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Re: Wow.
Thank you, Angel! Well, you can always rate the top post as a way of honoring the whole thread...even if one disagrees with MaryAnn's position, I think her position needs to be stated if this issue is to be addressed ''from both sides''. Some people call me courageous. Maybe more precisely, I'm tenacious. I simply do not give up easily. My ...
Posted to Poems by White_Rabbit on August 8, 2007
Reasons exist, BUT...
...the one thing human language can't do in isolation from a fixed metaphysical context (which is the one thing the English teacher doesn't talk about, really, despite the clever references to an English Catholic Bible and ''nationality before religion'') is reveal those reasons. Godel's Theorem Strikes Again. One must have access to the ...
Posted to Poems by White_Rabbit on August 8, 2007
Re: "Adjectives" - ponders the order of things
Excellent analysis, d., IMO. The poem is not so much about language as about what language describes (the world and its order), and about making sense of it all. You may find interesting, and may want to reply to, my reply to MaryAnn's post topside about teaching English to a foreign student. I reveal more about myself therein than I think I ever ...
Posted to Poems by White_Rabbit on August 8, 2007
For "the rest of the story"...
...please see my reply to MaryAnn about teaching English to foreign students. For once I may have real-life experience that equips me to understand what Pinsky's Poet of the Week is really driving at. Merci beaucoup,wr ()()
Posted to Poems by White_Rabbit on August 8, 2007
Re: On teaching English to foreign-born students
Hi MaryAnn, I doubt if I will be able to take the time to reply to other posts you've made, including replies to some of my own over this past day or so. (Alas.) But this one I'd like to answer. Most people wouldn't think of arguing with an English teacher about her own specialty, but then, my reputation precedes me. I'll leave well enough alone ...
Posted to Poems by White_Rabbit on August 8, 2007
Another rewrite of "Adjectives" as a limerick
I put this in NoStar's thread (with an explanation of its rationale), but since he seems to have overlooked it heretofore, I put it on the front page for his sake: His weltgeist, once healthy and strong,Had crumbled (''thanks much'', Viet Cong).His English? Not fluentBecause of his tormentFor so many years (''nine and long''). How about a new ...
Posted to Poems by White_Rabbit on August 8, 2007
Re: Rewriting Alexandra Teague's "Adjectives of Order" as a Limerick
But ''Teague'' and ''the teacher'' surely are not one and the same person. That's where your analysis-via-poetry is confusing. Teague (or her omniscient narrator) understands the student's situation. The teacher does not. Yet you say (particularly in your last line) that it is Teague who misses the mark. On the contrary, she hits the bulls' eye. ...
Posted to Poems by White_Rabbit on August 8, 2007
Re: Rewriting Alexandra Teague's "Adjectives of Order" as a Limerick
Hi Artemesia, I'm not sure I agree with you that Ms. Teage didn't know what she was reaching for. I think it's more likely that she knew perfectly well what she was reaching for, and attained it: the contrast between the Vietnamese student who desperately needed to reconstruct his linguistic framework so that he could feel secure in his world, ...
Posted to Poems by White_Rabbit on August 7, 2007
Interestingly enough...
...I think this is considerably less ''prosy'' than some classic Naked Emperors paraded before us on Tuesdays. Here, the prosaic feel is not too extreme, and I believe it works well with the subject at hand. I find this poem very satisfying, partly because I am so interested in the mechanics and philosophy of language myself. Either that, or Mr. ...
Posted to Poems by White_Rabbit on August 7, 2007
Re: Rewriting Alexandra Teague's "Adjectives of Order" as a Limerick
The challenge here is to write a limerick that captures the essence of the poem, which has less to do with order in language itself and more to do with what language expresses: order in the world. (I just hope my monosyllabic German is good enough to let me borrow a word from it for poetic purposes.) His weltgeist, once healthy and strong,Had ...
Posted to Poems by White_Rabbit on August 7, 2007

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