GRRRining
Yes, Lear, although some of humour is just making fun the language of
'lesser breeds'. Betjeman was, like Larkin, very representative of British
middle class taste, as Wendy Cope is now.
On 7 June 2010 21:39, Robin Hamilton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I can definitely say I never EVER think about what ranks as the 'central
>> tragic poetic text of the nineteenth century'. Guess I'm not all that
>> middle
>> class after all.
>>
>> Ginning, with malice aforethought
>>
>
> Well, actually I was more than slightly serious about Edward Lear as a
> major tragic poet. He gets sidelined for the same reason that Stevie Smith
> and Clough get sidelined (let's pretend the name "Betjamin" or whatever
> didn't crop up in this context) -- he's not "serious".
>
> Then if you think about, say, "The Dong with the Luminous Nose" sadly
> watching the Jumblies sail away, and how Lear was a closet gay ... Well,
> maybe not tragic, but I find it moving and sad.
>
> I'm not usually a great one for subtexts, but in this case, as with
> Housman, the poetry takes on an extra dimension when you consider the
> authors' sexual identity. Or summat.
>
> Ginning
>>
>
> Grinning or girning?
>
> Whinger!
>
> R.
>
--
(David) "Dave no more" Joseph Bircumshaw
"Every old house was scaffolding once/And workmen whistling"
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