Re: NastyGoon lifts a line

On Mon, 10 Feb 2025 5:38:14 +0000, George J. Dance wrote:

On Sun, 9 Feb 2025 1:38:39 +0000, W.Dockery wrote:
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George J. Dance wrote:
>

https://www.novabbs.com/arts/article.php?id=255731&group=alt.arts.poetry.comments
On Mon, 3 Feb 2025 16:15:27 +0000, Michael Monkey Peabrain (MPP) aka
"HarryLime" wrote:
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I realized from the content of NancyGene's posts that they were
intelligent, well-educated, and better written than anyone here.
Naturally, I asked them to start contributing to the "Sampler."  And I
was right in doing so.
>
Here are the opening lines of NancyGene's latest poem:
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"Yesterdays stack up like piles of read newspapers,
Cluttering my mind and obstructing my day."
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That's poetry of the highest quality.

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The opening line is very good. It's almost as good as the opening line
of Robert Creeleys poem, "The Days Pile Up":
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"The days pile up like unread newspapers,"
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I do hope "Dr." NastyGoon credited Mr. Creeley; otherwise that would be
something they would call, you know -- "plagiarism".

>
True, Robert Creeley wrote a pretty good line, obviously Nancy Gene
agrees.

>
After being forced to read and think about the two opening lines
repeatedly the past few days, I have to say that Creeley's metaphor is
makes sense and NG's, no matter how "poetical" HarryLiar finds it, does
not.
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If the newspapers are "unread", it makes sense that they'd "pile up."
You save the paper you didn't have time to read today, hoping you'll
have time to read it tomorrow; then you don't have time tomorrow and you
now have two unread papers; then three the next day; four the next; so
on. Eventually you'll end up with piles of newspapers that you're hoping
to read some day when you have the time.
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That's a great metaphor; the unread newspapers represent all the things
one doesn't get to do in a day, all the unfinished business that just
keeps piling up and piling up.

Yes, George, that's Creeley's simile.  [Please note the difference
between "simile" and "metaphor."]
NancyGene is making a totally different simile than Creeley.  Piled
newspapers are being compared to two very different things.

But why would NG, or anyone, save all the newspapers they have already
read; why would those "stack up"? Just maybe they have a bird and need
to line the bottom of its cage, but they wouldn't have to save every
single newspapers for that; they can save the amount they think they
need, and throw the rest away. But since we can't read the poem, just
the two lines HarryLiar keeps slurping, who knows why they think people
save all the newspapers they've already read?

As I previously explained to you, the newspapers in NancyGene's simile
represent "Yesterdays," or *Memories.*  If you haven't read the
newspaper, you have no memory of its contents.  The speaker in
NancyGene's poem feels as if they are unable to escape from their
memories, so the *read* newspapers keep piling up -- becoming more
oppressive with each passing day.
Both similies are good, by NancyGene's is more original: the idea of
wasted time piling up on one is a common theme of poetry, whereas being
weighed down by the past is not.
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