Well, they are, to me. But then I never see my messages to petc, so I know the feeling....
Yes: audiences listening usually get that a poem acts, as a poem. And means what it says (although, see my sigquote below)....
Doug
On 2012-05-19, at 10:01 AM, Lawrence Upton wrote:
> I'm not sure these messages are going anywhere, but still
>
> Radio 3 tonight offers Graham's Night Fishing
>
> quote
> WS Graham's poem adapted for radio by Jonathan Davidson. With Siobhan
> Redmond and David Rintoul.
>
> An attempt to make some sense of a difficult and elusive modern
> masterpiece. The poem was published in 1955. It tells of a fishing trip
> after herring but much else including the difficulties of writing and of
> turning experience into words. Its fresh-made language has found it many
> admirers but it also kept it from many other readers. Perhaps a radio
> adapatation can unlock it.
>
> unquote
>
> I still haven't recovered from the BBC adding wind sounds to The Prelude
> some years ago; but I'll aim to give it a try
>
> I am wondering whether the above is a proposition that tired language
> might have brought W S Graham a bigger audience. Almost certainly it
> would, but...
>
> A little while ago I took it on myself to read his farewell poem to Peter
> Lanyon, I think it's called The Thermal Stair, to a quite mixed audience.
> They didn't seem to find it difficult or elusive
>
> No one asked what it meant -- usually code for Isn't there an axiom I can
> take away?
>
> toodlepip
>
> L
>
>
>
>
> -----
> Lawrence Upton
> Visiting Fellow, Music Dept,
> Goldsmiths, University of London
> New Cross, London SE14 6NW
> ----
>
Douglas Barbour
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http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
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Why can’t words mean what they say?
Robert Kroetsch
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