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Dear all, I have hesitated to enter this pc fray, because, as a descendant of the the Lords Roche of Cork, a close fri4end of Omar Pound, and a lover of Wagner, I have much to lose in this controversy. I think I am with Heany and Tom Herron on this issue. Doesn't it all start with Lewis's diatribe against Book V that the politics destroyed the vision? Does anyone know of earlier linking of politics and poetry. I tseems to me that we are beginning to rewrite Wimsatt's old genetic fallacy. Let's see where it goes. tpr "Peter C. Herman" wrote: > Like many, I have been following this thread with fascination and > appreciation. And while I hesitate to take issue with Prof. Herron, it does > seem to me that Heaney is not on entirely solid ground when he cites Ezra > Pound in this context, since--as I am sure everyone is well aware--Pound is > himself an example of just how problematic the relationship between art and > politics, including the artist's politics can be. > > Peter C. Herman > > At 04:52 PM 3/24/03 +0000, you wrote: > > >Seamus Heaney has been mentioned; interesting to find his balanced opinion > >on all this, from his Oxford lectures collected in *The Redress of Poetry* > >(Faber and Faber 1995). > > > >First he quotes from the *Spenser Handbook* to summarize the "'rough work > >for Lord Grey'" done by Raleigh and Spenser. Then he dons Yeats' mantle: > > > >"We have been forced to cast a suspicious eye on the pretensions of > >Renaissance humanism by having its sacred texts placed in the context of > >their authors' participation in such brutally oppressive escapades; we > >have been rightly instructed about the ways that native populations and > >indigenous cultures disappear in the course of these civilizing > >enterprises, and we have learnt how the values and language of the > >conqueror demolish and marginalize native values and institutions, > >rendering them barbarous, subhuman, and altogether beyond the pale of > >cultivated sympathy or regard. But even so, it still seems an abdication > >of literary responsibility to be swayed by these desperately overdue > >correctives to a point where imaginative literature is read simply and > >solely as a function of an oppresive discourse, or as a reprehensible > >masking. When it comes to poetic composition, one has to allow for the > >presence, even for the pre-eminence, of what Wordsworth called 'the ! > >grand elementary principle of pleasure', and that pleasure comes from the > >doing-in-language of certain things. One has to allow for the fact that, > >in the words of Ezra Pound: > > > >'the thing that matters in art is a sort of energy, something more or less > >like electricity or radio activity, a force transfusing, welding and > >unifying. A force rather like water when it spurts up through very bright > >sand and sets it in swift motion. You may make what image you like.' > > > >Pound's image does not preclude art's implication in the structures and > >shifts of power at any given moment, but it does suggest a salubrious role > >for it within the body politic; and another image which the Czech poet > >Miroslav Holub uses about theatre may also be adduced here. Holub sees > >the function of drama, and so by extension the function of poetry and of > >the arts in general, as being analogous to that of the immunity system > >within the human body. Which is to say that the creative spirit remains > >positively recalcitrant in face of the negative evidence, reminding the > >indicative mood of history that it has been written in by force and > >written in over the good optative mood of human potential." (23-4) > > > >Amen (now if only Heaney would keep writing prose!). Those of us on the > >field trip to Raleigh's house in Youghal, during the Kilcolman conference > >of 1999, will remember the hostess' story about Heaney's visit to the same > >place; upon entering the oak-paneled room with a dormer windor, where once > >in legend Spenser sat composing his verse, Heaney reportedly quoted > >Spenser at length by heart (the hostess didn't say what). Yeats, also > >aware of politics, called Spenser's poetry "bars of gold thrown down one > >upon another" (to paraphrase); hardly a defeatist view. > > > >[For Heaney on Yeats' relation to Spenser and the hierophanic literary > >"quincunx" of Ireland, i.e., Kilcolman, Tor Ballylee, Joyce's Martello > >tower, MacNeice's Carrickfergus and (in the center) "''the pre-natal > >mountain''" of ancient Ireland, cf. *Redress* pp. 199-200; of note also is > >McCabe's recent discussion of Heaney in his bookreview of Hamilton's new > >edition in the recent Sp N] --TH > > > > > >---------- > >The new <http://g.msn.com/8HMEEN/2737>MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 > >months FREE*