Dante, the one-hit wonder

[Jonathan Lighter]

Try this, poetry fans:

http://www.amazon.com/Top-500-Poems-William-Harmon/dp/023108028X

At least Harmon uses the interesting criterion of the frequency with which
a poem has been anthologized by tastemakers.

 JL
On Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 10:54 AM, George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Dante, the one-hit wonder
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> LH, on Anthony Tommasini's ranking of composers:
> >  (Tommasini did make it easier for himself by placing strict
> cultural--European--parameters on his search.)
>
> Exactly.  I read Tommasini's essays with interest, for the sake of his
> discussions justifying his choices.  But all his candidates were writing in
> the same language, and a language he understood.  He didn't try to balance
> Mozart with Ellington with a master of Japanese music.
>
> GAT
>
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.  Working on a new edition, though.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Date: Monday, March 7, 2011 9:31 pm
> Subject: Re: Dante, the one-hit wonder
>  To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> > At 11:38 AM -0500 3/7/11, George Thompson wrote:
> > >  >From today's NYTimes:
> > >In February Dean Rader, an English professor at the University of
> > >San Francisco, set out to discover history's 10 best poets (much
> > >like Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times recently did for
> > >composers).
> >
> > And did so less ninnily, I'd argue.  Of course I'm probably
> > influenced by the fact that the constituency and order of Tommasini's
> > Top 4 (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert) matched exactly the
> > constituency and almost (modulo the Beethoven/Mozart ranking) exactly
> > the order of the megabytes devoted to composers in my iTunes.  I
> > wouldn't begin to assess Rader's nadirs.  (Tommasini did make it
> > easier for himself by placing strict cultural--European--parameters
> > on his search.)
> >
> > LH
> >
> > >  [his top poet i Pablo Neruda]  In second place was Shakespeare,
> > >whose name, according to Mr. Rader's "shockingly unscientific
> > >measurements," appeared most frequently in reader e-mails, followed
> > >by Dante, who Mr. Rader said was the most controversial pick,
> > >because "he's only well known for one poem ('The Divine Comedy')."
> > >Western literary greats like Walt Whitman, John Donne, Emily
> > >Dickinson, William Butler Yeats and Wallace Stevens also appear on
> > >the list with the Eastern favorites Rumi and Li Po, whom Mr. Rader
> > >called "the great poet of drunkenness."
> > >
> > >So 6 of the top 10 write in English, and the list is rounded out by
> > >a Spanish, an Italian, a Persian and a Chinese poet; no poet who
> > >wrote in Russian, Arabic, Japanese, Hindi, German . . . . . measured
> > >up.
> > >
> > >Did I mention that no Greek or Latin poet could make the cut?
> > >
> > >I post this just to show you folks that Linguistics isn;t the only
> > >field of study beset by ninnies.
> > >
> > >
> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/books/07arts-THE10BESTPOE_BRF.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=dante&st=cse
> > >
> > >GAT
> > >
> > >George A. Thompson
> > >Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre",
> > >Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.  Working on a
> > >new edition, though.
> > >
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