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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   3614 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 14, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

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What is the right way to consume poetry?

I would like to achieve a greater understanding of poetry and the canon of great poets; and I have many books of those in my house. But I'm not really clear on how people read poems, I guess. Like, with a novel, I sit down and read for as long as I feel like. Maybe a whole hour in a row or whatever. With poetry, the length is not on the same scale, and you're not typically following a plot or a narrative or anything. Poetry enjoyers, any insight you can provide would be appreciated.

I find poetry grossly overrated, it's been largely superseded through song.

I can count on the fingers of a single hand the poems I find compelling enough to strike a chord in me, often producing outright frission, such as Howl by Ginsberg, Do not go gentle into that good night by Dylan Thomas, and for more left-field examples:

The tiger

He destroyed his cage

Yes

YES

The tiger is out

By a six year old child named Neil who has more talent in his undropped balls than Rupi Kaur has in her whole body.

Or less seriously:

Heaven brings forth innumerable things to nurture man.

Man has nothing good with which to recompense Heaven.

Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill.

By Zhang Xiachong, a bandit leader from 17th century China.

When Alex Turner puts I Wanna Be Yours by John Cooper Clark to music with his dulcet tones, he blows dry words on paper out of the water.

Poetry is dead because it's largely obsolete, no two ways about it.

Politely, respectfully, courteously: Perhaps you have no taste?

Saying that poetry has been superseded by song is like saying that cooking has been obviated with fast food. They are often the same thing! It sounds like you like superstimulus. Do you goon?

At the same time, music is very different from poetry. The fact that poetry has no tune is a strength! The emphasis is on the flow and texture of the words themselves, not how they've been strung out along a series of notes. It's fine if you don't have the attention span, but come on, it's only broccoli, it's not going to kill you, I can deep-fry them if you want.

And music and poetry have always co-existed, so to say that one has "superseded" another makes me wonder if you think we only recently invented good music. Well, if you want to argue that Lizzo is the greatest musical artist of all time, it is bad bitch o'clock, yeah, it's thick-thirty.

Anyways, to prove my point, I have attached a poem of my own composition. Please now reconsider whether poetry, in your words, "truly" ""cannot"" """rival the Xbox Kinnect Virtual Reality Experience""":

Hickory dickory dock
The mouse was sucking cock
Hickory dickory cum
And two were up his bum

If that is poetry, then music and poetry both have been superseded by just not consuming media anymore.

Beep beep boop boop, warning, human, jokes will not work on me. Display of humor in which words are intended to be used to generate laughter will have no effect. Please consider the seriousness of your arguments. Bzzzzzzzzzzt

Go easy on him; he's German

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