ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Snobetry

Well Hi! I’m a snob and I write snobetry;
My friends and their friends they write snobetry too.
Our tight little band of snobs all do agree,
That anything smacking of form we’ll eschew.

We pan all that’s metered and littered with rhymes;
All metaphor, beauty and structure is out.
These “poets”, in our view, are committing crimes,
For snobetry is, what it is, all about.

It’s complex, it’s twisted, you can’t understand it;
This soup made of words that are weird and obscure.
It doesn’t make sense, but that’s how we unplanned it;
It just “IS” you see, for it’s Free and it’s pure.

It loves introspection, it’s self analyzing,
It’s all pessimism and internal moans;
We’re lefties you see, so it’s hardly surprising
Our snobetry, it is all littered with groans.

The public won’t buy it despite how we preach it;
They’re too thick to understand snobetry verse.
We sell to the schools that are forced then to teach it,
So we get by nicely on the public purse.

University scholars spend time analyzing;
Dissecting our works until they are in pieces;
They publish their findings, so it’s not surprising,
Our fame and our fortune, by quantum, increases.

And only itself does our snobetry reference,
If you’re not a snob then you won’t understand.
Don’t bother to read it, just show us some deference,
Our great works will last – for we’ve writ them in sand.

© Dennis N. O'Brien, 2012

Apologies if I have got it wrong but on the last line - surely if they were written in sand they wouldn't last but if written in stone they would

Gees they are getting you today Mauzie !


Stick you tongue in your cheek and join Dennis


Bob

We writers of
Free verse are not so much snobs as
Naturally superior.
We have nothing against bush
Poets, as long as our
Daughters don't marry
One,
If you take my
Meaning.
I
Once met a bush
Poet.
Or at least, I think that's what it...
Was.
It was hard to tell from the distance, and I didn't want to move any
Closer.
Perhaps I was just holding the
Binoculars the wrong way
Round.
I don't
Know and I don't
Care
Particularly.
This cheese is rather
Good don't you
Think?
And the
Wine.
Is it
Wine, or is
It...?

Glad I'm not a bush poet.

Nice prose Stephen.

Dennis, I think that to be effective, satire, even if couched in irony has to ultimately reveal something true. It has to have that old deadly accuracy.

This verse of yours seems to present several significant propositions that are not true.

Dennis N O'Brien wrote:That anything smacking of form we’ll eschew.

Modernist verse is not formless. Just a brieif acquaintance with it, will show that.

Dennis N O'Brien wrote:We pan all that’s metered and littered with rhymes;

Modernist verse contains both metre and rhyme. I can quote many examples if I had the time.

Dennis N O'Brien wrote:All metaphor, beauty and structure is out.

That statement is demonstrably false. Modernist verse contains all poetic elements including, metaphor, structure, simile, assonance, alliteration,rhythm, rhyming schemes , allusion, etc etc. it just doesn't sound like Banjo Paterson.

Some modernist verse might be obscure, even opaque. Is what is true of some, necessarily true of all ? You can't logically sustain that. It isn't true.

After all, some bush poetry is feeble doggerel, what is true of some is not necessarily true of all is it ??

So I'm afraid I can't see that it works as satire because it is just not, in the end ,a revelation of truth. I think that's what satire must be.

I can only refer you to the link that I referred someone to

in a reply to my poem: "Abbott, Abbott, Abbott"

http://pennreview.com/2011/05/the-truth-seekers/

Perhaps read it all the way through.

If you still don't get it, I can't help you.

Not sure what you're trying to say here Dennis. (I am a simple mind after all). Why would you refer people to other websites to give your point of view? Can't you formulate your own argument?

Usually we are able to discuss things without obfuscation. Otherwise we could be seen as "... hopelessly trapped in the idiocy" of our own self importance".

May I suggest that many of our humble "Bush Poets" are not necessarily, "... naïve readers of poetry trapped by a blinkered view". We are capable of analytical and creative thought. Many of us don't however, have crystal balls or the ability (or the patience) to read people's confused minds.

If you've got something to say, please say it! (It works better that way)


Teddy Bears and Rainbows,

Manfred.

Don't take Dr. Salemi's essay to heart Manfred, I doubt
he even knows that bush poets exist.

Actually I have no interest in pursuing arguments about
any of my poems – I just post them here for others to read.
Whether they like them or not I leave up to them.

I read all of the poems posted in the members and users forums
but seldom comment – that doesn’t mean I like them or I
don’t like them – I just seldom have anything to say.
(Perhaps a series of buttons from "like" to "hate" would be useful
or a scoring system as I have seen on poetry blogs.)

I assume you read Dr. Salemi’s essay right through. I read it
some time ago and think it sums up this subject in a clear and
scholarly way.

I may be learned in some areas, but literature is not one of them,
so I am happy to defer to the professor’s superior knowledge,
and his skill in advancing his views (which I agree with) – hence the link.

Some will no doubt not agree with the points that Dr. Salemi puts forward
in his essay - we will just have to agree to disagree.

In my opinion essays about aspects of poetry which may be being
discussed, when written by distinguished
authors such as Joseph Salemi, (who is after all a champion of formal
verse) are certainly on occasions worth linking to – others may disagree.

I thought he said all he needed to say in the first four paragraphs Dennis, the rest seems like a bit of verbal dribble but then I'm a pretty honest sort of bloke !



Bob