Quote:
Originally Posted by Maryann Corbett
Certainly, it's a personal thing, but it's an entirely legitimate aim. I absolutely have specific things to say in poems. Workshopping at its best recognizes that the poet may be doing things that detract from the main aim, or that there may be more than one emotion coming through and that the combination may not be effective. Good critique can help the poem make the decisions it needs.
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I'm not doubting that it's a "legitimate" aim, Maryann, or that one should not seek in one's poetry to say something specific. What I'm saying is that it's an aim that really hasn't much to do with the needs or desires or expectations of your readers, since they don't know you and therefore don't care what you were setting out to say or whether the poem ended up realizing your desire to say it. Your readers would much prefer a better poem that says something you didn't plan on saying to a lesser poem that faithfully conveys your original intention. You, the writer, may feel a sense of disappointment if conveying your original intention was a high priority for you, and that's fine, but for me it's like cooking. Even if the recipe doesn't come out the way it was supposed to, I'm happy if the dish I ended up creating is delicious all the same.