Trevor
it's a great question:
>So, a question I've been working at these last couple of years: what
>poetic forms and modes of approach have been developed to cope with
>these complexities? A question genuinely asked.
and one to which I have no real answer, except to say that probably it
(they?) can only be found, as you suggest, by 'working at' the problem,
perhaps taking note of some of the clearer successes, like Susan Howe's. If
that is what your wild muse takes you toward, of course. Not all of us can
even attempt that particular trial of language...
So I suspect that it's only when such a subject presents itself to the
writer that the complex difficulties of finding the workable form will make
itself felt; & then the writer will manage or not to find a mode sufficient
unto the task...
Meanwhile, all the discussion under this heading has been fascinating. I
was especially intrigued by John L. O'Sullivan in 1839 taking on, already,
what the religious right today is also attempting, which is to renege on
the great move to the new the writers of the Constitution made, which was
to separate religon & politics, to remove 'God' from that equation...
Sad that refusal of such a great gift from the founders...
Doug
Douglas Barbour
Department of English
University of Alberta
Edmonton Alberta Canada T6G 2E5
(h) [780] 436 3320 (b) [780] 492 0521
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/dbhome.htm
he said the President said
he would not kill anyone
anymore and the way he would not kill
would be to let the killers kill
and then he would not be a killer
Eli Mandel (circa 1970)
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