tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177211463845465336.post5645812896283354249..comments2024-02-02T16:47:52.931-08:00Comments on the groundhog day project: the path of least resistancerobert e g blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055327935875718742noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177211463845465336.post-64073441252648162052015-08-05T02:05:44.640-07:002015-08-05T02:05:44.640-07:00And the fact that it shows people getting excited ...And the fact that it shows people getting excited about poetry is also laudable, I think.Maolsheachlannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09406722311993627528noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177211463845465336.post-57242241437005635022015-08-05T02:03:56.528-07:002015-08-05T02:03:56.528-07:00Thanks for this interesting post. I have thought a...Thanks for this interesting post. I have thought a lot about how poetry can be evaluated, too. (I did take some English classes at college level, but I found them so mind-numbing that I left before a term was out! However, I absolutely loved English class in school, for the most part.)<br /><br />One argument that I found quite powerful was the argument of E.H. Gombrich in his book, "The Story of Art", where he says that there is no bad reason to LIKE any work of art, but there can be bad reasons to DISLIKE it. (I suppose, out of snobbery would be one, though I don't remember if he gave examples.)<br /><br />I am pretty much of the same mind as yourself when it comes to poetry....I am passionately democratic in this regard. If you like it, it's good, in SOME way. If you don't like it, you don't like it, even if it's been anthologised a million times. Which is not to say that I don't believe there are objective standards, but I don't think they can ever be scientific.<br /><br />I only recently learnt that Frost had said that about The Road Not Taken. I do feel that Frost should not necessarily have final say over the meaning of his own poem. If generations of readers have failed to detect any irony, well, maybe he just didn't convey irony well enough. I think it is a better poem "taken straight" myself.<br /><br />I also incline towards the view of C.S. Lewis in An Experiment in Criticism-- that we should pay more attention to how something is received, rather than focusing entirely on its inherent qualities. For instance, in movie terms, if a movie is dismissed by critics but it gains a following who watch it again and again, and who discuss it, there is obviously something going on there-- it obviously has depths, intended or unintended.<br /><br />As for Dead Poets' Society, I agree that it doesn't exactly analyse poetry, but there are quotations of poetry, which is something in itself. Actually, it was in this movie that I first encountered one of my favourite poems-- "Ulysses" by Tennyson.Maolsheachlannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09406722311993627528noreply@blogger.com