[New-Poetry] Re: Rating the Housman

[Bob Grumman]

Linda Sue Grimes wrote:
> "In the end, the great failure of the poem is that something 
> conventially seen as beautiful by about 99.9% of the 
> population--cherry trees in bloom--is seen as beautiful and worth 
> experiencing over and over by the poet."
>  
> By taking literally the final line, *"*To see the cherry hung with 
> snow*,"* you eliminate this problem. 
>  
> lsg
Actually, you don't: the poet is still saying the cherry trees in bloom 
are worth seeing as much as one can.  Your interpretation only adds that 
even that isn't enough: one should experience their beauty when they 
have snow on them as well.  A great Failure, like the Great Failure of 
the Dickinson poem in telling us something 99.9% of the population takes 
as sad, the death of a loved one, will be emotionally upsetting.

One reason I'm so crotchety about this is that I've been arguing with a 
wack who believes Oxford wrote the works of Shakespeare about "Sonnet 
18."   That, he is certain, can't be about its addressee's being more 
beautiful in appearance and disposition than a summer's day because 
that's "boring"; for him, it has to be comparing Queen Elizabeth to 
Queen Mary of Scots--it has to have important people in it.  It also has 
to have bawdy puns in it, and if you don't agree with him that some are 
there, you are a Victorian prude.

--Bob
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