sock poet

[Judy Prince]

Punster JL  (" And more tightly knit.")
Wonderful post about "sock poets."

Thanks,

Judy


On 24 October 2010 21:14, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: sock poet
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I've looked into this and, as I half suspected, the blurb about the
> mysterious "sock poets" is essentially an academic press's advertising
> gimmick to influence you to buy the book. I mean, who could they be?
>
> Those whom the blurb memorably designates  the "sock poets" were a
> momentary
> school of versifiers who responded to a weekly contest in the N.Y. _Sun_ to
> write the best darn poems they could about knitting socks for doughboys
> overseas. Prizes were various amounts of wool yarn.
>
> The best of the best were anthologized at the end of the war in a little
> anthology called _Sock Songs_, which you can read at Google Books.
>
> Look! Here's a distinguished sock poet now! It's Edgar Alcott!:
>
> A SOLDIER BOY
>
> There's a soldier boy far across the deep sea
> Who is fighting for you, fighting for me.
> I do not know his name, still no stranger is he,
> For he's fighting to make all humanity free.
>
> I'm knitting socks for this dear soldier boy,
> It gives me great pleasure, satisfaction and joy.
> He's some loving mother's son, we all know,
> Still he's fighting for you and for me also.
> Ever read anything quite like it?  I bet you haven't!  We should be
> thankful
> to Professor Van Wienen and the University of Illinois Press for bringing
> to
> light this forgotten moment of American literary history, for coining the
> name "sock poet" (my retroactive nomination for WOTY 2002), and especially
> for not including Mr. Alcott's poem in their anthology, which, so far as I
> can tell, features only one sock poem, by Helen Topping Miller. It is
> almost
> noticeably more profound than the above. And more tightly knit.
>
> JL
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Oct 24, 2010 at 3:05 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
>
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> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: sock poet
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > So, *not* a typo or other error for "sock puppet".
> >
> > m a m
> >
> > On Tue, Oct 19, 2010 at 5:43 AM, Paul Frank <paulfrank at post.harvard.edu
> > >wro=
> > te:
> >
> > > "we all know that sock poetry is some of the worst bullshit ever to be
> > > written on this planet. i won=C3=A2=E2=82=AC=E2=84=A2t even go into
> sock
> > =
> > music. or sock
> > > painting. ok, so not everyone is artistically significant. but worthy
> > > beings should at least have social conscience. sadly, socks have
> > > nothing of that sort. "
> > >
> > > <
> > >
> >
> http://campcatatonia.org/article/37/and-now-for-a-completely-different-pe=
> > rspective
> >  > >
> > >
> > >
> >
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> >
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
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