Were poets over-estimated????

First of all,

Sriks anna, I can easily prove that ur theory of ‘ Being a fool and knowing that u are’ is wrong….Because Viveka talked about ‘ Knowing and knowing that u know and not about Being and knowing that u are’

Kroopz, U don’t accept it! But why?

Avik, Some courageous acts can be easy…Like committing a suicide…..There is no excuse to it Whatsoever.

Okey, Now to fire poets…….Listen to these verse from history’s greates poets greatest work…….

‘At first the infant,Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.’

Don’t u think the words mewling and puking were a bit hard? As they were known to be used to refer to vomiting after drinking.
And then the lover,Sighing like furnace, with a woeful balladMade to his mistress' eyebrow
Ahaaaaa, So if this lover’s ballad on a weird thing like a eyebrow is woeful. Then what do most poets do? They sit down under the tree and write woeful poems on the weirdest of things(Right from Spiders to Broomsticks to Urns).
Then a soldier,Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,Seeking the bubble reputationEven in the cannon's mouth
So there is a guys sitting under a tree criticizing a nation’s patriot that his reputation Is meaningless.Then what other kind of reputation does the !@#$ want by writing such idiotic poems…..
This is one of the most discouraging,disgusting poems I have ever seen. And there are also lots of other instances from other renowned poets who write such discouraging poems…….
P.S. I talked only about ‘Were poets over-estimated’ and not about’ Are poets overestimated’. As there are lot of poets today who write lot more encouraging poems on the beauty of living a life…..Only thing they did not have the word power as Shakespeare and blake.

hi
Thats why i did not read any of those old poems........
Atlast found a good excuse...
Nice one
Keep it coming
Prakash

Posted by dfg | 5:21 AM PDT

hey gr00nie nice one... my my wherever did u search for these poems???... lol id never read them again...

Posted by musings (m000nie) | 9:55 PM PDT

It's a good thing Shakespeare's dead. He'd have committed suicide anyway to see his works interpreted as wrongly as this!

The idea is to take man's life through 7 stages. Not criticise man at each point of his life.

...... At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.

puking means throwing up. does NOT mean half-boil!! :)
The lines bring out the helplessness of the baby. It does NOT criticise the baby's complete inability to control its vomit! :)

...And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow....

In case you didn't get it, he explains adoloscent love. "made to the mistress' eyebrow" is Shakespeare's sarcastic take on how much importance the guy in love attaches to even the most trivial of things in his beloved. "woeful ballad" doesnt mean "pathetic poem".. it jus means the guy's so smitten but unhappy that his love is not being reciprocated, he's driven to writing sad poems.

As for ur last quote, I've always thought the soldier is being likened to a bubble. The bubble has a reputation of popping at the slightest touch. The same way a soldier reacts violently at the slightest provocation.

Hmmm, English literature is a strange thing :)

Posted by Harish | 8:04 PM PDT

Well I don't think they wrote about weird stuff. I think of it as a talent to be able to see a poem in everything. You have to admit it, not everyone can do that :-)

I won't say anything about the baby or the lover. But there are deeper meaning to those lines.
About the one on the soldier-
Soldiers are generally aggressive and swearing most of the time; also always eager to show their valour. What this poet says about soldiers is somewhat true. Also all soldiers do not become soldiers just because they are hardcore patriots.

Seeking the bubble reputationEven in the cannon's mouth

This basically shows how the soldiers fail to think even in the event of a danger and all they care about is their reputation, nothing else- not even their lives.
Bubble reputation because this fame they achieve doesn't last for too long; its like a bubble.

There are different ways of interpreting this so I am not betting mine is the correct one!

Posted by Kroopa Shah (Kr00pz) | 4:52 PM PDT

oh well.. i think poetry is like blog. let em write watever they like..(^v^)

Posted by niki yokota | 6:12 AM PDT