tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post3013355787296994390..comments2023-11-22T09:11:01.567+00:00Comments on George Szirtes: Editing, a party, & ending with Matthew PriorGeorge Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08889600788146987089noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-7672183463206773802012-04-04T00:26:02.498+01:002012-04-04T00:26:02.498+01:00I loved Matthew Prior at Uni, and yes, lightness o...I loved Matthew Prior at Uni, and yes, lightness of touch. I also loved his wit and cheek.angelatoppingnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-13138074207806969752012-04-03T10:17:30.217+01:002012-04-03T10:17:30.217+01:00I love what you say about lightness of touch. Peop...I love what you say about lightness of touch. People often mistake it for lack of seriousness, which is why they rank comedy below stern, gritty, drama that wants to make you pay for your sins. But humour stands back and sheds light, as well as casting dark shadows sometimes (although not in this enchanting poem).NicoleSnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-75647899489377934022012-04-01T16:39:47.432+01:002012-04-01T16:39:47.432+01:00I love lightness of touch. Sometimes I think light...I love lightness of touch. Sometimes I think lightness of touch <i>is</i> poetry. Then I realise it isn't, not quite. There is a difference between lightness of touch and lightness of tone or manner though. Lightness of touch is not the same thing as light verse, at any rate, some of the latter being quite heavy.<br /><br />Gay is very good. I'll get to Gay at some stage.George Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08889600788146987089noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-23847452790296681172012-04-01T16:24:55.686+01:002012-04-01T16:24:55.686+01:00Matthew Prior's a sadly neglected poet. Maybe ...Matthew Prior's a sadly neglected poet. Maybe it's because he doesn't quite fit into stereotypical eras, as you suggest; he's too late to be truly Restoration and too early to be part of the Age of Pope. Or perhaps it's because lightness of touch is unfashionable. If the latter, I suspect that's why John Gay is ignored too. <br /><br />Funnily enough, Prior was another one who had no intention of running a shop. According to his bio in <i>The Penguin Book of Restoration Verse</i>:<br /><br />"The future plenipotentiary was rescued from his uncle's wine shop by [the Earl of] Dorset who found him reading Horace there and helped him to complete his education at Westminster School and St John's College, Cambridge."<br /><br />Later, we learn:<br /><br />"By his own request he was buried beside his idol Spenser in Westminster Abbey, a circumstance which led to his unintended disinterment shortly before the second world war by a band of literary historians in search of the elegies reportedly buried with the Elizabethan."J. Marlesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-19213759784486483182012-03-31T11:19:54.529+01:002012-03-31T11:19:54.529+01:00I quite agree about Galloway. As to the rest I thi...I quite agree about Galloway. As to the rest I think you're really talking about civic roles and responsibilities. I don't think I have the right gifts for that, Charles. I can't imagine running a multinational business for a start. I wouldn't vote for me to run the government either. Too easily distracted, too impatient with regulations, no real head for figures, not much genuine social confidence, not really a practical man at all. I can talk a reasonable politics but can only pretend to be walking it. The illusion that I can actually walk it seems to have been all too (unintentionally) successful at times.George Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08889600788146987089noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-43373731001749194912012-03-31T00:43:52.197+01:002012-03-31T00:43:52.197+01:00This addresses just your footnote: I may also imag...This addresses just your footnote: I may also imagine the good things the world was starved of when you declined. There's no absolute reason why estate agents should be, generally speaking, humdrum people, and political candidates likewise, to put it mildly. Why - especially the latter - should this be so? My neighbour for many years, mother of four children on a very tight budget and with a slightly wayward husband, and hugely articulate and impassioned about politics, and with a heart that constantly spilled over and across, had the nous and flair to run a multinational business or the government, why not, but chose to live a low-profile decent life. Many of us have these neighbours, or they're in the next street. It's not a waste; they set a standard, on a day-to-day level. But that the professions, politics especially, should have become so specialised as to hive themselves off and away is a loss. I write with a sense of shame that, when a come-uppance was needed, it was left to Galloway, able rhetorician but deeply suspect in his motives and all other abilities, to do the job.charleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16580118367334638930noreply@blogger.com