The Maker of the Poem: WB Yeats

[PrinceMyshkin]

He practised the art of the poem
for the pleasure of the exercise, knowing
the poem would not be done
until it was done with him.

Some ur-Yeats, waiting for him
to catch up, had begun the poem
and he, William Butler, was the privileged witness
who could testify that the poem had been by.

He was not, perhaps, altogether the maker
of this or that poem, but the one
who cleared away enough of his personal space
in order for it to be.

[Cunninglinguist]

Such is the best art, in my opinion, not the expression of the personal but the documentation of the many, if not infinite, facets of life. I think you touch the latter here.

[Delta40]

I think the last stanza sounds very relevant indeed. without googling Yeats to sate my curiousity, I'm guessing that some work is attributed to him because he was able to make it so - like Shakespeare? (never laugh at a person seeking knowledge!)

[Hawkman]

I don’t know, Prince. The idea behind this is certainly poetic but for me at least, the form is too prosy, too conversational and perhaps just a little glib.

I can’t help feeling that a testament to Yeats should read more conventionally. While reading this I had the feeling that it was a newspaper article written by a clever journalist who had been told by his editor, “Give me less than ninety words on Yeats.”

I appreciate its cleverness and I appreciate the sentiment, but as a poem I’m afraid it leaves me unconvinced.

Live and be well - H

[PrinceMyshkin]

Thanks Cunninglinguist, Delta 40 snd


I don’t know, Prince. The idea behind this is certainly poetic but for me at least, the form is too prosy, too conversational and perhaps just a little glib.

I can’t help feeling that a testament to Yeats should read more conventionally. While reading this I had the feeling that it was a newspaper article written by a clever journalist who had been told by his editor, “Give me less than ninety words on Yeats.”

I appreciate its cleverness and I appreciate the sentiment, but as a poem I’m afraid it leaves me unconvinced.

Live and be well - H

Hawkman: you do me the honour of being so frank. I have nothing to say in an attempt to refute any of your points, but the poem is poetry to me in the way I feel and hear it. Everything here depended on & descended from the fitness of the syllables in the first line, where there was, to me, a certain authority and quiet music to the plain, humble language.

Perhaps you mean "cleverness" in a positive way but I do - most of the time - try to avoid being as I would call it merely clever.