Ah, but Joe, what do we mean by 'sincerity' here. I'm always reminded
of Frye on Milton's Elegy: that the sincerity of art is in the writing,
not the personal feeling as such.
Of course, one 'means it,' but what is the it in question? I come back
to the Creeley attitude, of discovery in the act of writing, & that's
sincere for sure.
And I admit that the non-use of the term 'I' doesn't mean that the poem
doesn't enact some 'i/eye/aye' at work, that the reader won't recognize
that someone is saying something....
It's a question/problem of choosing how to get something said... (&, in
my case, an attempt to find a way to make it new enough for me). I
think that's what Stephen is after too. There's that need not to get
stuck in a rut...?
Which is why I'm more than happy to read other 'I' poems even as, much
of the time, I'm not able, at the moment, to write, sincerely, in that
mode myself....
Doug
On 5-Jun-07, at 6:25 PM, Joseph Duemer wrote:
> I'd argue that sincerity is the center of art. If you don't mean it,
> what's
> the point? I would also be delighted to argue that Wilde is among the
> most
> sincere of artists.
Douglas Barbour
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