Hi Frank,
You write:
Where the narrator is using 'you' it seems to be almost an instruction - 'if
you glance to the left, you will notice ...', where 'we' is used, it seems
more an invitation to share an intimacy, or establish collegiate
association."

And I carry on by wriiting:
Yeh, that's often how it works isn't it... The "You" voice - the 2nd person
- is really tough to work with.

Ha, I can remember, a canny few years ago, when I'd written something with
"You do this... You feel that" running through it and someone pointed to
many of the phrases and said, "I haven't, I wouldn't, I don't!"

And the "You" is sometimes singular/one person but it could also intended to
be plural... In Gary's recent poem the word"you" was sometimes Gary, and
sometimes "everyone." (I guess when the English Language re-modelled itself
in the middle ages then the 2nd person shrank and suffered - and we've had
to live with it's problems and inadequacies ever since!).

I wonder if other languages have the same deficencies/problems with "You"?

Bob



>From: Frank Faust <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Sub - A troika of poems (kb #8, #9 and #10) - Bob
>Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2003 23:41:55 +1000
>
>Hi Bob,
>
>It is ratehr interesting, isn't it (now that you've pointed it out).  Where
>the narrator is using 'you' it seems to be almost an instruction - 'if you
>glance to the left, you will notice ...', where 'we' is used, it seems more
>an invitation to share an intimacy, or establish collegiate association.
>
>I think it is important - can't really imagine it differently and am not
>unhappy with the way they play in my head, but thanks so much for pointing
>it out - I simply wan't aware.
>
>Glad the images were strong enough to stick with you for awhile, hopefully
>that's a good thing. I read them and a couple of others from the series at
>open-mike yesterday, and they seemed to be received pretty well.
>
>Cheers and thanks,
>
>Frank
>
>
>
> > Hi Frank,
> > These are interesting... and memorable. I had a train journey or two
>earlier
> > this week and couldn't get the images out of my head!
> > I'm intruiged that the first and last ones are about "you" and the
>middle
> > one us about "us." I'm wondering how important that is...
> > Bob
> >

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