New directions in Maltese poetry

Abstract

The title "New Directions in Maltese Poetry" leaves little room for satisfaction. A more accurate one, perhaps, would be: "New Thematics, Verse-Forms and Styles adopted by artists who use the Maltese Language as a verbal medium". I do not believe there is such a thing as Maltese poetry any more than there is English, Russian or Italian, though "language" is regularly exploited in the technical draft of written poetry. There is, in fact, only Poetry, one, universal and transcending the barriers of race and language. Poets are themselves the "mediums" that "plug us into" (or "tune us in" to) this aspect of the Universal Truth. Only because poets, as different from painters, sculptors, musicians, dancers, and other artists, use words as their means of self expression does the element of language(s) become an issue. This article also runs the gauntlet between the desire to comment on poems written by Maltese authors since the mid-sixties and the need for a sociological reading of the fundamental changes which have re-shaped Maltese society in these last decades and which, despite all "linear" programming both in political and literary manifestos, have led to divergent positions. A summary look at the preceding decades and at the schools of thought prevailing in them is also useful. Insofar as verses are a reflection of the society which produces them, this exercise is by necessity "allotropical".