Thanks to all who replied, backchannel and to the list.
Of course theory may be part of the mental furniture of a poet, but I would
contend that it should carry no more, and possibly less, weight than all
other elements in that furniture. My real contention is that the poet with
pen in hand, or fingers poised over the keyboard, is unlikely to write
interesting stuff if the thought in her mind at that moment is: what I am
about to do will exemplify theory X.
As for answers and questions, I am perfectly prepared to be alone in
asserting that when I read poetry, I do not want to end with a feeling of
having some want satisfied. I actually look for the contrary experience: I
wish to put down the book filled with the need to explore.
And I believe that Williams, in the sentence quoted by David, was making an
overblown and unsustainable claim for poetry. Look around you and see what
the actual causes of premature death are. It's like Bill Shankly's idiotic
line on football being more important that a matter of life and death. Which
is not to contradict my proposition that poetry is never 'right' or 'wrong'.
But poets can certainly be misguided in their pronouncements on poetry. As I
may well be in these lines.
Billy
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