Well, nothing like the start of a nice little flame
war, eh? Why do they call it that, anyway? Wouldn't
a quagmire be a better metaphor?

Did I read Highlander correctly to be insinuating
that Alan is a poor poet?

Now I remember why I sometimes despair of chat boards.

As eloquently as possible, . . . sheeeeesh.

Highlander, you would have cause for complaint if I had misquoted rather than paraphrased you. There was no inaccuracy in the paraphrase. The heart is an organ generally found outpouring in the deepest self, though as Claude Rains observed in Casablanca, "That is my least vulnerable part."

I'm interested by Mike's comments. I agree that Miss D.'s elliptical expressions invite critical over-interpretation. Perhaps excessive regard for such idiosyncratic work sometimes leads poets astray as well. Yet there is more than novelty or oddity to Miss D. Her creepy version of Transcendentalism has always intrigued me. The covert, coded language hints at an enormous rebellion. For good or ill, she anticipates so much of the Twentieth Century, perhaps because many of her finest poems date from the convulsive years of the Civil War.

If you have not read Camille Paglia's "Sexual Personae," Mike, I commend the quirky take on Dickinson therein. My thanks to all the others who have posted on this thread. Keep those favorites coming! Or maybe we could start exploring the challenges to conventional Christian imagery in "I cannot live with you."

Alan Sullivan

Mike, I just want to support what you say. Some poets, like Dickinson, are an acquired taste -- and if you don't acquire it, you are not to blame. A lot of the poets I say I like are acquired tastes, yet in my deepest heart of hearts, they aren't for me.

Robinson is one. Tim and Alan went to great lengths to get me to study Hardy and Robinson. Hardy I came to genuinely like (despite his clumsiness), but there is only one poem of Robinson's that I really love (he is just too obscure). Dickinson is also an acquired taste, as is Whitman. As much as I keep talking about Hopkins, the fact is that I don't care for most of his stuff. I find that that's the case with many poets -- there are dozens of poets who have written one, two or three poems that I madly adore, but most of their work leaves me cold.

There is one poet I absolutely cannot stand, and that's Keats. Keats is often held up as the perfect poet, but I find his language to be flowery and pretentious.

The poets that I love in large measure (meaning, large numbers of their poems) are Shakespeare, Frost, Owen, Auden and Millay (though Millay sometimes gets too cute for my taste). I would put Donne in that group if his diction were not so intractably formal. Many of Wilbur's poems I like, but I love only a few.

Mike, who on earth is Parker? I don't know that name. In fact, it sent me scurrying to the Biographical section of my dictionary, and I still don't know who you mean!

It's not often remembered that Fess Parker was a capital poet as well as a great actor. His "Coonskin Coat and other Poems" is now out of print but is to be reissued soon..

"I have a lovely winter coat,
Its collar's made of coon,
I love to clutch it to my throat
And howl at the winter moon."

etc.

G

PS: Fess had a great-aunt named Dorothy Parker, but she only wrote light verse.

I'm guessing Dorothy Parker, our own withering and dispsomaniacal precursor of Wendy Cope?

[This message has been edited by Kate Benedict (edited February 17, 2001).]

Yes, that Dorothy Parker, Kate. Good, but not as
good as Wendy Cope. And she didn't write only light]
verse, though she was best at that. I seem to recall
a couple of her "serious" poems that I thought were
good. But really, Michael, de gustibus non dis-
putandum notwithstanding, how can you put Ms.
Parker next to Mr. Robinson? Hyperion to a satyr.
I grant he can be obscure sometimes (with what Don
Justice calls "benign obscurity"), but anyone should
be able to understand and enjoy masterpieces like
"Eros Turannos" and "Mr Flood's Party" and "Isaac
and Archibald" and "The Wandering Jew" and "Veteran
Sirens" and "The Sheaves" and and and.

There was considerable discussion of Miss D's idiosyncratic punctuation here recently. Yesterday's post brought R.S. Gwynn's long awaited No Word of Farewell. Here's one for the West Chester Gun and Couplet Club members:

Don't Leave Home Without It

My Life had stood--a Loaded Gun--
In Corners--till a Day
The BATF came for It.
Join--the NRA!

This thread doesn't make sense anymore, does it? People are apostrophizing someone who isn't here. Should we not begin another thread on the same or a similar topic?

Hear me, O Master of the Board..

G.