J F Keane

Kultur Kampf

by J F Keane

Thursday 4th July 2013 3:39 pm (first posted Tuesday 2nd July 2013 2:02 am)

Plebeian culture wanders out and proud –

The cult of drugs; discordant music jams;

Moronic rap and savage hip-hop ‘slams’:

Unchecked emotion snarled in hate aloud.

Now I, for one, take quite another view

and give plebeian culture not a glance;

mere childish chaff born of unhappy chance,

a savage skit to which scant praise is due.

But why is it esteemed, and envied so?

Its lovers have no power, wit or wealth

and most can’t even talk. What do they know?

That thought is bad while bestial is best?

And so the question creeps on us by stealth:

If they’re so smart, why can’t they pass life’s test?

trash underclass failure

◄ Cod Consensus (more Myth-Pricking)

The Roads: Heaton Moor Road ►

Comments

M.C. Newberry

Thu 4th Jul 2013 14:14

This contributor's posts are of a content/quality deserving of attention and respect. The point about the "underclass" can be seen via countless posts on various online sites,frequently crass & vile in their observations,and limited by their basic lack of knowledge, wit and imagination.

Isobel

Tue 2nd Jul 2013 21:33

And yet there was a time when the underclass had the opportunity to get an education, to learn to appreciate canonical poetry and to write it.

That raw ability won't just disappear because the opportunities aren't there - instead it will be channelled into words of the street - for want of a better way of describing it - and there will be good and bad examples of it - just as there is of poetry written by the middle classes.

John F Keane

Tue 2nd Jul 2013 17:25

Poetry performance is all well and good. Performance is not the issue that this poem is trying to address - only what is performed (or written, for that matter): a quite different thing.

Greg Freeman

Tue 2nd Jul 2013 17:00

John, the words at the top of Write Out Loud's home page say: "Encouraging poetry performance." Are you saying we are quite wrong to do so? Is it all a waste of time, in your view, because only the middle-class know how to write poetry? I would say that you've rather tied yourself in knots, just in order to follow the form of the sonnet, and might have expressed your argument more clearly in free verse. It seems a bit much to bring bestiality into the argument as well ...

<Deleted User> (9882)

Tue 2nd Jul 2013 16:44

dearie me! you need to let life into your life!

John F Keane

Tue 2nd Jul 2013 16:07

Yes, vulgarity is vile in poetry and everywhere else. At a deeper level, the lionization of plebeian culture is just praising an unsuccessful, dysfunctional culture. The underclass generally don't raise successful children, tend to live in poverty, generally fail in education and are prone to crime and intolerance. In short, their culture is inferior to middle class culture in every way. And so the question naturally arises: why should their 'literature' be set alongside that of the middle class, when it is clearly the product of an inferior, dysfunctional culture? We need to stop pretending that hip hop 'slams' produce poetry even remotely comparable to canonical literature expressed in classical/traditional forms.

Andy N

Tue 2nd Jul 2013 12:41

good stuff, john. tightly wrote all round even though my favourite bits are the first four lines. good stuff man. get it in your next book!

Shirley Smothers

Tue 2nd Jul 2013 08:46

You make a great point.
Nicely stated. I told my husband I know I must be getting old. But when did vulgarity become acceptable or funny?
This made for thoughtful reading.

Shirley

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