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I was funnin, Alison. Tho the changes of language have made bang a lot funnier than it used to be. A lot of what poets love has to do, I think, with what we find useful for our own work, and Prufrock is no use at all for me. That said, I'd hate to be remembered for some pretty lines, no matter how pretty, no matter how Pre-Raphaelite, in an otherwise somewhat noxious poem. And I'll admit to having very little tolerance for dramatic monologues. Mark At 07:29 PM 3/27/2006, you wrote: >On 28/3/06 8:23 AM, "Mark Weiss" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > > On the other hand, what could be funnier than "This is the way the > > world ends (repeat three times)/ not with a whine but a whimpah." (Or > > is it "not with a whine but a limpet"? "a gin and tonic?"). Or his > > assertion that he could tell a great from a non-great poem in a > > language he didn't know. > >"Not with a bang", Mark, a "bang". > >Most poets of any stature have made ridiculous statements, Pound not least. >If we eschewed foolishness, we'd be stuck with the rationalists, and how >dull would that be? Poetry isn't necessarily about common sense or the >possession of knowledge. > > > I'll dispute that paternity, for myself. For Olson Eliot was a > > counter-example and only enters the work, in that way, in The > > Kingfishers. Not a hint in Williams. Nor in Pound, where the > > influence runs the other way. And he's barely apparent on the other > > side of the American divide. > >Me, I wouldn't give up: > >I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. > >I do not think that they will sing to me. > >I have seen them riding seaward on the waves >Combing the white hair of the waves blown back >When the wind blows the water white and black. > >We have lingered in the chambers of the sea >By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown >Till human voices wake us, and we drown. > >They are surely among the most beautiful and desolate lines in the language, >and strangely very difficult to remember - I can remember the rest of the >poem, but I always get those ones wrong. No more would I give up Homage to >Sextius Propertius. I donšt see why one can't have both. > >All best > >A > > >Alison Croggon > >Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com >Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au >Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com