Day-to-Day, Every Day
Dunn's poetry is straightforward, if not a little understated. What's that mean? Dunn's poems are always accessible, with simple language that addresses mundane, everyday experiences of middle-class America, like this one or this one. For example, the line "After the teacher asked if anyone had" opens up this poem, and we immediately know where we are, what is happening. There aren't any confusing rhetorical gymnastics like you might find in John Ashbery. And unlike the other poets who were popular when he started publishing, like Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, Dunn isn't writing confessional poetry. Instead, he's writing about things like teachers talking to their students, and equating something as abstract and broad as "the sacred" with "the key / in having a key / and putting it in, and going." So, forget Shakespeare's sonnets when you're reading a Dunn poem. Instead, imagine a middle-class guy in America uncovering beauty and joy in the day-to-day occurrences of life.