The crab that got out of the bucket

Response from Ernie Hilbert

Kay Day

I received a response from Ernie Hilbert, the critic whose article I quoted in my column on Billy Collins. I was thrilled to receive Mr. Hilbert's letter, and I am grateful to the reader who pointed the column out. In the interest of balance, I offered to run Mr. Hilbert's response to the column. That response and his biography follow.

Jeffery Bahr,

I recently came across an article by Kay Day in the Alsop Review on the subject of Billy Collins. Since I do not know how to contact her directly, I decided to pass some brief comments along to you.

I know it doesn't seem terribly important, but I feel she has mischaracterized me. I would rather she hadn’t done this, because online writing tends to circulate for longer periods of time than print, which is archived and only available to those who exert considerable efforts to unearth it.

She writes: "Although an individual with a doctorate earned at Oxford might have a wee bit of trouble understanding this most American poet. And I say that in an admittedly subjective manner. Hilbert is fairly subjective as well, not only regarding poetry, but also regarding Americans in general."

This is a perplexing accusation. I am an American. I grew up in New Jersey, lived for a few years in England as a graduate student, and have since lived in New York City and Philadelphia. We have a saying here in America, “when you assume, you make an .. . .” Additionally, I have no problem understanding Billy Collins, and I doubt anyone anywhere could possibly suffer under such a burden.

She also refers to me as a “scholarly poet” who makes use of footnotes to explain poems. The poem to which she points her readers, ‘Coronation of Sesostris’, is an exception in its use of a footnote. It can easily be read without my rather fanciful (read playful, if notironic) use of a footnote. Further, I do not know exactly what a “scholarly poet” is, and, as a critic, I would be delighted to be informed on this matter. Otherwise, I’m quite happy to see that the article in CPR is finding readers and that she enjoys poetry as much as she does.

Ernie Hilbert

Ernie Hilbert'spoetry and criticism have appeared in The Boston Review, LIT, Pleiades, The American Scholar, Fence, Slope, and David Stack's Posterband (www.posterband.com/hilbert), among others.

He hosts an annual evening of new American writing at the Whitney Museum in NYC titled The Future Knows Everything. He is the editor of a biannual print anthology of new writing, NC (www.nowculture.com). He also hosts a regular weekday column of publishing and arts information that has gone out since 1999 (new readers may sign up at everseradio@earthlink.net).

He is on the staff of the Contemporary Poetry Review (www.cprw.com). He is the poetry editor for Random House's online literary magazine Bold Type (www.boldtype.com). He is also the North American liaison for the Parisian literary magazine Upstairs at Duroc. He holds a doctorate in English Literature from Oxford University, where he earlier completed a Master's Degree and founded the Oxford Quarterly. He has worked as a contributing editor for Long Shot magazine, and he is also a librettist, with operas staged in New York City.

Kay Day