Maybe we could restrict it to anecdotes about
Paris Hilton?
Hal
"Theory, like mist on eyeglasses,
obscures vision."
--Charlie Chan
Halvard Johnson
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On Feb 12, 2007, at 11:47 AM, Mark Weiss wrote:
> If we must do this let's remember that poets are people (even us),
> unlike, say, Paris Hilton. One man or woman's anecdote is another's
> violation of dignity or privacy. How about we restrict it to the dead?
>
> Mark
>
> At 12:31 PM 2/12/2007, you wrote:
>> The poet anecdote project could be worthwhile. My first
>> suggestion is
>> that it should have its own subject heading on pect if it's going to
>> be discussed further. I could contribute a Basil Bunting encounter
>> which might have some interest.
>>
>> I believe the romantic view of pronouns in poetry is that they all
>> mean "I". The classic view would be that they are all masks in the
>> interiors of which, because they are empty, "I" and "you" and "we"
>> can
>> fuse.
>>
>> I also met Jon Silken once and talked with him a little.
>>
>> A friend of mine knew Frost at Amherst. One interesting thing he
>> told
>> me was that when Frost made his recording of "Birches," he was first
>> offered a bolstering shot of whiskey, which he accepted.
>>
>> Some people may find my interpretations of Keats's sounds fanciful,
>> but a lifetime of reading poetry convinces me that the greatest poets
>> can achieve things like that. Of course I can't prove it, but I've
>> long felt that the things you can prove in poetry aren't really what
>> you should be paying attention to.
>>
>> My own feeling is that T. S. Eliot's reading voice was effective for
>> his poetry. Someone once described it as "suitably sepulchral." The
>> disappointment for me was Robert Graves, a poet I admire greatly but
>> who read (on the recordings I've heard) in a flat, restrained,
>> expressionless voice.
>>
>> Pound on the other hand is outrageously expressive. In his recording
>> of Canto I, he reads English as if it were Provencal.
>>
>> There exists a brief recording of Walt Whitman (made by Thomas Edison
>> on wax cylinder; its authenticity has been questioned but I tend to
>> think it's real.) My reaction on first hearing it was, absurdly, "He
>> sounds so American."
>>
>>
>> ===================================
>>
>> Jon Corelis www.geocities.com/jgcorelis/
>>
>> ===================================
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