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MR's last word on PF (quality of)
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Part of the problem we've had in discussing whether or not to
call "PF" a poem is revealed by the critical sentence in Frost's
"The Figure a Poem Makes": "It is but a trick poem and no poem
at all." Frost is using the word "poem" in two different ways:
the former descriptive, the latter prescriptive. The conjunction
implies that the meanings are not mutually exclusive. Something
may be a poem, but not *a poem*.
Webster's 2nd, btw, is prescriptive, too. I adore it, but I still
prefer the OED.
Matthew Roth
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call "PF" a poem is revealed by the critical sentence in Frost's
"The Figure a Poem Makes": "It is but a trick poem and no poem
at all." Frost is using the word "poem" in two different ways:
the former descriptive, the latter prescriptive. The conjunction
implies that the meanings are not mutually exclusive. Something
may be a poem, but not *a poem*.
Webster's 2nd, btw, is prescriptive, too. I adore it, but I still
prefer the OED.
Matthew Roth
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm