05-25-2014, 07:12 AM
Hi, tac,
Leaving aside the burning elephant in the room of whether it might be a noun, with the sense of 'shoal' or 'sandbank', I think I understand you. It may simply be my antiquated form of speech: I might say, for example, ''I think that man is a prick of the first water -- but the charitable in me is inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.'' I confess, though, that I have a personal stake in this. Some years ago, I met a very old friend whom I had not seen for ages, and the plan was, to go to the Tate Modern Gallery, which I had not visited. We chatted away, the afternoon passed, we wandered along the Thames on a rather brisk, and brittle winter's evening. It had just closed as we arrived. ''Oh, well'' said I ''I can at least touch it, and then I shall be able to say I have been.'' My cultured companion was shocked, in her North of the Water-y way: ''I never knew you were so shallow'', she commented reproachfully. Too late to recover. Take it on the supercilious chin -but never forgotten!
I now think that he may claim a bit of poetic licence for that -- but for leaving out a main verb, again, not so much...
E
QDS,
Why can't the shadow be a group of debase self serving thoughts?
[/quote]
Do you mean 'shallow' or 'shadow'? In your mind, it may be whatever it wants; and it doesn't really matter whether other people pick that up or not-- though to me, writing poetry where no communication takes place, is the same as tapping out the most important message in Morse code, when the guy on the other end is an ace at semaphore, but knows no Morse. I think something must be communicated, even though the plainest, simplest, thing, will be coloured by the experiences of reader and writer.
Btw, you must either have 'debased' or 'base'. For what it's worth, I don't think people should be ashamed of natural physical attraction. I think they should be shot at dawn if they allow that to hurt someone else through cold, callous, behaviour.
Leaving aside the burning elephant in the room of whether it might be a noun, with the sense of 'shoal' or 'sandbank', I think I understand you. It may simply be my antiquated form of speech: I might say, for example, ''I think that man is a prick of the first water -- but the charitable in me is inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.'' I confess, though, that I have a personal stake in this. Some years ago, I met a very old friend whom I had not seen for ages, and the plan was, to go to the Tate Modern Gallery, which I had not visited. We chatted away, the afternoon passed, we wandered along the Thames on a rather brisk, and brittle winter's evening. It had just closed as we arrived. ''Oh, well'' said I ''I can at least touch it, and then I shall be able to say I have been.'' My cultured companion was shocked, in her North of the Water-y way: ''I never knew you were so shallow'', she commented reproachfully. Too late to recover. Take it on the supercilious chin -but never forgotten!
I now think that he may claim a bit of poetic licence for that -- but for leaving out a main verb, again, not so much...
E
QDS,
Why can't the shadow be a group of debase self serving thoughts?
[/quote]
Do you mean 'shallow' or 'shadow'? In your mind, it may be whatever it wants; and it doesn't really matter whether other people pick that up or not-- though to me, writing poetry where no communication takes place, is the same as tapping out the most important message in Morse code, when the guy on the other end is an ace at semaphore, but knows no Morse. I think something must be communicated, even though the plainest, simplest, thing, will be coloured by the experiences of reader and writer.
Btw, you must either have 'debased' or 'base'. For what it's worth, I don't think people should be ashamed of natural physical attraction. I think they should be shot at dawn if they allow that to hurt someone else through cold, callous, behaviour.