Transcribe
Translate
K'tagogm-m, v. 1, issue 3, September 1945
Page 11
More information
digital collection
archival collection guide
transcription tips
K'taogm-m 11 THE NIMBLE SNORTS For some time poems of the style of "The Nimble Astronauts" by Henry Sostman, and poems by others as well, have been griping this magazine's editor. To our mind this stuff is not fit to be called poetry or have any serious attention paid to it. We contend that the meaning, if any, is too obscure for even its original publisher to explain---and in argument with Robert Lowndes, we proved this. He was entirely unable to explain the meaning of the poem in any valid terms. In our business office we decided to rewrite the poem, keeping the line and meter exactly the same, maintaining the spirit as far as possible, but merely changing the words to ones having more consistent values:- Dribble, dribble on the jaw in the pig's snout the pig's drool; usual to that atmosphere The spit sired of saliva, the drop that follows drop that follows drop, the slobber at corners, slobber at old teeth, nausea of the nostrils and the snout and tusk; dribbling salivation of the jaw the green tang of the green drool. The caugh choking, grunt the fact, loathesomeness the fact. To spout grey waterfalls of vomit till to spew forth abomination till the puke of the slow beast with filthiness will flood over the heaving slop piles of the mud. In a recent book review of a huge example of this type of poem, Orville Prescott makes certain observations with which we are in agreement. We quote, naming no names, "As poetry little can be said for these impenetrable forests of obfuscation. Technically X is expert in many poetic forms, blank verse, free verse and formal lyrics. But he is a high priest of the sickly cult of unintelligibility that has drained the life blood out of so much modern poetry. X is steeped in folk, anthropological, historical, religious, literary and musical lore. He parades his erudition for display and uses it to confound the confusion of his poem. Poetry should be music, suggestion that strikes a responsive
Saving...
prev
next
K'taogm-m 11 THE NIMBLE SNORTS For some time poems of the style of "The Nimble Astronauts" by Henry Sostman, and poems by others as well, have been griping this magazine's editor. To our mind this stuff is not fit to be called poetry or have any serious attention paid to it. We contend that the meaning, if any, is too obscure for even its original publisher to explain---and in argument with Robert Lowndes, we proved this. He was entirely unable to explain the meaning of the poem in any valid terms. In our business office we decided to rewrite the poem, keeping the line and meter exactly the same, maintaining the spirit as far as possible, but merely changing the words to ones having more consistent values:- Dribble, dribble on the jaw in the pig's snout the pig's drool; usual to that atmosphere The spit sired of saliva, the drop that follows drop that follows drop, the slobber at corners, slobber at old teeth, nausea of the nostrils and the snout and tusk; dribbling salivation of the jaw the green tang of the green drool. The caugh choking, grunt the fact, loathesomeness the fact. To spout grey waterfalls of vomit till to spew forth abomination till the puke of the slow beast with filthiness will flood over the heaving slop piles of the mud. In a recent book review of a huge example of this type of poem, Orville Prescott makes certain observations with which we are in agreement. We quote, naming no names, "As poetry little can be said for these impenetrable forests of obfuscation. Technically X is expert in many poetic forms, blank verse, free verse and formal lyrics. But he is a high priest of the sickly cult of unintelligibility that has drained the life blood out of so much modern poetry. X is steeped in folk, anthropological, historical, religious, literary and musical lore. He parades his erudition for display and uses it to confound the confusion of his poem. Poetry should be music, suggestion that strikes a responsive
Hevelin Fanzines
sidebar
