Thread: On Smarm
View Single Post
  #27  
Unread 03-05-2014, 04:28 PM
ross hamilton hill ross hamilton hill is offline
Member
 
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Sydney, Australia
Posts: 2,238
Default

A crit on a poetry forum is fundamentally different from all other types of crit, except those before net forums where poets may have met in a society or informal group. Poems on a forum are by defintion appearing for the first time, they may or may not be 'finished' in the poet's eyes but in terms of the forum they are a work-in-progress, crits presuppose this and offer suggestions , even edit the poem or rewrite it.
Critics who review finished works like films, novels etc are telling people whether they should or should'nt see/read the product. Even textbooks of criticism are writing about finished published products, usually to help students evaluate the work. Whether such reviews employ techniques of literary analysis is not the point, the work is not going to be rewritten, reworked.
I often think comments on poetry forums mix up these two different purposes of critique. Of course many comments simply give an opinion and then the poet has to decide if that opinion is valid. The most useful critique from the author's point of view is, I think, literary analysis, giving reasoned judgements with close attention to the text. This is hard work, it is essentially teaching.
Reply With Quote