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17 ene 2005

Let such teach others who themselves excel,
And censure freely who have written well.

Instinctively, I tend to agree with Pope's thought here. Ezra Pound also insisted on this same point. I grant my trust to poet-critics who have shown some skill at writing poetry, and withold it from those who haven't. If a poet I respect recommends a poet I have doubts about, I have to keep an open mind. On the other hand, if the critic both makes ridiculous pronouncements AND is him or herself an incompetent poet, then I tend to assimilate those two facts in my mind. Logically, of course, it is perfectly possible for a bad poet to be a good critic, but in this case it would be a person with bad judgment about his or her own work. And if the work is not only bad, but hideous, the judgment is all the more lacking in the poet who would put forward such work.

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