Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

You are here: MacNN Forums > Community > MacNN Lounge > Poetry / Prose / Whatever ...I just can't do it

Poetry / Prose / Whatever ...I just can't do it
Thread Tools
The Final Dakar
Games Meister
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Eternity
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jun 4, 2014, 01:07 PM
 
I realize it makes me a terrible person. Hell, I agree that it makes me a terrible person, the same way I look down on people who can't listen to music "that doesn't have words." But I just can't process it.

I picked Paradise Lost and all my enthusiasm went out the window when I opened to the first book and found it was in numbered lines. Of course, I started it anyway, but good god, my mind wanders like a kid stuck in church. I'm bad enough trying to properly digest verse without having to constantly corral my mind and focus. And have I mentioned that I'm a complete gimp when it comes to older english (I don't deal well with Shakespeare for the same reason)?

So do with this thread what you will. Shower me with insults or provide some kind of insight as to how to properly enjoy these types of works.
     
subego
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jun 4, 2014, 01:22 PM
 
Ooooh... Paradise Lost is a really tough row to hoe.

I'm not the person to give alternate suggestions though.
     
subego
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jun 4, 2014, 01:24 PM
 
That won't stop me though.

Maybe Blake?
     
dav
Mac Elite
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: sic semper tyrannis
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jun 4, 2014, 01:37 PM
 
maybe you're trying too hard... have you read any bukowski?
one post closer to five stars
     
andi*pandi
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: inside 128, north of 90
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jun 4, 2014, 01:49 PM
 
β€œIn youth, it was a way I had,
To do my best to please.
And change, with every passing lad
To suit his theories.

But now I know the things I know
And do the things I do,
And if you do not like me so,
To hell, my love, with you.”
― Dorothy Parker
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
Games Meister
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Eternity
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jun 4, 2014, 01:50 PM
 
Originally Posted by andi*pandi View Post
― Dorothy Parker
If it rhymes I can usually absorb it. Strikes me as a crutch, though.
     
mattyb
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Standing on the shoulders of giants
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jun 4, 2014, 02:13 PM
 
I'd be interested in knowing what provoked this thread.
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
Games Meister
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Eternity
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jun 4, 2014, 02:17 PM
 
Originally Posted by mattyb View Post
I'd be interested in knowing what provoked this thread.
It's in the OP.
     
mattyb
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Standing on the shoulders of giants
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jun 4, 2014, 02:49 PM
 
Ahh, sorry, thought you had to read Paradise Lost at school or uni.
     
Jawbone54
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Louisiana
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jun 4, 2014, 03:02 PM
 
This is why...and I probably shouldn't say this...but...

Maya Angelou's passing prompted absolutely no response from me.

I think part of it is that I was obligated to be appropriately devastated, if my social media feeds were any indication. I remember reading some of her work for a college course and thinking that it wasn't great, but I accepted that a lot of her influence was based upon her being a poetic voice for African-Americans during a tumultuous era.

I also find it preposterous that a person is able to list their occupation as "poet." It seems like it's not so much something you do as a job, but something therapeutic for hurting people. They write poetry because they need an outlet for their feelings, it feels so epic, no one understands them, etc.

There are exceptions (Keats, Frost, and a few others), but poetry mostly sucks.
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
Games Meister
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Eternity
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jun 4, 2014, 03:11 PM
 
I wouldn't say Maya Angelou had meaning to me, but hearing her work, I could feel the rhythm and cadence to it, which gave it a great flow. I don't feel that here.

That and David Alan Grier's great impression on SNL.
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
Games Meister
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Eternity
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jun 4, 2014, 03:13 PM
 
The wind. The rain. The fire.

The Butterfinger.

Did the Caveman know your delicious goodness?
Did the Mayan Priest exhalt in your buttery crunchiness?
Did the slothful Mastodon, upon his extinction, declare,
"Don't lay a finger on my Butterfinger?"

Oh, you finger of butter!
You proud confection!
Sugar brown roasted peanuts,
fructose, glucose, sucrose, lactose,
partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil.
Crispity, crunchity, peanut buttery--

I... give... myself... to... you.

Butterfinger.

Glad mantle of golden chocolaty hope upon my breast.
...
     
   
Thread Tools
 
Forum Links
Forum Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Top
Privacy Policy
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 11:08 AM.
All contents of these forums © 1995-2017 MacNN. All rights reserved.
Branding + Design: www.gesamtbild.com
vBulletin v.3.8.8 © 2000-2017, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.,