Roger, are you saying that to write in any "earlier" form, no matter how
adventurously we push its boundaries, is outworn tradition time? Does this
mean that we should only write in "modern" forms? And if so, can you justify
this? Come on, man, surely tradition's only a sin if it's slavish, and this
discussion would seem to indicate that this particular one is certainly not
that.
My own gripe with the "poem of 14 lines = sonnet" school is not with those
who know enough about the sonnet's heart and body to decide that this is how
their examples will come alive best, but with those who know next to nothing
and think that if you can fiddle the lines to make it come out to 14 that's
*all the awareness and skill it takes. Nobody would say, for instance, that
Ted Berrigan's were written in virtual ignorance of the sonnet's history.
joanna
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger Day" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 8:56 AM
Subject: Re: Blinkin Sonnets!
> or away from ... some "traditions" I want to disown.
>
> Studying sonnets as history, fine. Writing "sonnets" today would seem
> to me that you declare yourself as part of a European tradition which
> to me has run it's course and petered out ... unless you are into
> resurrecting ghosts. And the modern sonnet is a ghost, a skeleton,
> that serves only as a signifier these days.
>
> And the excuse "Just because I can" really doesn't cut it with me, and
> seems lazy from people who spend most of their lives studying and
> investing in form.
>
> I have become more receptive of greco-roman poetry (not the campy
> translations, which, if you're not careful, can be toga-party time),
> mainly because of their pagan traditions. Would I want to write in
> their forms? It's a long distance between then and now; not
> particularly keen all aspects of greek demos etc.
>
> Roger
>
> On 10/14/07, Joanna Boulter <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> Given that we write either into or against a tradition, I don't see how
>> we
>> can avoid taking it into account.
>>
>> joanna
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Roger Day" <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2007 10:04 PM
>> Subject: Re: Blinkin Sonnets!
>>
>>
>> > Don't you think about the tradition you want to write into? I
>> > certainly do, if I want to do such a thing. Maybe you consider such
>> > thinking frivolous.
>> >
>> > Roger
>> >
>> > On 10/14/07, Jon Corelis <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> >> In one hundred years we've gone from a poetic puritanism which
>> >> condemned anything not traditional as frivolous to a poetic puritanism
>> >> which condemns anything traditional as frivolous. Like some French
>> >> guy once said, the more different something gets, the more it's the
>> >> same damn thing.
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >> ===================================
>> >>
>> >> Jon Corelis www.geocities.com/joncpoetics/
>> >>
>> >> ===================================
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > My Stuff: http://www.badstep.net/
>> > "In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons."
>> > Roman Proverb
>> >
>>
>
>
> --
> My Stuff: http://www.badstep.net/
> "In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons."
> Roman Proverb
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