tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13726943.post4606515658902024368..comments2024-01-19T21:33:09.716+00:00Comments on E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK: Some light on the lettersEYEWEARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01900801847916951522noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13726943.post-64718467595151499742010-07-18T21:21:50.396+01:002010-07-18T21:21:50.396+01:00Well, Auden was vast in some ways, and certainly p...Well, Auden was vast in some ways, and certainly ploughed up some new soil. But he's limited in others. MacNeice has an expansive heart. And that subtlety. Allusiveness. Yes, the willingness to try something and maybe fail. And he wasn't UP himself: I say this in a poetic sense, too. (Not that I don't have half a shelf of Auden, one way and another, mind.)Ms Baroquehttp://baroqueinhackney.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13726943.post-45025512696469492010-07-15T14:29:58.097+01:002010-07-15T14:29:58.097+01:00What I find to be the hallmark of MacNiece is his ...What I find to be the hallmark of MacNiece is his endless experimentation, always trying something new... which he doesn't always pull off. It does mean you always find something startling, though.Peter Eustacehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11443045609157789439noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13726943.post-91714849731133366422010-07-15T09:11:27.502+01:002010-07-15T09:11:27.502+01:00Well, Sheenagh, it isn't really faint praise, ...Well, Sheenagh, it isn't really faint praise, when you consider that the "anyone else" includes Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, and Dickinson, let alone Frost, Lowell, Larkin, or Plath, or even Heaney. MacNeice is firmly in the canon, and a few of his poems are as good as any other poem ever written in English - one or two among the very best. High praise? Meant to be. As for wearing better than Auden? To my mind: uh, no. Auden continually impresses me with his verbal and intellectual vastness.EYEWEARhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01900801847916951522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13726943.post-50215173400733512802010-07-15T08:26:50.247+01:002010-07-15T08:26:50.247+01:00"a few of his lyrics are as good as anyone el..."a few of his lyrics are as good as anyone else's"<br /><br />God, that's faint praise if ever I heard any! Personally I think MacNeice has worn better than Auden in many ways. The older I get, the more he grows on me; his technical skill, his ability to lose self in something wider, his subtle musicality.Sheenagh Pughhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02735299981866333316noreply@blogger.com