Comments on: What One Can Learn About Poets from Their Acknowledgements: Some Rickety Conclusions

By: Catherine Halley

Catherine Halley — Mon, 04 May 2009 16:33:34 +0000

Apparently British economist Peter Leeson proposed marriage in his acknowledgments page.

By: Jack Conway

Jack Conway — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 02:10:50 +0000

I seldom read sources unless they are cited MLA or Chicago style.

By: thomas brady

thomas brady — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:40:56 +0000

I would like to thank mad Ireland for hurting me into poetry.

By: thomas brady

thomas brady — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:34:17 +0000

Dale,

Thanks.

“He has imprisoned his own conceptions by the barrier he has erected against those of others. It is lamentable to think that such a mind should be buried in metaphysics, and, like the Nyctanthes, waste its perfume upon the night alone. In reading his poetry I tremble like one who stands upon a volcano, conscious, from the very darkness bursting from the crater, of the fire and the light that are weltering below.”

Is this a magical description of Coleridge, or a veiled insult?

Probably the latter. Some of the mystery of Poe is solved when we realize he was pro-U.S. at a time when Great Britain was not exactly a friend. Poe championed American Letters not with jingoism, (he may have been ‘a jingle man,’ but he was no jingo man) directly (by being a very good writer) and indirectly by teasing the Brits whenever he got a chance.

Thomas

By: Don Share

Don Share — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:06:15 +0000

Re the it-takes-a-village theorem, see Gertrude Stein’s quip about Ezra Pound, in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (NY, 1933. p. 246): “He was a village explainer, excellent if you were a village, but if you were not, not.”

By: Jack Conway

Jack Conway — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:49:40 +0000

Are you referring only to geographic communities or others?
One does have to worry however if it is the village idiot writing the poems or the town bully. That makesa big difference.

By: Vivek Narayanan

Vivek Narayanan — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 02:38:45 +0000

Despite some notable exceptions and the doggedly persistent but historically inaccurate myth of poetic genius/solitude, I really do believe that a poem is raised by a village / community. That’s why, I think, Irish poetry is, on the whole, so good.

By: Jennifer Hawes

Jennifer Hawes — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:19:55 +0000

JC, I’m sending this to the California alliance!

By: Jack Conway

Jack Conway — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:35:01 +0000

(Apologies to Erich Segal)

Being gay,
in America,
means
never having to say,
I do.

Acknoledgement: I’d like to thank Erich Segal

By: Dale Smith

Dale Smith — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:56:01 +0000

Thomas, thanks for sharing the Poe “Letter.” It’s a marvelous bit of candor. He goes on to say good things about Coleridge, with some resistance of course:

For anyone interested, Poe’s “Letter to B-” can be found here: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/POE/letter2b.html. It’s a fun read….