Marie Syrkin, Charles Reznikoff’s wife, was a scholar. Her Wikipedia entry says that when she was in her late 80s, she attended a conference on the Objectivist Movement at the Naropa Institute, “often disagreeing the Allen Ginsberg on the subject of her husband’s poetry.”
That line is flagged with a “citation needed,” but it’s solid. There’s a recording of the exchange.
At the 59:50 mark, Ginsberg has gone on about some lines of Reznikoff’s. Ginsberg admired the lines so much he used them in teaching. He finally asked Syrkin whether she liked them.
She replied, “No.”
Brevity, in response to a long question, can sound definitive.
Syrkin had her own views about what made Reznikoff’s poetry work. And, as you might expect, she didn’t think that everything her husband wrote was good.
• Sources: “Allen Ginsberg with Marie Syrkin on Charles Reznikoff,” recorded July 2, 1987, is part of the Naropa University Digital Archives and is available here:
http://archives.naropa.edu/digital/collection/p16621coll1/id/2634/
Wikipedia’s article “Marie Syrkin,” updated Feb. 25, 2025, is here:
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