Yes, and i wouldn't summon the energy to defend FitzG's poetry seriously -
But i find it interesting in the same way gaudy pots and vases in a museum
are interesting tho I wouldn't want them on the dinner table - To look at
and wonder, what was that culture like where people made these? Fitz gives
us a shot of - (Roger's) "awful Victoriana" - and it's a strikingly clear
shot
which is a lot more colourful than the hundreds of incredibly dull 19thc.
translations, dull and not even slightly crazed as Fitz is, just a really
boring time in general for poetry in translation.
I do have sympathy for MacG, and I also wonder to what extent he egged (!)
his readers on - and gave them what they wanted? Such as his prose
description of first being "inspired to be a Poet" - it seems too perfectly
judged as a piece of comedy?
Edmund
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