Literature in the eye of the beholder

[Patryn]

Oh jeez. I like literature of all forms, and at the U they put out an annual publication of student/staff submitted art, poetry and short prose. Most of these people are just TOO melodramatic.

Someone tell me if they think this is art:

skin
more like flesh
on a rope
to be
tugged
twanged
with a generic beat
an unsuccessful melody
like vents
steaming
fogging into the chasm
spilling over the frost
which is dew
subjected to a loss
of heart

??? What is that even supposed to be about?

 

[Bobtoad777]

I hope one of the students didnt submit this and win a prize from it. Its a piece i studied in English lit class it dates from the late 1700's and most have concluded that it is about sex and a jilted lover.

 

[Patryn]

Heh...is it? Can you find the original author? It wasn't submitted as an assignment, but it was submitted as an original work.

 

[Bobtoad777]

I dont have my English literature books anymore but it was by author unknown, at one point if i remember correctly some had tried to tie it to shakespear but hte dates where all wrong.

sorry

 

[Dudley]

I Think That I Shall Never See...

Are you sure about that, Bob? I don't think people were writing blank verse in the 18th Century, and I wonder if the word "generic" was in use then. That alleged poem has a very modern feel to it....

 

[Bobtoad777]

All I remeber was the words and 1700's I was much to ingnorant back then for my own good to pay attention and get the full facts, but that was back in 90 when i was in grade 10 English lit class when have of the guys like myself where trying to figure out this sort of thing

 

[KillerMuffin]

I would run a wild monkey love guess on this one. Felix knows.

 

[Aranian]

Wow. Yes. Finally. A poetry bashing thread. I'm in heaven.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Poetry is the refuge of those who are incapable of expressing themselves in prose."

 

[CreamyLady]

On first reading, I thought it was about a hanging.

On the second reading, I thought it was about a hanging victim who is an organ donor.

I don't think I can read it a third time. I'm sorry.

 

[Never]

Bobtoad: "Its a piece i studied in English lit class it dates from the late 1700's."
*LMAO*
"some had tried to tie it to Shakespeare but the dates where all wrong."
*LMAO Some more*

Now bobtoad, I know you didn't appreciate Patryn criticizing your English but bullshitting her this way is very unbecoming of a gentleman.
The above poem was no more written by Shakespeare than the Easter Bunny, if it was a stolen work I'm guessing it's from no earlier than the 1950's. I'm not saying it couldn't be from earlier but.. the seventeenth century?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[poohlive]

analizing a poem...
by Pooh


skin
more like flesh
(when is skin not like flesh? I mean hello, Skin is flesh.. come on people work with me here)
on a rope
to be
tugged
twanged
(tugged and twanged? People don't tug and twang ropes, they pull and push ropes, ok there is some tugging, but not twanging, people twang strings, not ropes)
with a generic beat
an unsuccessful melody
like vents
(when in the HELL is an unseccesful melody like a vent? I mean a vent is something that regulates air, an unseccessful melody is a song that doesn't end, no it goes on and on my friend, some people started singing it not knowing what it was...
Oh crap, you got me on that again, way to go)
steaming
fogging into the chasm
(steaming and fogging, two exact different gases, doing the exact same thing in a chasm? I mean steam comes from heated water, and fog comes from... well ok heated water too, actually that makes some sense, irony of how two different positions and confront in one place, ok, this one peice is ok, thats it)
spilling over the frost
which is dew
(this guy must have been a meteorologist or something, he looked at the weather girl one too many times, getting all hot and bothere, his air pressure rising, the rain of his pants going down, her breasts pushing up against the valley floor, and yes oh yes, SNOW IN THE MOUNTAINS.... sorry, the t v is stuck on the weather channel)
subjected to a loss
of heart

Looking back I see that this is kind of mean, oh well, lol. Won't be the first time I stepped on someone's toes. I think the poem covers too many topics for how short it is, really. It needs to stick to one thing, the rope of flesh, the weather of the chasm, but it went off, and didn't really relate the two
(whoah, the idiot is actually critiqu, what a moron)
Anyway, it's a good laugh if you think about it's surface meaning, but pretty sad if you think it actually has a meaning.

 

[Rosebud]

My dad always quoted poems to me and I loved it. The one he would say to his granchildren while they were real young was

I've never saw a purple cow
I hope to never see one
But I can tell you anyhow
I rather see then be one.

Yeah i know it is lame but I also learned Midnight Ride Of Paul Revere

 

[Dudley]

And They Ain't About Whales...

I always thought the best poems had "Nantucket" in there somewhere....

 

[Bobtoad777]

Never,

I never said it was shakespeare, i meant that the class had arguements and some of the students thought i may have been shakespeare, but the general belief of the class was that it was not williams work. as for the date that is what the teacher gave it, for all i know she could have written herself.

i was not meaning any disrespect to patryn, i just have seen that work before in english lit.

 

[Patryn]

Bob, there's a lot of depate among literary scholars whether or not Shakespear's work was even Shakespear's.

 

[Bobtoad777]

Thats what I have been hearing lately Patryn, only in this last year have i been getting back into classic literature and there does seeem to be a lot of conjecture on shakey's work. I dont reall understand it i go with the old popeye quote, 'I knows what I knows and i likes what i likes'

 

[Samuari]

Come on Bob, did your class even read Shakespear? How could you place this drivel as being from the same mind as Hamlet is beyond me. The Bard of Avon had CLASS, whoever wrote the work that is atributed to him. Personally I think it was his wife, who couldn't publish because she was a woman. (And she did get his second best bed in his will!)

The second question that is not being delt with is the posability of plagurism. Theft of intelectual property is still theft, napsters. To ignore it when it isn't my property thats being stollen is give permission. And even drivel like this poem deserves protection.

 

[Weird Harold]

The second question that is not being delt with is the posability of plagurism. Theft of intelectual property is still theft, napsters. To ignore it when it isn't my property thats being stollen is give permission. And even drivel like this poem deserves protection.

If this poem is indeed from the 1700's, or even from the 50's, it probably isn't protected by copyright. Especially if it's attributed to Anonymous.

That doesn't excuse the possiblity of it being passed off as an original work. It just means that there is no one elgible to prosecute for copyright infringement. The student that submitted it is guilty of misrepresentation at the least, i.e. plagiarism. They are probably not guilty of copyright infringement, or theft of intellectual property.

 

[Bobtoad777]

Samuari,

Did I say that we put the poem on the same level as shakespear, no what I said was the teacher told us showed us some arguements by ppl in the literary industry said it could be and some said it couldnt be. The class was undecide being mainly males noen of us really cared about it

 

[cajunfur]

Spelling?

ShakespearE, people. There is an e at the end. Can we please spell the bard's name right? Please?

 

[RonG]

I've seen the best minds of my generatio

Well, this poem sounds like a bad Ginsberg wannabe but as near as I can tell, it ain't an obvious case of plagiarism. I typed a few words into the Humanities Text Initiative and other poetry sites, and came up empty. In style, it reads like Maxine Kumin, but I can't find this verse under any of her listings.

While fishing, I did get the lovely opportunity to reread a couple of Shakespeare's sonnets "Let me compare thee to a summer's day . . ." Now, I get those. If only Shakespeare had been the Bard of Nantucket instead of an unrhymeable place like Avon. Let's see, capon, rave on, SAV-ON,

 

[sallygirl]

ShakespearE, people. There is an e at the end. Can we please spell the bard's name right? Please?

Shakespeare is the generally accepted spelling these days, but if I remember correctly there was variation in the spelling even among Will's own signatures.

As for the poem in question, I really can't see it being from the 1700's. But no matter who wrote it or when it was written, I don't care for it. That style leaves me cold. The poetry I enjoy is flowing and descriptive, full of emotion and grace.

[Edited by sallygirl on 09-10-2000 at 09:39 PM]