Okay, Allen, I can see that trying to rewrite great poems is something you are interested in and that you have solicited changes for poems by Auden and Yeats. It is not to my taste, but I can't speak for others. You did not do any actual strike-throughs on the poems by Auden and Yeats, so when you did on the one by Millay, it stood out as being different. Women are historically more likely to have people rewrite their poems for them (e.g., Dickinson), and I tend to notice when it happens. I disapprove. I also notice that female writers are often not given as much credit for rational thought and argument in their poems as male writers are given. When a reviewer commented that A. E. Stallings's poems had no "philosophy," I was incredulous. He could not see that her philosophy is embedded in the poems, which is, of course, what poets do. Millay does not have to be a religious believer to be able to comment on Biblical themes and motifs and poems by other religious poets, such as Donne.
Tastes in poetry are personal, so there is no right or wrong about what people like. But people don't always see how their comments look to others unless the others tell them. I'm just one reader. Other people will disagree. But honest information about responses is always useful if people are ever going to understand one another better.
Susan
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