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'I'm attracted to poetry that realizes the near-indefinable quality of wit I'm also aware that the display of wit for its own sake is a dead end for poets. A mind alert to punning possibilities and opportunities for one-liners does not guarantee anything more memorable than a gag and a reputation for producing trivial work. Wit can be mordant, wounding, precious, facetious or fl Ling. Some forms of wit are tiresome: genteel wit may disgust, scabrous wit may alienate: caustic wit may offend. The Buddhist scholar Hsing Yun claims that The most intolerable sound in the world is satire "'8' Wit that has no object but amusement, though, can seem a dull clubbable exercise, like the efforts of toastmasters or undergraduate humorists. Wit that editorializes runs the risk of tediousness; better, perhaps, the dialogic approach that allows the reader to make the decision, as in the case of Robert Graves's poem "A Slice of Wedding Cake." about "lovely, gifted girls" who marry "impossible men"...' (Introduction)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Last amended 1 May 2020 11:16:12
389-395
The Line of Wit : First Thoughts on a Defence
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