On Second Thought

Maybe it's best to leave Quietism as a mere style. I'm not sure why I want to involve it in larger systems. Perhaps I stress too much continuity, and perhaps it would be better to merely say that Quietist lyric is that certain highly restrained personal lyric with an epiphanic ending that became perfected by writing programs in the 80s (see The Morrow Anthology of Younger Poets, in which almost all of the poets are practically identical). This is still the dominant style in many AWP programs, but it has lost its monolithic hold.