[OFB Cafe] Tuesday, Boris the Mayor, and Thomas the Rhymer

[saki]

Derek Broughton wrote:
> On July 29, 2008 23:03:29 Timothy Butler wrote:
>> On Jul 29, 2008, at 12:41 AM, saki wrote:
>>> Tim is it us or is it spreading....?
>> 	Clearly, it is spreading! Soon the world will recognize "his
>> ineffable effable, Effanineffable, Deep and inscrutable singular"
>> place as the poet of the twentieth century!
> 
> It _is_ you, and it's spreading:-)  Remember, that's how you sucked me into 
> this list...


Well, it has to be good that you are here, and so, to go on, I will 
challenge Tim to defend "the poet" against "a great poet" "of the 
twentieth century" against other "greats".


I would like to think that I prefer to exchange

"the lilies and languor of virtue for the raptures and roses of vice",

if my weakness is (and it most surely is) an addiction to "the best 
words in the best order".

If any one person's enthusiasm can arouse a similar feeling in others 
(as my mentors have done in me) that is a great gift. I would love to 
have it, but recognise that loving something and being able to impart 
that love to others are two different things.

Thinking of Eliot and Swinburne- they really appear at first sight (i.e. 
me, after a long day and some good Scotch) to be very different.

I can enjoy Eliot for all sorts of reasons in many of his various works 
  for extended periods, until I have to give up through sheer mental 
fatigue- there is so much there to understand and enjoy, and a lot of 
his writing demands a lot of effort to do so. (In parenthesis, so does 
Shakespere, Marlowe et al)

Swinburne, on the other hand, is much more accessible (at least to me, 
and probably for superficial reasons) for his emotion and superb lyric 
sense. However, I cannot him read for long, as it is a rich diet of 
(Devonshire clotted) cream and exotic images, exciting and challenging 
to visualise, rhythmic to the mind and tongue, before it becomes cloying.

But, going back to my earlier point, are they really that different?

Both engage the reader/listener (I read out loud to myself, and 
occasionally others), both challenge the one engaged, and involve 
him/her in a multi-level, multi-lingual, multi-cultural attempt at 
understanding "life, the universe, and everything".

And I haven't even mentioned Pound- but my taper is quenched for this night.

Comments?

Terence