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Whether it makes any difference in the case of this particular poem is one thing, whether it ever makes any difference another. The appeal to the authority of personal experience is often a strong rhetorical tactic and of course not just in poetry. As a mode it places the vulnerability of the speaker/writer in the position of human shield for language. It is praised, is it not, as authenticityı and for its courage, which is often real enough. As has been mentioned it can also be scorned as mere anecdotalism, argument founded on case studies of one, and those perhaps as trustworthy as Andrew Mitchellıs. (Incidentally the etymology of anecdote is, apparently, not publishedı. On that basis once an anecdote is published it loses its right to the designation!) In Staffordıs poem it seems to me that the crux lies not in the first person singular but in the first person plural. It only becomes apparent towards the end that the Iı is not alone in the scene, with first the car aheadı and then our groupı. The second last line is where I suspect that its popularity I think it is a popular poem arises: I thought hard for us allmy only swerving. This implies that there is a lot at stake in I's decision, whose implications go well beyond this wildernessı; I feels the burden of exemplariness, which may be one of the (welcome) burdens of a particular kind of lyric poem. This incident is for us allı. Does it matter whether or not the incident actually occurred to the assembler of these words? If it didnıt then the assumption of priestly authority the one authorised to conduct sacrifice is the more extreme. I think it matters only to that extent. And as you imply, Peter, without searching outside the poem, how could we know? I suspect that the force of the poem depends just as much on the retrieval of the word swervingı, which has earlier been used unmetaphorically for the risk to driversı lives of a dead animal left on this particular road. It returns metaphorically as an ethical term, and leaves hanging in the poem an equivocation about all that thought for us allı. Is there a whole genre, not quite coinciding with what people might or might not be meaning by lyricı, that could be called the homiletic? The incident is the text for the day. This is how I recall the (Anglican) sermons of my childhood. All best, John On 28/11/2014 20:28, "Peter Riley" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >I can't see how it makes any difference whatsoever whether this >incident actually happened to Stafford or not. And how would we know >anyway? When we speak of "poetry of personal [sc. authorial] >experience" are we not actually speaking of narrative poetry as such? >Of story? Which is certainly not restricted in usage to any fictional >mainstream. > >PR > > >On 28 Nov 2014, at 20:09, Hall, John wrote: > >William Stafford, Travelling through the Dark?? > >http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171495. > >Now where did that come from? > >John > >On 28/11/2014 19:38, "Hampson, R" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: