Subject
Re: "Pale Fire" CHW to MR
From
Date
Body
Matthew wrote:
“I'm not sure that the distinction between "well-crafted verse" and "poetry"
is any distinction at all. One can argue whether or not a poem is good,
but you seem to be saying that in order for something to be called a poem at
all, it must be a great work of art.
By this logic, there is no such thing as a bad poem, since the terms are
mutually exclusive.”
Matthew,
Aware though I am that “verse” may assume meanings unfamiliar to us English
across the Atlantic (I’m assuming you teach at Messiah), and that our common
language may be dividing us, I still think a distinction between verse and
poetry should be maintained. There is verse, good and bad; and there is
poetry, good and bad. Johnson of course noted that it is easier to say what is not
poetry than to say what it is.
Wordsworth wrote reams of verse, some of which is great poetry. Some of his
greatest poetry is not verse. Much of his verse is poor. I can’t comment on
Goldsmith, Wordsmith or Goldsworth. Marvell wrote some of the most marvellous
poetry in the English language. He also wrote many excellent verse satires.
The one was not the other. Gray’s Elegy is verse which is also poetry. Ogden
Nash wrote superb verse: none of it is poetry. Much of Pope is verse, but some
of it is poetry. Dryden wrote much verse which is also poetry. Not all
Shakespeare is poetry, but enormous amounts of him are; almost all of Dylan Thomas
is poetry. The former long preceded Roget; the fact that the latter thumbed
his well is of no relevance at all.
Rebecca Wolff’s comment on Pale Fire the poem: a “virtuousic foray into
deep metapathos” does not seem to me to address this issue. It even seems to
dodge it. I am aware of scholars of distinction who do not consider Pale Fire
the poem to be poetry, but I’ll withhold their names to protect their
innocence. Personally I consider Pale Fire the book to be poetic.
The distinction seems to me to resemble the difference between craft and
art. Craft can be learned and acquired by diligence and application; art cannot.
Joyce’s Ulysses is craft of a very high order. If I’d had Joyce’s obsessive
dedication I might have produced something similar within my lifetime. I
could never have produced Pale Fire the book, not if I lived for a thousand
years.
Regards
Charles
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