Poetry

   Scythrop Glowry on Jan 28 19:47:16

View QTML

I had an idea of this post before, but this evening I called my grandmother and we didn't spend long talking about poetry before she made me feel properly foolish. I had sustained a prejudice against poetry which I used to practice my "wit" (and more acurately, show that I could still be an ultracrepidarian at times). She showed me that not only was there good poetry (a fact which I had already ascertained) but that to say that poetry in the main is dull and stupid is as silly as to say that old liturature is in the main dull and stupid.

The fact simply is, that there is a lot of dull and/or stupid poetry just as there is dull and/or stupid old literature. The way I heard about poetry in the Emily Books did not impress me, and Walt Whitman incurred my scorn, but poetry can be quite good.

If you want something haunting and vibrant, try Christina Rossetti. If you want something funny, try Johnathan Swift. And that's all I can say, for the truth is, as I said, that I had sustained a prejudice against poetry which kept me from reading it as much as I should have...and as a result, made me blush to hear my grandmother ask me, "Surely you like Wordsworth?" 😶😅

#1

Scythrop Glowry on Feb 1, 2023 2:36 PM
View QTML

I have now read some Cowper (who I was especially interested in reading since Marianne Dashwood liked his works in Sense and Sensibility). Some of it just seems like a lot of boring wordy stuff, but there were some poems I read liked, especially The History of John Gilpin.

Replies:

#2

Sue Obermeit on Mar 26, 2023 9:56 AM
View QTML

I'm glad that she brought the matter to your attention!

Replies:

#3

Scythrop Glowry on Mar 26, 2023 10:15 AM
View QTML
in response to comment_20_2

*Sue Obermeit is speaking of Marianne Dashwood

Replies:

You need to be logged in to comment.