Tony Hoagland: Idiom, Our Funny Valentine (July 2010)

Idiom, like vernacular and slang, can establish shared knowledge and thus intimacy with the reader. But when, Tony Hoagland asks, does the use of idiom “dumb things down”? Hoagland looks at examples from Yehuda Amichai, Ben Lerner, John Ashbery, and Heather McHugh to consider the benefits—and liabilities—of using idiom in poems.