Roger -
I agree with a lot of what you say; but here's the question that keeps nagging at me.
How do you define a good poem? Is it one that follows the rules exactly, or is it good because it breaks the rules in an interesting way? Is it good because it expresses something simply and clearly, or because it leaves you with a sense of mystery, of a depth you can't quite fathom? Is it beautiful (define beauty?)
I ask this because TRW is a simple poem, showing a simple image in clear language that can't possibly be "misuderstood": which is one definition of good.
Questions of good or bad are inevitably mixed in with subjectivity, with personal taste and with what society now or in the past has called good. Whether there is, or is not, an objectively "good" or "bad" poetry is a moot point: is African art better or worse than Greek? Is the level of skill more important than the level of feeling in a poem?
I'm pretty sure I know a good or bad poem when I see one; I'm also pretty sure that someone somewhere will think my opinion nonesense.
------------------
Steve Waling
|