Fantastic poetry: where is it?

There has been a consistent resistance by modern critics to the examination and explication of fantastic verse. With the venerable origin, function, and value of poetry, the continued refusal of modern critics to deal seriously with the fantastic can be nothing more than obstinance.

This obstinance is probably at least partly due to the fact that in fantastic poetry, a third reason comes in: the death of narrative verse. "People, it seems, tend to think of fantasy poems more often as high fantasy and as a closed historical genre [. . .]. Such high fantasy verse is relatively rare" (Murphy forward xviii). Murphy goes on to argue (successfully, I believe) that such a characterization leaves out a large body of work that can, without a doubt, be considered fantastic; however, since it is my purpose to discuss poems that do, for the most part, fall into that category of high fantasy that finds its home most often in narrative verse, it is appropriate at this point to briefly examine the so-called death of narrative verse, its origins and its implications.