Jim: having just come back on-list(s) after an absence which got me an
in-basket of over a couple of thousand posts (I'm still floundering), I
found it very cheering to come across your mention of Brian Coffey's work.
I'm a bit doubtful, though, about linking anything of his to epic, though I
suppose that depends on how one defines to begin with. Wouldn't Death of
Hektor be closer, even if in opposition?
Ali: you've suggested a couple of times that epic is where our literature
comes out of. (I'm reading, filing and deleting at such a rate that I've
lost track of specific references.) I'd query that. Back in the early
eighties, I was lucky enough, as a total blow-in, to find myself in a
room-full of sinologists. I asked them a question that had puzzled me for
years: did the Chinese tradition have an equivalent to the first two legs
of the trifold Greek origination of poetry: epic, dramatic, lyric? (I'm no
Hellenist neither) I know there are 'classical' examples of all of these
somewhere in the Chinese lineage, but the first two, and particularly epic,
seems notably lacking at the originary stage in Chinese poetry. Anyway, the
assembled luminaries couldn't suggest any examples for me, but perhaps
someone here can . . . ?
But, in any event, I wouldn't go out there assuming so transparently the
ubiquity of epic. It needs looking at, and maybe a little informed
comparatist analysis - no?
Cheers,
Trevor
>2:Can I propose Brian Coffey's Advent as a truly great long poem and a
>place to reconsider epic? It mediates references to history (Irish
>independance,Space Flight)with more personal (Christian) reflection, and
>its achievement is to evoke a grandeur of scope and intent that might be
>described as 'epic' but is by no means imperious or pompous. If there is
>any sense in a contemporary epic poem as a working of collective memory,
>then this poem rewards reading. It really puts Hill's Triumph of Love
>in the shade, but that's another matter...
>
>Hope this is interesting to some
>regards
>Jim Tink of Brighton, UK
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