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