On Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 5:23 PM, Mark Weiss <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Perhaps I misread you. You seemed to be attacking her statement as if
> historical context made no difference, and conflating then and now. Form did
> in fact have a political meaning at the time, perhaps uniquely, and Milton's
> espousal of blank verse was a radical move. If you want to plot changes in
> the political climate you could do worse than to check out the fall and rise
> of the use of blank verse between 1660 and 1700. I don't think anyone would
> say the same for the present.
>
Yes, I think you're misreading me. I'm not attacking her statement at all.
I'm agreeing, and amplifying the statement.
But it's possible I misunderstood Alison, as well.
I'm aware that in his day Milton attacked cavalier poets, and tried to
discredit their poetics. However, when Alison said conservative, I thought
she meant modern politics. In other words, I thought she was meaning that
modern conservatives were extrapolating excessively from the poetic battles
of that time. If so I agree, and my point was that she is giving a lot of
sophistication to an attitude (the modern blending of poetics and politics)
that I find just outright stupid.
If I was wrong in that understanding, then I'll say it's the "conservative"
bit that confused me. I tend to think of "liberal" versus "conservative" as
a later distinction. Considering roundheads such as Milton were iconoclasts
of royalty, that gives them a liberal flavor. Considering they tend to be
puritans that gives them a conservative flavor.
Then again, even in the modern day I find the words "liberal" and
"conservative" confusing and over-simplistic.
Please, all, excuse me if I were unclear in my haste to rant about a purely
modern phenomenon.
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