Yes Stephen I was aware of the repeat in Frost's poem, I was just trying to make a point.
I have a book of Frost's poems, I read it avidly. he was a great country ( bush ? ) poet.
I must be a bad communicator Manfred.
I only put in those examples and the sketch to illustrate a point, which was that effective and powerful poetry is about making the most of our choices of words, not building up some large body of wordiness.
I am not being an Orwellian sheep " Short poems good, long poems bad "
After all Robert Frost wrote long poems in dialogue, Shakespeare wrote entire stage plays in verse and Henry Lawson wrote things like The Lights of Cob & Co and Trooper Campbell.
I thought it was a good discussion point that in poetry ( or any art ) quality not quantity ws the ideal. But if quantity is called for, then so be it, but that's one of those hard decisions in making poetic expression, how much is too much.
I like the saying ( I forget who said it ) " More would have been superfluous, less would not have done the turn ". And how do we know ? Good question, very good question !!
On the matter of looking back. I agree and and agree with you on that.
Certainly I believe we must speak to our own times, but there is, in the past, our heritage and tradition which we build on. We can't build on nothing or try to make it all anew from scratch.
I can't see bush poets to-day wanting to sound like Barron Field or Wordsworth, I understand what you mean there. But still, in contemporary use for example, the Sestina is very popular and that is a 12th Century troubadour form. And the traditional ballad,a very ancient form so beloved of bush poets is also still used widely in other contemporary offerings as well.
So the issue of making it new is a complex issue.
Manfred, you have made the analogy of the painter's palette for our poetry language.
Just my feeble opinion, but I think it is a good approach , using your analogy, to try and use the brightest primary and glowing colours even if on a small scale rather than use the browns, sepias and ochres of dull wordiness hoping that a detailed interesting or funny story will make up for lack of the sparkle of lively language.
And I'm going on too long !!!!
I'll finish there. Hope that makes sense.
