>From: [log in to unmask] (Burt Hatlen) >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Re: On the question of what one believes or what one MAKES >Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 06:19:03 -0400 >What strikes me here is Wei's total failure, even in this posting, to >talk about Pound's WORDS. In fact, he seems to find incomprehensible >the notion that language is, not simply a vehicle for ideas, but a >material fact in its own right, a plastic material that the poet molds >into shapes, no less than the sculptor frees the music inside the >stone, or the composer shapes a melodic line. I can understand why you might think this. However, simply because I don't say everything at once, you should not charge me with a failure. I agree completely with your view that " language is, not simply a vehicle for ideas, but a material fact in its own right . . ." This makes perfect sense to me, but it may be only marginally relevant the question of what Pound believed, and what the poem means. >But if language is the >material in which the poet composes, then the decision whether to write >a poem or to write a letter or a radio broadcast is a matter of some >consequences. (Philip Sidney got the issue in a nutshell more than 400 >years ago. "The poet he nothing affirmith"--whereas the writer of a >radio broadcast is, by the nature of the medium, "affirming" a set of >ideas.) > Now this is where I find problems. You charge me with ignoring the purely material and purely aesthetic properties of language. But poems USUALLY have both a MEANING and an AESTHETIC FORM. Philip Sidney is wrong--- the poet does affirm something, whenever he uses words which have meaning. Yes, the decision to write a poem and make a radio broadcast is a matter of some consequence. But the meaning of a radio broadcast and of a poem may share a great deal, and it is meaning that I am choosing to speak about. Allow me to pose a thought experiment which may clarify the issue in connection with Pounds words. Please tell me what you think is the poetic effect of this line of "poetry": Hawds fro tawn duh asher rare Bite hods an' tusk anbag vee foor zuh doo wuh shchade. Perhaps it helps to have accents to make the rhythm easier to apprehend: Hawds fró tawn duh ásher rare Bíte hóds an' túsk anbág vee fóor zuh dóo wuh shcháde. Tell me if this is a good line of poetry or not. And why? In the next post, allow me to explain why I ask this question. Regards, Wei ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com