Abbott, Abbott, Abbott

[Dennis N O'Brien]

I find it interesting that some people tend to dwell on the
subject matter of poems.

Here's an interesting essay on that tendency:

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

Thanks to all for the comments.

[Stephen Whiteside]

Ross, one alternative would have been for her not to form an alliance with anybody. That would have meant another election, which would have cost a lot of money, and may not have achieved anything. We may have very well ended up with the same result.

[Stephen Whiteside]

Dennis, what's the point of writing a poem if you don't want the readers to dwell on the subject matter?

[Bob Pacey]

Yeah would be prety boring if everyone just read and never commented when you stir top political pot !


Bob

[Stephen Whiteside]

Dennis, I had a look at the link you posted. I don't think it really applies in this situation, because I don't think the piece you have posted here is really a poem in the strict sense of the word - or at least, not in the sense that that article is referring. It's more of a rhyming polemic.

If I was to write:

"Labour's the best.
Chuck out the rest."

it would be ridiculous for me to only invite comments on rhyme and metre, vocab, etc., and expect readers to ignore the subject matter.

[Dennis N O'Brien]

I didn't say "ignore" the subject matter, just not to dwell on it.
It is one aspect of the poem.

[Neville Briggs]

a poem in the strict sense of the word

Do we know what that is ??


I also looked up the link. Apart from the writer being rather ungracious, I thought that he had a good point worth noting.

The French artist Edouard Manet once did a portait painting of the novelist Emile Zola. A critic, looking at the painting, pointed to the area where Manet had depicted Zola's trousers and said " That doesn't look like cloth " Manet replied " It isn't, it's paint "
That's the point, I think. If you know what I mean.

[Stephen Whiteside]

Yes, I understand what you mean, Neville. Dennis would like me to find some middle position to adopt between 'ignoring' and 'dwelling', but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do that.

[Neville Briggs]

That's a logical fallacy called "the straw man argument " Marty.

[Dennis N O'Brien]

It is a poem so the linked to essay applies.

Neville is correct about "the straw man argument".

I never said that the subject matter of a poem was not important.