Ever since my interest in Ezra Pound began, I've rarely wanted to reread
poems unless they virtually demanded research into external sources.
Though on occasion a specific formal innovation from which I could
extrapolate might intrigue. Your stance sounds very "New Critical". I
read some of the major texts of New Criticism as an undergraduate in a
course entitled "Practical Criticism" given by the poet Donald Finkel, but
I didn't find them simpatico and they certainly weren't very helpful in
understanding Pound & Charles Olson, for example. Much more illuminating
in the case of Olson was a visit to his archive at the University of
Connecticut and an examinination of books from his library, which bore out
his archivist George Butterick's argument that most of the words in Olson's
poems can be found in the books he read. Barry
On Mon, 25 Jun 2007 01:59:22 +0300, kasper salonen <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>oh I see. an interesting choice; I suppose it's just that, to me,
>poetry is best when accessible (not dumbed-down or limited for the
>sake of 'comprehension') without a great deal of specific referencial
>knowledge -- when the poem speaks 'for itself' or relies on itself.
>
>KS
>
>On 23/06/07, Barry Alpert <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> Kasper,
>>
>> That's intriguing. I've often thought that a reader need not have seen
the
>> film "Tonka of the Gallows" to follow what I wrote while viewing it and
the
>> line appended afterwards. In the case of "OSPITA: BURN UNIT", it could
be
>> useful to examine how I treated the text which was my source and to
realize
>> I was imposing a consistent pattern while the burns I incurred followed
no
>> pattern.
>>
>> http://au.geocities.com/masthead_2/us/barry.html
>>
>> There was no source text for the earlier "OSPITA" text, just scattered
>> words or phrases which came to my attention. I find that each text
trails
>> its process of composition in an objective manner, and that a writer
could
>> extrapolate upon the methods exemplified using their own
material/subject.
>>
>> Barry
>>
>> On Sat June 23 Kasper Salonen wrote:
>>
>> much less; the obscurity was in the referencing & the way the poem
>> relied on it. the same comments I made on the earlier "OSPITA" poem
>> apply here; the filling-in of the mildly braindamaged/clipped lines is
>> still a joy
>>
>> KS
>>
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