tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20782819.post2279450890290017971..comments2023-11-12T13:22:30.358+01:00Comments on andrewjshields: Poetry or TagsAndrew Shieldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02804655739574694901noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20782819.post-91818051696213278962009-03-20T11:32:00.000+01:002009-03-20T11:32:00.000+01:00Don, that's a good point: the shift from clever pr...Don, that's a good point: the shift from clever presentation of traditional "tags" to avoidance of them.Andrew Shieldshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02804655739574694901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20782819.post-86076436604708350342009-03-19T23:22:00.000+01:002009-03-19T23:22:00.000+01:00Interesting comments, folks. I think Brooks would ...Interesting comments, folks. I think Brooks would suggest that a poem (even a pre-modernist poem) is always more than an ingenious expression of a tag. But yes, weight of commentary must contribute to the creation of tags for certain poems.Robhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17046788730174617923noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20782819.post-18000264368102337422009-03-19T17:39:00.000+01:002009-03-19T17:39:00.000+01:00I'll go further: it's not just the passage of time...I'll go further: it's not just the passage of time that creates tags, it's commentary itself. As soon as a poem has been around long enough to be 'already read,' what one encounters is 'tags' (if you want to call them that). A precis or summation of what the poem says or is 'about.' The 'difficult' contemporary poet is simply one who hasn't already been read by commentary and so every new reader has to read the thing to try to figure out what it says. The point of older forms of poetry was the ingenuity with which the poet said what was already a time-honored 'tag.' At some point (we generally say modernism) the point was the ingenuity by which one avoided time-honored tags. Both are simply different forms of originality and its courtship. Nowadays, it seems that one courts 'tags' surreptitiously if only in hopes that there is a commentary out there capable of summing up one's poem.Donald Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06391024449222256377noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20782819.post-45001063368701047182009-03-19T16:16:00.000+01:002009-03-19T16:16:00.000+01:00As Rob wrote in the comments on his post, Brooks w...As Rob wrote in the comments on his post, Brooks was aware that the passage of time is what creates tags.Andrew Shieldshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02804655739574694901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20782819.post-33506279115225293162009-03-19T15:42:00.000+01:002009-03-19T15:42:00.000+01:00Oh, I don't know, isn't "Prufrock" about the alien...Oh, I don't know, isn't "Prufrock" about the alienation of the middle class? Isn't "Mauberly" about the futility of aestheticism? Any poem can be distilled, though Language poets try to avoid the problem by making their poems about language. Well, I'm being a little facetious here, but not too much. The real readers in Herrick's original audience knew the poem was about much more than enjoying the spring time of youth, just as Eliot's and Pound's readers know that their poems are about much more than the tags distilled above. The tag, I'd say, is something readers do, but for which poets are not responsible.<BR/><BR/>[Hey, post this to The Plumbline, eh?]Joseph Duemerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07650314132179290321noreply@blogger.com