>Come now Roddy, many of us still use the 'dreaded ampersand' without
>necessarily being 'hippified.' I do, & gee, John is still willing to
>publish me.
As I said to JD b/c, I find ampersands in poems are often 'compensatory
gestures' along with centering text, beginning of line caps in non formal
work, font changes, over-short lines, strange tabulation, mid-word
enjambment, stepped verses. Most of these can earn their worth at times, but
are mostly used by bad poets as wishful disguise. I wouldn't lose sleep
over ampersands in a poem, though I would probably put a book which used
them back on the shelf without reading it, much as I would do to a CD
featuring 26 minute songs called 'Gandalf's Lair'. It's not trad daddio! I
suppose I hope the ampersand in poetry will go the way of inversion and
whatever-the-technical-term-is for the use of 'wingèd', 'blessèd' etc.
over & out
R
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