From: LouisFors@aol.com
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Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 20:02:39 EST
To: emweb@fmgmt.mgmt.utoronto.ca
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Subject: Re:  What is poetry?
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Joann:

Following Cynthia's lead that form is in the foreground of poetry, may I
recommed a book that you might find interesting.  It is Cristanne Miller's
_Emily Dickinson:  A Poet's Grammar_, Harvard, 1997.  It is a difficult book,
for me, because I lack the
proper linguistic tools, but it has kept me engrossed for days and days.
(Somebody in this discussion list recommend it many moons ago.  Thanks.)

Miller begins her books this way:  "Language is poetry, Emily Dickinson said,
when it 'makes my whole body so cold no fire ever can warm me,' when I feel
physically as if the top of my head were taken off.' (L 342a)."  That is not a
satisfying formal definition of poetry, of course, but it does lead Miller to
examine Dickinson's "desire to speak to an audience, to move her reader, and
her largely unarticulated decision to write the riddling, elliptical poetry
she does."  And so Miller begins a most thoughtful examination of Dickinson's
grammar.

Cynthia, as usual, answered your question succinctly.  I'm really recommending
Miller's book.

Louis Forsdale