![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
larryhammerThe promised report on The Worst English Poets: Oh yes, they are. Or at least, the worst of 19th century, for that seems to be the focus. There's not a single poem I look at and think, "This isn't bad enough to be here."
Most startling omission: There's no listing of poets, as you might expect given the title. The table of contents just lists the thematic sections, and the index isn't.
Most startling fact learned: While McGonagall's shaky grasp of prosody is all-but-unique, he had many models for his manner and matter, and even his tone. The Victorians published that stuff by the metric cartload, it seems. I did more than one doubletake: "Wait, this sounds Just Like McGonagall -- but the meter scans! -- and the syntax isn't tortured to reach for that banal rhyme! But! -- but! -- does not compute! -- does not compute!"
Best unintentionally funny line: My friend, be firm, let not thy manhood shake
Best ending selection evah for an anthology:
Edit to add citations: the first quote's from A Elegy on Colonel Robert Montgomery. Written on the Fatal Spot where the Lamentable Duel Transpired by S. L. Francis; the second's from Ellen Gray, or The Dead Maiden's Curse by Archibald Macleod.
---L.
Most startling omission: There's no listing of poets, as you might expect given the title. The table of contents just lists the thematic sections, and the index isn't.
Most startling fact learned: While McGonagall's shaky grasp of prosody is all-but-unique, he had many models for his manner and matter, and even his tone. The Victorians published that stuff by the metric cartload, it seems. I did more than one doubletake: "Wait, this sounds Just Like McGonagall -- but the meter scans! -- and the syntax isn't tortured to reach for that banal rhyme! But! -- but! -- does not compute! -- does not compute!"
Best unintentionally funny line: My friend, be firm, let not thy manhood shake
Best ending selection evah for an anthology:
"OH, SHUT THE BOOK, dear Ellen, shut the book!"Biggest unanswerable question: Was this copy permeated with marijuana smoke from an attempt to ease the pain of reading it or to up the hilarity?
HUBERT exclaim'd, with wild and frantic look.
Edit to add citations: the first quote's from A Elegy on Colonel Robert Montgomery. Written on the Fatal Spot where the Lamentable Duel Transpired by S. L. Francis; the second's from Ellen Gray, or The Dead Maiden's Curse by Archibald Macleod.
---L.