Comments on: The Bar Jester’s Unpremeditated Verse

By: Mark Perkins

Mark Perkins — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 06:44:31 +0000

I wish now that I had only read your version of Howl.

By: Cecelia

Cecelia — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 00:44:17 +0000

is this the alternative occupation you mentioned in your previous essay? I fear for your family if it is!

By: James Matthew Wilson

James Matthew Wilson — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:38:32 +0000

First, you mock the ways in which most Americans celebrate Christmas, and now you assault that even more sacred American tradition, the recitation of poetry before the hearth with one’s friends and family. I’m not sure how you will survive this stab at such a universally commended and sacrosanct ritual. From Orono, ME to Palo Alto, patriotic Americans will likely burn you in effigy for tinkering with and trivializing the one activity that still unites Americans after our two centuries of dispersion and “diversification”: those enchanting evenings of poetic declamations.

Know that I would accounted be
A member of that company
That comes with torch to Peters’ house
To burn his porch and tip his cows,
To break his banjo, bust his fife,
And have a diddle with his wife.

By: Millicent Smedley Kitteridge

Millicent Smedley Kitteridge — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:38:49 +0000

It’s little known, but in fact scientists have indentifed the “doggerel” gene.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/MAR05/poeticpathology/genes/heckleandfrye.html

By: eutychus

eutychus — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:46:51 +0000

Too good. The question this piece brushes against is certainly becoming one of the more interesting debates of our time. A recent article over at The Chronicle for Higher Education criticizing Emerson set off a storm of response.

http://chronicle.com/article/Giving-Emerson-the-Boot/63512/

I side with #12 and especially #17 in the comments that follow the article.

P.S. The Tiger poem was outstanding. Blake is applauding from beyond the grave.

By: Peter B. Nelson

Peter B. Nelson — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:24:07 +0000

BRAVO!

By: Nathan P. Origer

Nathan P. Origer — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:12:24 +0000

Sabin,

You should have seen Peters cry like a baby at the conference at Notre Dame when he was asked a question that was just too hawd fow the wittwe pwofessow.

By: D.W. Sabin

D.W. Sabin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:05:57 +0000

“Thin Skin”? You? Surely you jest.

We can only hope that there is some Robert Burns redux, produced about the time the liquid amber reaches the bottom of those letters “L” to “G”.

By: Nathan P. Origer

Nathan P. Origer — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:34:46 +0000

Who’s the waitress? What’s her name?
In whose panties is thy brain?
What the backseat? What dread grasp
Dare her pink brassiere unclasp?

A youthful harlot’s curse?