-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Baker <[log in to unmask]>
To: 'British Poets' <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 05 March 1999 13:53
Subject: RE: (Fwd) Re:Nature Poetry
Yes, this is what I was trying, somewhat rushedly, to say about Colin - I
had that poem in mind and didn't make any such clarifying connection... This
is what I meant when I said Colin *isn't a nature poet. Thanks to Alan
& thanks to Peter who was quite right to call me to account for such a crude
and breaking yardstick
L
|Yes 'nature poems' often see Nature as a convenience which
|'adds value' to human experience. They can also present it
|as something which reduces that value. I'd say that
|the animal poems of Ted Hughes use animals as analogues
|for people to present a reductionist view of human nature,
|which at the same time presents us with animals as machines,
|thus reducing their value also.
|
|Whereas close observation ('frost spangles fleece', Colin Simms
|noting magpies in the treetops) without imposition
|calls up Peter Larkin's 'companionable difference'.
|
|
|Alan
|
|
|
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