-----Original Message-----
From: Cameron McWhirter <[log in to unmask]>
>Carpenter certainly never "settled" the matter and it remains very much an
>open, if essentially vacuous, question. Those who could settle the matter
are
>dead.
 
 
Well, Listmembers, excuse me for troubling you all with my essentially
vacuous question. I would be more than happy to discuss matters more
directly related to the poetry, though I'm not sure that raising issues
simply for the purpose of having something to discuss is really the most
effective (or, dare I say, relaxed)way of using the email forum.  I
certainly had no desire to get everyone all worked up about whether or not
discussing a biographical question is a covert form of gossiping. The
comment in the review simply caught my eye so I asked the question - I won't
do that again in a hurry, you can be sure about that.
 
Thanks to those who did help with my original question - I can only assume
that those others who found it irritating will be making a point of not
reading the two new biographies promised in the next couple of years.....
 
Sarah Graham