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

[John Jeffrey]

Bob,I do agree that your reading is as reasonable as mine.  And yes, the poem talks about cherry trees in bloom--but if you're going to be that literal (not cherry trees, but cherry trees in bloom) then I would think that you'd stumble with "About the woodlands I will go / To see the cherry hung with snow."  He doesn't say, "looking as if they are hung with snow."  He specifically says "hung with snow."  So if you're following a literal reading, then you've got a bit of a snow problem.  But if you're going to say that the snow is metaphoric, or symbolic, or even just an image for blooms, then that would open the door for a less-literal reading of the rest of the poem.And if the Mole is worth 20 of me, then he's...  let me think...  20 times... carry the 4...  hmmm.    Ah, who cares.  Math is stupit.JohnJ



--- On Tue, 2/3/09, Bob Grumman <bobgrumman at nut-n-but.net> wrote:
From: Bob Grumman <bobgrumman at nut-n-but.net>
Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] For the WEPD experiment: Houseman's Poem
To: "NewPoetry: Contemporary Poetry News & Views" <new-poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu>
Date: Tuesday, February 3, 2009, 9:52 AM




  

 
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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