I was initially sorry to hear that the Lib-Lab deal couldn't be brokered; I was also teary-eyed at hearing Gordon Brown resign, on the BBC; but I am, today, curiously revived by the feeling of a fresh, and yes, historic start, for this new Conservative-Lib Dem coalition. Nick Clegg as Deputy PM isn't bad, with Vince Cable overseeing banking. Some of the fairer tax and voting concerns I voted for may be taken into account. I remain deeply suspicious of the Tory anti-Europe, pro-Trident positions, and their general indifference to progressive issues, but the first coalition of its kind since World War Two is worth trying, and worth watching. These aren't strange days, but different days, indeed. Clegg's up, after all.
When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart? A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional. Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were. For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ? Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets. But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ? How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular. John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se....
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