Nate wrote:
>I don't usually feel _obliged_ upon reading a poem to turn to the criticism,
>no. Whether the poem is ironic or not seems to me to have little to do with
>its merits. I'm certainly glad I didn't come across the poem earlier,
>anyway.
But maybe you do have an obligation, as a poetry editor yourself,
to treat a poem responsibly and with a minimum of respect by at least
informing yourself about it before _posting_ it to a public forum with
a ridiculing subject-heading like "a terrible poem" and a comment on it
of "phenomenally bad"--terms as out of place in scholarly and critical
commentary as "worst poem" is (which John Temple has noted).
I'm not a Yeats fan myself, but his poetry has earned a canonic place
that entitles it to serious critique, not the sort of mannerless and
rather juvenile terms you applied to it--in my humble, etc. Poetry is
what we all "do" here in one way or another, so I think its cheapening
in this forum shows a lack of professional courtesy, too.
But maybe I'm just old-fashioned that way--
Candice
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