25 mar 2006

Rhyme nowadays seems relegated to

humorous verse
writing for children
popular songs
political reactionaries and new formalists
the past

etc... So that means there's a demarcation of poetry, that's of the present, non-humorous, not for children, not popular. There's a certain puritanism, an embarrassment even. Anything causing this much embarrassment has to have something going for it. I'm embarrassed by it myself!

4 comentarios:

Mike Snider dijo...

Political reactionaries and new formalists don't even get their own lines in your list?

Jonathan dijo...

No, they don't get their own lines. These are people who like rhyme for ideological reasons. Political and poetic reactionaries. I'm sure there are new formalists on the left, and reactionaries who don't care about poetry in the first place. That's why I didn't say "political reactionary new formalists."

Mike Snider dijo...

I've never met anyone who likes rhyme for ideological reasons, Jonathan. Even radical-right political pustules like Salemi who happen to like rhyme don't have an ideological reason for that liking. On the other hand, I've met many who dislike it for ideological reasons, and those same people sometimes can't imagine that anything but the influence of an opposing ideology could lead to a liking for rhyme in an educated person.

Mike Snider dijo...

By the way, I think your (playful?) description of anti-rhyme sentiment as "puritan" is spot on.