Sue Scalf:
> As to an example of honest originality, what about the Twenty-third Psalm?
> It is certainly honest and certainly original, and it is poetry of the finest.
> Take a look at it.  Even thousands of years has not destroyed its freshness.

First, the notion of god as a shepherd was not original with David -- so he was
using a trite or banal conventional image even then. How can that be "honest
originality" when the boy cribbed the central image, eh?

Second, I doubt you've read the 23rd Psalm in its original language, or that
you are qualified to judge its poetry in that language. How would you know
whether thousands of years had destroyed its freshness if you cannot read it in
its original language? If you are speaking only of the KJV translation then you
cannot reasonably speak of "thousands of years".

Third, religious writings are pretty much beyond the pale for discussions about
poetry, aren't they? There is always the risk that the reason the person who
brings religious writings up as examples of good poetry is not for the good
poetry at all, but for the religious feelings they get from the familiarity of
the religious writings. Some people just simply believe that religious writings
are good poetry because they're religious writings; that they tell truths no
one else can tell because they are religious writings.

Fourth, if you are that sort of person, then you probably also believe that
David didn't actually write the 23rd Psalm in the way that you or I write our
poems -- you very likely believe that because the 23rd Psalm is in the Bible
that it was written by God and only delivered to David's mouth by divinity --
which once again puts it rather beyond the pale for a discussion of the
qualities of its poetry, doesn't it? Who wants to say that God is not the poet
that Yeats was, for example? And what good would it do if one could prove it --
for the person who puts religious writing forward as God's Own Poetry hasn't
the perspective required to compare and contrast God's Own Poetry with anyone
else's. How can God's Own Poetry, or even God's Inspiration To Write This Poem
be anything but superior to any other poetry?

Fifth, which translation of the 23rd Psalm are you touting as an example
of "honest originality" in poetry? Do you have a reason for preferring that one
over any of a large number of other translations? Do you think the original
poetry comes through as "honest originality" through any translation so that
there's nothing to prefer in any translation? Do you think there is "honest
originality" in any one of the many translations?

Sixth, if the only "honest originality" on offer is poetry by God or inspired
by God, and only by the Jewish God, to boot, what kind of poetry are you
reading (or, for that matter, writing) in the contemporary world that you can
say has "honest originality" to it? Are you Jewish? Do you admire only Jewish
contemporary poetry? Only in Hebrew? Only in ancient Greek? Only in KJV-style
English?

Marcus