Hi
Two questions arising that I'd like to address after a weekend away from
this machine:
1 Does poetry lend itself to analysis? Yes, if we use the word in its base
meaning of to break complex things down into their less complex parts. In
the case of poetry: sound, semantics and syntax. This procedure may even
help us understand how a particular piece works.
1 Does poetry lend itself to Theory? I think not, and Keston's use of Hegel
to beat Olson illustrates my views nicely.
Keston wrote:
>Anyhow. I patently was not 'using' Hegel to wrap up and tag some
>definition of what goes on in Olson's work, which (as I have said
>repeatedly) I admire and with which I feel quite acutely engaged. But
>since you mention it, I was referring to Phenomenology of Spirit section
>79: "the exposition of the untrue consciousness in its untruth is not a
>merely -negative- procedure." So that this is a reference not to Olson
>directly, but to what I have been trying to say about him: that I think
>what he said was untruthful or rather rhapsodic and inobjective, but that
>this does not mean merely pointing out a deficiency. Maybe then your
>point doesn't stand.
Truth, I believe, does not exist. This word is a signifier without a
signified. Or, to put it another way, truth is a concept the mind uses to
impose its will on others, or the world. As such, it is the perfect type of
thing for theory to deal with.
Poetry, on the other hand, has nothing to do with truth. It may be concerned
with the authentic, but that's another day's work. To condemn a poet for
being untruthful is to condemn them for not being that which they would not
be.
On the wider picture, to attempt to 'explain' poetry is about as fruitful as
to attempt to 'explain' humour. And I do feel that there are times when it
is enough to say 'poetry is poetry' and leave it at that. I do not do this
to be Captain Controversy', and would never claim to speak for others, but I
would like to claim for poetry that space that is its, and its alone.
Otherwise, why bother?
As for Answers, people who look for them in poetry can read Heaney and the
countless others of his ilk. I, for one, have opted to do something
different than that.
Best for the pseudo-millennium,
Billy
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