tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574060146103839230.post3543256195402572080..comments2022-11-13T09:38:58.195-05:00Comments on Raining Acorns: Why Less is Sometimes Waaaaaay Too Much, or This is Just to SaySusan Scheid (Raining Acorns)http://www.blogger.com/profile/02827286681242730183noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574060146103839230.post-86761836801049547492010-02-04T19:38:09.922-05:002010-02-04T19:38:09.922-05:00Ah, now this is an interesting fact to learn about...Ah, now this is an interesting fact to learn about you, Wide Open Spaces! I imagine, in our future, a post on microeconomics. Now, that will really be mind-bending, for me, at least: I was so terrified about statistics that, when given a choice of a B of Arts vs. a B of Science in U.S. History, I ran for the hills to get the B.A.!Susan Scheid (Raining Acorns)https://www.blogger.com/profile/02827286681242730183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574060146103839230.post-4502142535902758782010-02-03T09:49:21.494-05:002010-02-03T09:49:21.494-05:00Well, Raining Acorns declares she is not fit to co...Well, Raining Acorns declares she is not fit to comment, but I truly feel the best I can do in commenting is to perhaps consult with my English-major husband on this post! :)<br /><br />The literary magazine at my alma mater was called "The Red Wheelbarrow" - that much I can contribute, but I did not realize the significance of that name, preferring to spend my academic hours immersed in microeconomics or statistics. Thank you for providing more background on WCW and his work.Wide Open Spaceshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04573357176617683341noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574060146103839230.post-53719960805843196832010-02-02T20:57:38.157-05:002010-02-02T20:57:38.157-05:00And this is just to say:
First, Carol-Ann: loved ...And this is just to say:<br /><br />First, Carol-Ann: loved your addition to the "canon"!<br /><br />Next, for those who were early readers of Bill’s essay on William Carlos Williams, I want to alert you to take another look, as he has appended a “late update.”<br /><br />And to Bill, your compliment on my comment is more than I deserve--wading into the deep end as I did when I don’t really know how to swim—but I am glad for it, as the “Late Update” is a fascinating addition to your already mind-bending pair of essays. Bravo!<br /><br />So, I just have one question: where is the chicken?Susan Scheid (Raining Acorns)https://www.blogger.com/profile/02827286681242730183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574060146103839230.post-68059589930688666642010-02-02T09:58:48.718-05:002010-02-02T09:58:48.718-05:00I am not disappointed. This commentary - including...I am not disappointed. This commentary - including the conversation between Bill and Sue - is very interesting to read, and leaves me wanting more! You two should collaborate.<br /><br />As to "This is Just to Say", I have a book of poems which includes a poem entitled "This is Just to Say" by Erica-Lynn Gambino (for William Carlos Williams):<br /><br />I have just<br />asked you to<br />get out of my<br />apartment<br /><br />even though<br />you never<br />thought<br />I would<br /><br />Forgive me<br />you were <br />driving<br />me insaneCarol-Annhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07390714553925368818noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574060146103839230.post-74061804200986692052010-02-01T21:49:31.449-05:002010-02-01T21:49:31.449-05:00I’ve barely read a thing by WCW; he’s never intere...I’ve barely read a thing by WCW; he’s never interested me very much. I’ve never understood all the fuss about the red wheel barrow. As a result, I’m not fit to comment, but, as Bill well knows, that’s never stopped me. So, here goes: I have thoroughly enjoyed your Parts I and II—and I look forward to a Part III (Wallace Stevens, perchance) and a Part IV (Anne Carson, I live in hope). <br /><br />That said, I think you’re being a bit too hard on WCW. I suspect poets of his generation, in particular, had a very hard slog to get out from under the European tradition—and that slog wasn’t made any easier by the appearance of The Waste Land in the midst of their efforts to break free and come up with a distinctly American poetic vernacular.<br /><br />Though, as a piece of writing, I cheered on reading your closing comparison with George III—how wonderfully provocative!—I don’t think we can say Eliot was any the less authoritarian than WCW when he pronounced that “'anyone who would continue to be a poet beyond his twenty-fifth year' should by that age have consumed the Western canon." If we understand that this was the weight WCW and others in his circle were trying to throw off, we can see it was a heavy lift, and bound to require a firmness of purpose that would result in an equally doctrinaire argument for an opposing point of view.<br /><br />By the way, regarding doctrines hotly held, on WCW’s view on similes, may I quote (noting that, in the blog format, the line lay-out will likely not show as WCW intended):<br /><br />Of asphodel, that greeny flower,<br /> like a buttercup<br /> upon its branching stem-<br />save that it's green and wooden-<br /><br />-or-<br /><br />It is like Homer's<br /> catalogue of ships:<br />it fills up the time.<br /><br />WCW may have denounced them, but he seems to have used similes to good effect in Asphodel—and I suspect in other poems as well.<br /><br />Though poets fight for their position as they might, the poem belongs to the reader. This reader does, in fact, prefer Eliot, but notes, also, that he was likely an insufferable prig. WCW, at least, embraced his American-ness, while Eliot, the boy from St. Louis, tried to pretend it had nothing to do with him. In the end, the poem is the res, as Wallace Stevens reminds us. And as Carol-Ann has noted, “res ipsa loquitur.” The rest is only commentary . . . though I delighted in reading yours and am eager to read whatever strikes your fancy to write next. We write as we please, indeed we do!Susan Scheid (Raining Acorns)https://www.blogger.com/profile/02827286681242730183noreply@blogger.com