[Jennifer Reeser]

Slightly off the mark, but still -- one of the ancients (I forget who, just now) remarked that Sappho was excellent, if you could get past the quaint linguistic regionalism. A comment which always makes me smile, when one considers how she is appreciated, even now.

[A. E. Stallings]

Dave, amusingly, traditional fifteeners are still alive and well these days in Greece--in the meter of Greek rap music.

[Susan McLean]

Janet,
I think the issue of regional dialects in poetry is always going to be a fraught issue, partly because to be labeled a "regional" poet is often the kiss of death in getting serious (and not condescending) attention and partly because Americans, in particular, have become so unwilling to read anything with words that they don't understand that the audience for writers like Burns, Chaucer, and so on, is shrinking rapidly. This is particularly ironic, in that the same young people who won't try to read Chaucer will spend unlimited time learning the diction of rap songs (which is just as alien to most of them). Yet what gives regional dialect its power is its vividness and truth to the attitudes and experiences of particular people in a particular time and place. The very best poets, I think, write what they need to write and don't worry about whether it will be popular or understood. If the writing is really wonderful, some people will make the effort. I still remember the delight of learning the song "Waltzing Matilda" when I was a child. I didn't know what all of the words meant, but their very alienness was fascinating and memorable.

Susan

[David Mason]

Alicia: wow. I'd love to hear it. I think.

As for the rest of these comments, remember Paddy Kavanagh's poem, "Epic," in which Homer says he made the Iliad out of such a local row.

[Steven Schroeder]

Dave:

I probably chose poor wording if I suggested that written poetry was the primary standard of measurement. I think the best poetry, free verse or formal, works both as oral and written poetry. Slam, on the other hand, generally works as performance but not written poetry, and whether it's oral poetry is a gray area. I think that pretty well sums up my stance on it.

------------------
Steve Schroeder

[David Mason]

Agreed. A good performance cannot save bad writing.

[Janet Kenny]

I have just found a fine example of a brilliant poetic joke which would be absolutely lost to all but Australian and New Zealand readers. Australians, who tend to say "feesh and cheeps"--laugh at New Zealanders because they say "fush and chups".
Note line ten and see if you get the joke--with the added knowledge that line 9 refers to the New Zealand Maori haka.
Janet
Performance



I starred that night, I shone:
I starred t I was footwork and firework in one,
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I starred ta rocket that wriggled up and shot
I starred tdarkness with a parasol of brilliants
I starred tand a peewee descant on a flung bit;
I starred tI was busters of glitter-bombs expanding
I starred tto mantle and aurora from a crown,
I starred tI was fouéttes, falls of blazing paint,
I starred tpara-flares spot-welding cloudy heaven,
I starred tloose gold off fierce toeholds of white,
I starred ta finale red-tongued as a haka leap:
I starred tthat too was a butt of all right!
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I starred tAs usual after any triumph, I was
I starred tof course, inconsolable.



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from
Subhuman Redneck Poems, by Les Murray 1996


Janet

[Janet Kenny]

Susan
Thanks for those observations. Very true.
Janet