We were a smaller group than usual this month, but still did not manage to get round to discussing everyone's poems! Those we did discuss ranged widely from the mildly bawdy eighteenth-century broadside ballad 'An Amorous Dialogue between John and his Mistress' . This under-represented form of ephemera drew plenty of approving comments. It was followed by John Masefield's 'Cargoes' - always a favourite for its marvellous imagery and mimetic rhythm. I took along John Keats 'On First Looking into Chapman's Homer', after which U.A.Fanthorpe's 'Atlas' brought us right up into modern form and content. Its transition into metaphor created some debate. The next, and last poem, that we had time for was Michael Ondaatje's 'House on a Red Cliff', which puzzled and delighted in roughly equal measure.
As our next meeting is 5th December the topic will be Christmas, but it doesn't have to be the trite approach to tinsel and fairy lights, so it will be interesting to see if anything subversive turns up!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
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