From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Wed Oct 20 2004 - 13:15:22 BST
My sense of quality finds both poems very low quality, especially when
compared to:
Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
etc.
Platt
Mark Steven Heyman wrote:
> >Hi all,
> >
> >I love the bit in ZMM where Phaedrus demonstrates to his students
> >that they know what Quality is, even if they can't define it. I
> >thought it might be fun and instructive to try something similar
> >here. So, which of the following poems has the highest quality, and why?
> >(Note: I think both of these poems are great, so this is no straw man
> >operation here.)
> >
> > For the Anniversary of My Death
> >
> > Every year without knowing it I have passed the day
> > When the last fires will wave to me
> > And the silence will set out
> > Tireless traveller
> > Like the beam of a lightless star
> >
> > Then I will no longer
> > Find myself in life as in a strange garment
> > Surprised at the earth
> > And the love of one woman
> > And the shamelessness of men
> > As today writing after three days of rain
> > Hearing the wren sing and the falling cease
> > And bowing not knowing to what
> > Sad Steps
> >
> >Groping back to bed after a piss
> >I part the thick curtains, and am startled by
> >The rapid clouds, the moon's cleanliness.
> >
> >Four o'clock: wedge-shaped gardens lie
> >Under a cavernous, a wind-pierced sky.
> >There's something laughable about this,
> >
> >The way the moon dashes through the clouds that blow
> >Loosely as cannon-smoke to stand apart
> >(Stone-coloured light sharpening the roofs below)
> >
> >High and preposterous and separate--
> >Lozenge of love! Medallion of art!
> >O wolves of memory! Immensements! No,
> >
> >One shivers slightly, looking up there.
> >The hardness and the brightness and the plain
> >Far-reaching singleness of that wide stare
> >
> >Is a reminder of the strength and pain
> >Of being young; that it can't come again,
> >But is for others undiminished somewhere.
> >Thanks for any feedback,
> >Mark Steven Heyman (msh)
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