...though I had not found it lecturing...but then I hardly ever find
anything lecturing in poetry I read. Not to be lectured to by a poem is
somewhere on the list of things that could be put me off a poem but it must
be quite far down. Further up the list would be things like, "do I agree
with this position?", or "is it interesting?", or "is it well said" or "has
it added anything to my experience of the world?" or "have I got time for
this?" - and provocatively it may be argued that many of the popular poems
of the last century are didactic in tone. E.g. Larkin's one that begins,
"They muck you up you Mum and Dad" (have I misquoted that?) and Auden's one
that begins "About suffering they were never wrong the old masters" are
still appreciated by fairly young people who would profess to dislike
lecturing. I guess if poets are going to get away with it they have to say
something memorable in a memorable way - and I don't see that you haven't
done that in this poem. It may be a common thought that cause has little
influence on the perception of effects, but has it been said well in poetry?
Colin
.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sue Scalf" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2004 12:54 PM
Subject: Re: Garden-variety Murder and Mayhem at Tea
> Thanks, Catherine. I have decided to cut out several of the beginning
lines
> that are really not needed and tend to be lecturing. Sue
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