Like chemical weed killers, critical principles become destructive when they spread too widely. Take the idea that wherever possible the writer should show and not tell. It\u2019s an excellent editing tool when applied appropriately, and any number of fine poems seem to draw much of their strength from how completely they embody it. We looked at an example in a very good class I went to last week, Theodore Roethke\u2019s \u201cMy Papa\u2019s Waltz\u201d. But a few seconds\u2019 thought will show how much the field of possible utterance would be narrowed for poetry if \u201cshow, don\u2019t tell\u201d were adopted as a universal principle.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a famous poem whose success depends on how completely it embodies an opposite principle, a poem that lives by its blaze of personal conviction and the power with which it tells<\/em> us how Shelley feels:<\/p>\n ENGLAND IN 1819<\/p>\n An old, mad, blind, despis’d, and dying king, In fact wouldn\u2019t a universal application of \u201cshow, don\u2019t tell\u201d napalm pretty well all poetry of intense personality, passion or personal conviction? And doesn\u2019t \u201cshow, don\u2019t tell\u201d depend very heavily on shared responses? This makes it unlikely to produce a poetry that disturbs a pre-existing consensus of attitudes and emotions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Like chemical weed killers, critical principles become destructive when they spread too widely. Take the idea that wherever possible the writer should show and not tell. It\u2019s an excellent editing tool when applied appropriately, and any number of fine poems seem to draw much of their strength from how completely they embody it. We looked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shelley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1092"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1361,"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092\/revisions\/1361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nPrinces, the dregs of their dull race, who flow
\nThrough public scorn \u2013 mud from a muddy spring,
\nRulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know,
\nBut leech-like to their fainting country cling,
\nTill they drop, blind in blood, without a blow,
\nA people starv’d and stabb’d in the untill’d field,
\nAn army, which liberticide and prey
\nMakes as a two-edg’d sword to all who wield,
\nGolden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay,
\nReligion Christless, Godless \u2013 a book seal’d,
\nA Senate \u2013 Time’s worst statute unrepeal’d,
\nAre graves, from which a glorious Phantom may
\nBurst, to illumine our tempestuous day.<\/p>\n