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05-30-2011, 11:53 AM
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Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Iowa City, IA, USA
Posts: 10,459
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I would not use the word "sarcasm" to describe the tone of this ballade. I pick up the fond amusement of someone who has studied the bird books and is both charmed and tickled by the specificity and oddness of the descriptions of bird calls. I like a poem that teaches me something I didn't know, particularly when it does so with such aplomb. The handling of the poetry is adept, and the content is anything but dry. But the title did not draw me in and I think a better one could be found.
Susan
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05-30-2011, 12:43 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2009
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Phlipper:
I guess I can see your point about cricket & theatre. All those white costumes, yup (how do they keep them so clean?). But you'd never call English football theatre, would you?
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05-30-2011, 12:54 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Breaux Bridge, LA, USA
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I just started reading the poems today. Not being a critic, I haven't left comments on every one, but just wanted to say how much I've enjoyed them all. You-all have more readers than you know.
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05-30-2011, 01:18 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Berkeley, CA, USA
Posts: 3,147
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Susan,
You're right -- "sarcasm" is quite what I meant.
David R.
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05-30-2011, 02:06 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Savannah, GA 31405
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The author is ridiculing the Viscount and his fellow ornithophiles because--as Mary Ann points out--the basic comparison, vision to sound, suggests that only a synesthetic a la Roderick Usher could make sense of it. The versifying skill, nonetheless, is remarkable. Edward Lear.
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05-30-2011, 02:58 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Plum Island, MA; Santa Fe, NM
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Thanks for the bird calls, Julie. Having listened, I don't agree with Mr. Fowler. I think it's much more similar to a shortstop executing a bang-bang double play, approaching the bag with almost delicate steps, taking the second baseman's underhand toss, elevating to avoid the oncoming cleats while simultaneously pegging the ball to first - and then ending the play with a quick appraisal of the baserunner's mother's sexual appetites. Or possibly a northbound Woodlawn Express on the IRT line, screeching into the Fourteenth Street station.
Last edited by Michael Cantor; 05-30-2011 at 03:01 PM.
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05-30-2011, 04:21 PM
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Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: NYC
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I could echo some of what Michael said -- maybe it's not spoof enough -- but I won't; it's a neat little piece in my favorite French form.
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05-30-2011, 06:51 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Pasadena, California
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Thanks to Philip for revealing a little of what eludes me in this poem. With all I don't know about birding, cricket and English patois, I feel as if large swathes of this are escaping - which doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it and appreciate the deft hand here. I do think more could be done with the synesthesia, describing the birdsong in purely visual terms, if that's what this is after.
Frank
__________________
-- Frank
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05-30-2011, 07:48 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 12,945
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English patois, Frank? This is the language of God and all this angels.
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