[New-Poetry] for the Bob-list

[Halvard Johnson]

Just thought I'd add a thought from St. Gertrude:


". . . the old is too old and the new is too old."
                              --Gertrude Stein

On Sun, Dec 21, 2008 at 8:58 AM, David Graham <grahamd at ripon.edu> wrote:

>
> I could make a list of techniques I consider still new in poetry--doing
> things with the color of letters, for instance, to mention a simple one, but
> I'm not up to it.  So I'll end with a request of you: post a poem that you
> think valuable that doesn't do anything new.
>
> --Bob G.
>
>
> ==================================
>
> So it seems to be as I suspected, that you don't acknowledge any value that
> is not related to novelty. Thus, when I ask you to cite an example of
> something "valuably old," your response is to ask *me* to do so
> instead--presumably so you can knock it down.  Which confirms my original
> suspicion, that your phrase "valuably new" doesn't mean anything beyond
> "new."  And that novelty is your only or chief criterion of excellence.
>
> I'm willing to be corrected on this.  All you need to do is define some
> poetic values that are not synonyms for novelty.  And concede that it is
> possible for a poem to be great without being significantly new.
>
> I don't really *need* to cite any examples, believing as I do that
> literature is news that stays news.  You just need to open any standard
> anthology and examples will swarm.  But since I am an amiable sort, I give
> you the following, which I think we could probably agree is not "new" in any
> significant sense, and was not when it was written, either:
>
> Delight in Disorder
>
> A sweet disorder in the dress
> Kindles in clothes a wantonness:
> A lawn about the shoulders thrown
> Into a fine distraction:
> An erring lace, which here and there
> Enthralls the crimson stomacher:
> A cuff neglectful, and thereby
> Ribbands to flow confusedly:
> A winning wave, deserving note
> In the tempestuous petticoat:
> A careless shoe-string, in whose tie
> I see a wild civility:
> Do more bewitch me than when art
> Is too precise in every part.
>
> --Robert Herrick
>
>
>
>
> ========================================
> David Graham
> grahamd at ripon.edu
>
> Home Page:
> http://web.mac.com/drjazz
>
> Poetry Library:
> http://web.mac.com/drjazz/iWeb/Site/DGPoLibrary.html
> ==========================================
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
"Poets are the legislators of the unacknowledged world."
          --George Oppen

Halvard Johnson
================
halvard at gmail.com
halvard at earthlink.net
http://home.earthlink.net/~halvard
http://entropyandme.blogspot.com
http://imageswithoutwords.blogspot.com
http://www.hamiltonstone.org
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