Reading An Anthology Of Chinese Poems Of The Sung Dynasty, I Pause To Admire The Length And Clarity Of Their Titles Comments
It seems these poets have nothing
up their ample sleeves
they turn over so many cards so early,
telling us before the first line
...
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Quite a complex, even obscure poem. in some ways, it is critical of Chinese poets and their poems. The last three lines give a more positive attitude. Well worth reading carefully and slowly.
ur mom has a penne beebeebebebeebbebebeASDJAHSDHASKJDKJASHDKJa
Once again, as always, the appeal to simplicity. Poetry in Billy Collins' mind should be easy. No difficult titles, please, like The Waste Land or Ozymandius or Gerontion. No! We have to be spoon-fed this retiree pablum so that our baby teeth don't hurt too much. Awwwww, wittle wittle baby, here's a poem for baby!
mr. pe-dull-a; get a life. if you don't like the poetry of Billy Collins, then why do you persist in complaining? Go away and write some poetry, if you are even able
What happened over the years that we have come to value obscurity over clarity. Perhaps in the name of structure, rhyming, metaphor. Perhaps just a matter of ego. If you are as smart as me you will get it. If not well..... What is gained by writing a poem that requires a degree in literature and the mastery of three languages, two of them dead, to be comprehensible? ?
It's not a battle between obscurity and clarity with Collins, you see; it's about the fact that his best notions are nothing but passing whimsy. There is not a single idea he propounds that is worth more than a few seconds' notice. He never verges on the big questions, no. He studiously avoids anything but tea and icicles and good paper with a number two pencil while petting his dog. It's all Hallmark pablum! Great poetry is not obscure; it is difficult because the poet is straining to say something that is GREAT and to say it with language that is GREAT. To put it into art terms: Collins is a cartoonist; Frost was a Michelangelo! A poem, by the way, can be profound without being obscure. But Collins' poems are not profound, because his themes are not profound and he is not profound. Simple as that (no joke intended) .
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7/17/2025 10:34:08 PM # 1.0.0
Very interesting poem.Now I will look up the poets of the Sung dynasty.