> Indeed -- and there are strong reservations to be made about Wordsworth's
> practice in relation to the Preface. But wasn't Keats described (by a
> Scotsman, admittedly) as a Cockney Poet?
Yeees, but Keats was being described as such in respect of being seen as an
associate of Leigh Hunt, he of 'The Examiner', that 'dangerous radical', in
the eyes of the Quarterly, who was thought the leader of the 'Cockney School
of Poetry'.
>I think both elements are powerful and
> important, and both operate in all poetry at any time -- but the balance
> +does+ shift -- between poets, within the career of individual poets, over
> time ...
Couldn't agree more, Rob.
> Indeed -- and it did occur to me at the time that the coexistence of the
> Gawain poet(s) and Langland rather called my overall point into question.
> What we have at that point is maybe something nearer a geographic
> specificity than ever after. (And something maybe closer to States poetry
> than there has been in Britain).
Thoughts of that kind have appeared in my noddle at times too, but I guess
any detailed discussion of them would take up far more time and detail than
we have in this forum.
Best
Dave
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robin Hamilton" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2001 3:42 PM
Subject: Re: While it is hushed
> Dave:
>
> > I'll resist the temptation to query the poetry of the 'Moment', Rob, but
> I'd
> > be wary against applying a simple scheme to the history of Old English
> > poetry, period. Robert Mannying (sp?) precedes the Gawayne Poet who is
> > contemporary with Langland etc etc
>
> Indeed -- and it did occur to me at the time that the coexistence of the
> Gawain poet(s) and Langland rather called my overall point into question.
> What we have at that point is maybe something nearer a geographic
> specificity than ever after. (And something maybe closer to States poetry
> than there has been in Britain).
>
> Though the moment I say that, I want to qualify it. Until recently ...
> Leaving Scotland aside ... And of course Willima Barnes ... etc.
>
> > As for the Romantics, despite Wordsworth's formulaic call to arms, or
> > quills, one could hardly describe Keats as averse to specialised
language
> or
> > poetics.
>
> Indeed -- and there are strong reservations to be made about Wordsworth's
> practice in relation to the Preface. But wasn't Keats described (by a
> Scotsman, admittedly) as a Cockney Poet?
>
> > But I see no clash between the natural, unfenced condition of
> > language, and sphistications of poetics, and simplicities like mediaeval
> > lyrics, where I do see a falsification is in that kind of poetry that
> > affects to be common sense and parlance but is in fact merely the
dialect
> of
> > one tribe, to steal that phrase applied to Meredith, 'the Home Counties
> > posing as the Universe', as it were.
>
> Well, I'd certainly go with the last point (why you'd wince at hearing the
> Movement described as "poets"?) but I do have more reservations about
there
> being "no clash between the natural, unfenced condition of language, and
> sophistications of poetics". I think both elements are powerful and
> important, and both operate in all poetry at any time -- but the balance
> +does+ shift -- between poets, within the career of individual poets, over
> time ...
>
> Cheers
>
> Robin
>
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