The World Cup has bared its heart of darkness - that cheating works. A few days ago, we saw a German goalkeeper feign a ball in play to rob England of a key goal. Last night, to their shame, Uruguay twice used knees and hands of "God" to bounce a ball in play out of their net - and still won, since the Ghana team, so full of heart and energy, were weak on penalty kicks. Ghana - the only African team still in at this late stage - should, by all that is just, even dramatic, or fun - been the team to go on - instead, an unscrupulous Uruguay moves forward. One hopes that the Netherlands will avenge the Ghanaian defeat. Still, if play is without honour, why should we honour the winners?
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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I do so agree on this TS. Since the Thierry Henry handball v the noble Irish last year, the gloves have come off, so to speak. Fifa must act soon, and decisively.