Questions of Good, Better and Best would be the ultimate aim of literary criticism if it were possible to decide. Thirty-odd years ago at Lancaster, the Stylistics and Criticism course stopped at 'Interpretation' and refused to go anywhere near the next step of 'Evaluation'. It seemed at the time that the English Department were withholding some precious secret from the undergraduates but now I can see that they probably didn't know either. Sometimes it would be preferable to simply enjoy poems but it's difficult not be quietly wondering 'if it's any good', trapped forever in a nightmare of critical judgement.
After that, it's only a short step to making comparisons between poems, poets and, in the end, anthologies.
I can't help but put this book in a different division to the Salt Best of British book. I'm sure that is a heinous, wicked and elitist thing to do but I'll have to compound the felony by adding that this might be seen as a collection of poems by poets whereas the Salt selection is a book of creative writing course graduates.
There are, of course, good and less good in both books and every reader will take different things from two surveys of the year in poetry in these islands. But once they start awarding prizes or using the word 'best' in their titles, with whatever caveats, then the idea of putting some things ahead of others is embedded in the process and we are stuck with it.
Glyn Maxwell in expansive and nostalgic mood and Geoffrey Hill as love poet are two that immediately stand out here, with a less ambitious but equally striking poem, Open, by Kate Bingham also a ready hit for me. A couple I've seen and admired already, like Julia Copus and James Fenton and a litany of mostly easily recognizable names like Marilyn Hacker, Paul Durcan, Jane Yeh and Michael Longley make this a credible attempt at what might be something like the 'best' of what had been published in the year to July 2012. There's no attempt to show how admirably diverse the range of poems are, they've just issued prizes, a short list and some commendations.
Once I've settled on my own short list for the year and nominated my favourite poem and collection I might look forward to not deciding what was more worthy than what else for a while. I'm sure that is not the purpose for which poems get written. Well, I'm not completely sure in all cases, actually, but for the most part it would be better if they weren't.
