On 3 Aug 2005 at 23:13, Dominic Fox wrote:
> ... you're confusing the absence of a single criterion for
> distinguishing poetry from non-poetry with the absence of any
> meaningful distinction in general.<
No, I'm proposing that there is a single criterion for distinguishing poetry
from prose, as there's a single criterion for distinguishing carpentry from
masonry. Carpenters work in wood. Poets work in meter. It's no dishonor
to work in stone, but if you do, that makes you a mason, and it's no
sense to call yourself a carpenter. It's no vice work in prose, but if you
do, it makes no sense to call yourself a poet.
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