macrev (01/28/83)
If I say that the most important criterion of poetry is that it convey a maximum of imagery with a minimum of language, then the following passage surely deserves to be called poetry: Well, go and see an amusement park. It's a thing like a fair, only much more glittering. Go to one at night and stand a little way off from it in a dark place - under dark trees. You'll see a big wheel made of lights turning in the air, and a long slide, shooting boats down into the water. A band playing somewhere, and a smell of peanuts - and everything will twinkle. But it won't remind you of anything, you see. It will just hang out there in the night like a colored balloon - like a big yellow lantern on a pole. From "Absolution," by F. Scott Fitzgerald Each of us reads poetry for different reasons -- I see it as a paintbrush, and words the brush strokes. The clearer the image, the more powerful the strokes, the more successful the poem. Fitzgerald was certrainly successful here. Comments? Mike Lynch mhuxi!macrev