[New-Poetry] Re: Rating the Housman

[jforjames at aol.com]

Mike,
But do you think Houseman did in this case...that is, allow us to revisit a great common theme in a new way?
I don't think he did. But I'd agree that my assertion was too narrow. It should have put it this way:
Great poets see a new thing, an overlooked thing. Or they see an old thing in a new way, from a different/overloked angle/perspective.
Finnegan

Amid blossoming cherry
I feel my years may be shortened.
Let petals fall on me now.
--A. E. Housman

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Snider <mandolin at mikesnider.org>
Sent: Mon, 2 Feb 2009 8:50 pm
Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] Re: Rating the Housman


On Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 7:44 PM, <jforjames at aol.com> 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. The great poets tend to see as beautiful the things that other's might overlook. A haiku poet would have done this poem in three lines, and saved us 9 more, pace the logic of the second stanza.)








Finnegan, sometmes the great poets point to things the rest of us may overlook — and sometimes thy remind us of the great common themes of human life, in langauge that ,makes it new again.




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