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Maybe we could restrict it to anecdotes about Paris Hilton? Hal "Theory, like mist on eyeglasses, obscures vision." --Charlie Chan Halvard Johnson ================ [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] http://home.earthlink.net/~halvard http://entropyandme.blogspot.com http://imageswithoutwords.blogspot.com http://www.hamiltonstone.org On Feb 12, 2007, at 11:47 AM, Mark Weiss wrote: > If we must do this let's remember that poets are people (even us), > unlike, say, Paris Hilton. One man or woman's anecdote is another's > violation of dignity or privacy. How about we restrict it to the dead? > > Mark > > At 12:31 PM 2/12/2007, you wrote: >> The poet anecdote project could be worthwhile. My first >> suggestion is >> that it should have its own subject heading on pect if it's going to >> be discussed further. I could contribute a Basil Bunting encounter >> which might have some interest. >> >> I believe the romantic view of pronouns in poetry is that they all >> mean "I". The classic view would be that they are all masks in the >> interiors of which, because they are empty, "I" and "you" and "we" >> can >> fuse. >> >> I also met Jon Silken once and talked with him a little. >> >> A friend of mine knew Frost at Amherst. One interesting thing he >> told >> me was that when Frost made his recording of "Birches," he was first >> offered a bolstering shot of whiskey, which he accepted. >> >> Some people may find my interpretations of Keats's sounds fanciful, >> but a lifetime of reading poetry convinces me that the greatest poets >> can achieve things like that. Of course I can't prove it, but I've >> long felt that the things you can prove in poetry aren't really what >> you should be paying attention to. >> >> My own feeling is that T. S. Eliot's reading voice was effective for >> his poetry. Someone once described it as "suitably sepulchral." The >> disappointment for me was Robert Graves, a poet I admire greatly but >> who read (on the recordings I've heard) in a flat, restrained, >> expressionless voice. >> >> Pound on the other hand is outrageously expressive. In his recording >> of Canto I, he reads English as if it were Provencal. >> >> There exists a brief recording of Walt Whitman (made by Thomas Edison >> on wax cylinder; its authenticity has been questioned but I tend to >> think it's real.) My reaction on first hearing it was, absurdly, "He >> sounds so American." >> >> >> =================================== >> >> Jon Corelis www.geocities.com/jgcorelis/ >> >> ===================================