[W.F. Lantry]

Originally Posted by Peter Chipman

I'm not saying that it would fit easily in every poet's lexicon, nor that it is still used (and usable) in all the same contexts where it was used (and usable) in centuries past. But surely it isn't entirely out of place in today's poetry. And I don't think we can say it works only in explicitly comical or parodic contexts.

Peter,

Exactly. One of the nice things about technology is it gives us actual data, rather than mere assertions. So one can put every poem one's ever written into a directory, and then search that directory for a single word.

Doing this, I find I've used it four times in published poems. Not overuse, but not an anomaly either. And I guess that's the best test I can think of: "Does it stick out like a sore thumb?" We can worry the subject all we want, for whatever the theological reason... but can it pass that test?

Or, we could come at it another way. What's an example of a word that *doesn't* pass that test? And since I'm raising the question, I guess I should have an answer!

Here it is. It's in Robinson Jeffers. It's not an example chosen in bad faith: I love the poem. It's called Cassandra:

"...Truly men hate the truth. They'd liefer
meet a tiger on the road..."

Here, 'liefer' *does* stand out like a sore thumb. Jeffers is just performing onanism by using it, and he knew full well that he was, and it amused him to do so. It was the wrong impulse.

Yes, it's a minor point, and we have much bigger fish to fry. But I don't think we should worry about things like 'Alas' too much...

Thanks,

Bill