Poetry Reading Group Redux- Nominations

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Originally Posted by Paulclem

I agree that we should focus upon one poem at a time and limit the discussion around that. It will enable us to focus do some in depth study.

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The way we have done this in the past is that each one of us takes a turn in selecting a poem, we discuss that poem for a while, and then the next person picks one.

I put in my order the other day.

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Originally Posted by mayneverhave

there are certainly (among the collection we're going to be using) some more important poems and some higher quality poems

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There you go ranking poems, May. "This one's good, and that one's bad," which is precisely the kind of thing JBI warned us against!

I ordered mine today, but the expected delivery date is March 12th, oh well. I also had to dig around for some other books to order, since I refuse to pay for shipping.

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Originally Posted by mortalterror

There you go ranking poems, May. "This one's good, and that one's bad," which is precisely the kind of thing JBI warned us against!

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I think the distinction should be made from historical and periodical approaches - though quite simply, the Canti are one work, despite the stand-alone quality of each poem. In that sense, the whole work is the work, not just the "higher quality" or "longer" or "more classical" poems within the collection.

As with Romantics in general, Leopardi as a background to his poems seems to at least require a progressive chronology in interpreting anyway - so we could isolate, for instance, A Sylvia, but it reads better around the other poems, and seems to gain more when read in perspective.

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Originally Posted by JBI

I think the distinction should be made from historical and periodical approaches - though quite simply, the Canti are one work, despite the stand-alone quality of each poem. In that sense, the whole work is the work, not just the "higher quality" or "longer" or "more classical" poems within the collection.

As with Romantics in general, Leopardi as a background to his poems seems to at least require a progressive chronology in interpreting anyway - so we could isolate, for instance, A Sylvia, but it reads better around the other poems, and seems to gain more when read in perspective.

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Of course individual poems work better when they're put in their proper context, but I'm not sure close reading the entire Canti is feasible - but who knows.

How about an ISBN for the text being used?

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Originally Posted by quasimodo1

How about an ISBN for the text being used?

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I am pretty sure that people have ordered or have already got different copies though, for various reasons. Anyway, I'm not sure that using different translations is a bad idea - I think it might bring new things to the table, though you can hit me with that if it all goes pear-shaped if you want. :boxing_smiley:

Eamon Grennan is the translator I'll go with then... thanks

Mine has arrived. Not bad - ordered on saturday.

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Originally Posted by Paulclem

Mine has arrived. Not bad - ordered on saturday.

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Mine too, Mayneverhave's funny orange one with no list of contents. It seems OK though.

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Originally Posted by Paulclem

Mine has arrived. Not bad - ordered on saturday.

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I assume you didn't get the orange cover one - lucky. Is yours dual language?

Mine has yet to arrive... but deliveries have been slowed to to the heavy snows on the East Coast (New York, Washington, etc...) I do have two older translations, however... one of which is bilingual and includes a good deal of notes as well as excerpts from Leopardi's notebooks and other writings. I'm waiting on the Eamon Grennan translation, however.

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Originally Posted by mayneverhave

I assume you didn't get the orange cover one - lucky. Is yours dual language?

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I did get the orange covered one. It is dual language and has numbered canti. It is different to the one I viewed online which had an introduction. This one has notes at the back.

I sense we're getting close to starting. Is anyone going to start a new thread, or will the discussion just stay in this one? I'll set my signature link to wherever it's going to be.