and read with interest a review of John Ashbery’s Notes from the Air: Selected Later Poems. At the end of the review, I was amazed to read this credit:

"Ben Wilkinson recently completed a doctoral study of John Ashbery at the University of Kent."

And I had always thought that Ben had been working on the ‘New Generation’ poets at Sheffield! Dumbstruck at Ben’s double life, I turned back a page to find that the review had in fact been written by Ben Hickman and the end credit had been a mistake.

All the same, Ben, good to know that the creators of Poetry Review just can’t get you out of their heads (as Kylie would say)!

4 comments:

Ben Wilkinson said...

I noticed this too, Rob, and was similarly confused!

However, I believe the error is less to do with my unforgettable and commanding presence within the poetry world than with the little piece I have in the issue's letters page, commenting on Don Paterson's Lyric Principle.

A doctoral study of Ashbery does sound interesting though...

Anonymous said...

Fiona Sampson. Gold hot pants.

My mind's in a weird place right now.


ABJ

Unknown said...

I thought the post would be about mountains - and I see it was, in a weird way...

Rob said...

This is becoming quite surreal. I'm sure Ashbery would approve of the weirdness.