[New-Poetry] For the WEPD experiment: Houseman's Poem

[Bob Grumman]

John Jeffrey wrote:
> Right: he has little time to look at things in bloom; therefore he 
> must go out even when they're not in bloom and see the beauty of them 
> when they are hung with snow.  Just the way I've read it for my two 
> score years and ten.
>
> JohnJ
>
Sorry, John, but you seem to me to be arguing that Housman is saying:

    And since to look at things in bloom
    Fifty springs are little room,
    About the woodlands I will go

    To do something other than look at cherry trees in bloom.

If he'd been talking about the beauty of cherry trees, that would make 
more sense, but he hasn't been: he's been talking about the beauty of 
cherry trees/ in bloom/ (and, implicitly, about the beauty of spring).

Do you not agree that my reading is at least as reasonable as yours?  
I've seen it that way for probably close to 50 years, but that's 
irrelevant; I have definitely been mistaken about some poems for longer 
than that.

Note to Judy: The Mole is on my side, and he's worth twenty Johns and 
19.5 Michaels, so phooey on you.  I would add that if you only can't 
appreciate a poem whose most overt message is "boring," you won't be 
able to appreciate many of the best poems in the language.  It's not a 
poem's message that counts, but how the poem expresses it.

--Hohenprofessor Bob
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