when I mentioned arabic poetry, I wanted to emphasize the
point that the discussion about poetic qualities of PF and
distinction between verse ant poetry in this list  does not take into
account the context of the novel in case of PF, and concerning
the verse versus poetry - historic
and cultural context. It seems that most fervent defence
of this distinction is itself based on some unconsious prejudices,
for example, some heritage of romanticism. I don't say
that there is no distinction, but are we able to judge along these lines
what was written not in our times?

I was interested some years ago in arabic poetry (only I don't
read in arabic, I've seen russian translations), I remember
for example a very interesting book about Al Mouttanabi
(sorry if it is not correct spelling in english), and some
very beautiful fragments of poems. I don't see how most
of the participants of this list could judge it. And even if
it would be in their own language, but of different epoch
and forgotten genre...

Sergei,

 

Johnson's answer to Boswell about poetry precedes Romanticism; and the discussion about whether or not Pope wrote poetry must have been actual well before Romanticism had properly arisen. I concede that a distinction between poetry and verse may not have been fully formalized in the C18th, but there must have been some sort of conceptualization of what was poetry and what not. Shakespeare produced quite a graphic pen-sketch of the archetypal poet.

 

I very much take your point that PF the poem has to be judged in its book context. Would it have attracted any interest had it been published without footnotes? Possible, but doubtful.

 

Wikipedia confirms that my memory of flyting was correct. It looks as though this entry could do with some expansion, perhaps from A.Bouazza? It should be reasonably possible to make a comparative evaluation of the quality of one flyting against another.

 

Charles.

See following:

Flyting