"I don't like poetry."
One of the people, an engineer by training, thought there would always be more precise ways of saying whatever it was the poem was trying to get across ("why say a lamb when you mean Jesus?"). So let's give that a go:
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more aesthetically pleasing and are at 98.6° F, whereas summer temperatures often exceed 100° F.
In the month of May, winds of Force 7 on the Beaufort Scale oscillate plant buds having subjectively endearing qualities,
And the Autumnal Equinox falls on September 21 and not later.
Sometimes the sun raises ambient air and surface temperatures to levels where sensations produced may be interpreted as pain,
And it is often occluded by clouds;
And the Second Law of Thermodynamics applies.
But a record of your good health and vitality is embodied in this set of technical specifications, and even after you are dead (provided someone else is still alive), if a copy of these specifications is still in existence, it will be possible to reconstruct what you were like when you were still alive and in good health, even though you are actually dead.
posted at 1:15 PM
5 Comments:
This post caused a comical sensation imparted upon me largely due to an endorphin and peptide influx which, ultimately, resulted in the exhalation of air across my vocal chords such that a, "ha ha ha," sound was produced.
I don't like poetry either!
I would agree with the person who said not liking poetry was akin to saying "I don't like opera" -- opera is a very stylized type of musical theater, and I think one can absolutely love other types of music/singing/musicals without necessarily liking opera.
Similarly, poetry is a rather stylized way of writing (with styles varying greatly by author, I suppose... think e.e. cummings with all his weird formatting and lack of capitalization, or a haiku, or a Shakespearean iambic pentameter sonnet.) Some poems rhyme, some don't, but they are all fairly stylized, as opposed to other types of writing. While I like poetry myself, I can certainly see how the stylized nature of it might be too much for some people... too distracting for them, perhaps. But because most people enjoy other types of written expression (like a good book or even a play) even if they don't like reading poetry, I would argue that saying "I don't like poetry" is absolutely NOT the same as saying "I don't like words"...
I'm sure you'll disagree with me, however, MWR... ;)
I spent years totally oblivious to the power of poetry. Then I was commissioned to "calligraph" a Yeats poem. Wow.
Then I was moved enough by the Auden in "4 Weddings and a Funeral" to memorize it. Wow.
Then I discovered Mary Oliver, Stanley Kunitz, Pablo Neruda, Wm. Stafford....and searched for more.
Now I "get" poetry and can't imagine living without it.
I like poetry a little, but I like it's bastard cousin spoken word a LOT. Typically, though, I dislike poets and spoken word artists.
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