tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post5388417361042006243..comments2024-03-28T21:32:26.550+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: The Pigling Bland eucatastropheBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-36462516037716301842010-10-25T19:21:43.108+01:002010-10-25T19:21:43.108+01:00Good point.
I think I did - usually - skip the po...Good point.<br /><br />I think I did - usually - skip the poems during the early LotR readings of my mid-teens; or go back and enjoy the poems separately, in isolation.<br /><br />Nowadays I do not read LotR or the Hobbit as a consecutive whole - unless I am reading them aloud to someone in the family. I tend to re-explore them.<br /><br />I do find Tolkien a genuine poet, although patchy and uneven - whereas I do *not* find most anthologized versifiers to be real poets: for instance Emerson and Thoreau are not real poets for me (despite Robert Frost's endorsement of Emerson, which must be taken seriously).<br /><br />But then I am idiosyncratic, since I do not rate as poets most of the 'major poets' of the 20th century- not Eliot, not Pound, not even Yeats (yes, I know that sounds silly), not Robert Graves - but yes to much lesser-known/ 'minor' figures such as Dylan Thomas, Walter de la Mare, WH Davies, Houseman... - all of whom wrote poetry at least a few times in a few places.<br /><br />The best modern poet (in English) is Frost, because (so far as I know) he produced *vastly* more real poetry than any other single individual.Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-44550926474858441462010-10-23T09:06:51.179+01:002010-10-23T09:06:51.179+01:00This comment has been removed by the author.Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-76659813089111164202010-10-23T07:09:21.590+01:002010-10-23T07:09:21.590+01:00"What I do *not* find effective is a prose wo..."What I do *not* find effective is a prose work interspersed with poems - I find I always want to skip the poems."<br /><br />Surprising, coming from an admirer of Tolkien.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-50002974573584328072010-10-23T06:36:34.207+01:002010-10-23T06:36:34.207+01:00@wmjas - Yes. I too find that technique in Shakesp...@wmjas - Yes. I too find that technique in Shakespeare is often very effective at 'lifting' my emotions. <br /><br />A very early example of using verse in this general fashion is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - which is mostly written in alliterative verse, but at the end of each stanza there is are four short rhyming lines. It seems to work very well. <br /><br />What I do *not* find effective is a prose work interspersed with poems - I find I always want to skip the poems. <br /><br />Thoreau's Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers is like this - and I don't think I have ever made myself read the verse.<br /><br />(But also, I don't find Thoreau to be an adequate poet)Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-10025400846410616772010-10-23T06:00:06.816+01:002010-10-23T06:00:06.816+01:00Though the parallel is not exact, Shakespeare achi...Though the parallel is not exact, Shakespeare achieves a somewhat similar effect in some of his plays by writing in blank verse but ending each act with a rhyming couplet.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com