According to my newspaper, newly released archives show that WH Auden was a shoo-in to become UK Poet Laureate until a hard-core pornographic poem was discovered in his past. I was interested in reading it until I got to 'poem'. Does anyone know how it measures up to today's standards?
(Wasn't WH Auden one of the war poets cancelled by exam syllabus setters for being too male and too white?)
AJ
Does anyone know how it measures up to today's standards?
Funeral Blues
Enough said.
I meant the hard-core porny stuff. Would it shock SOL readers?
The Wikipedia article on it describes it thus:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Platonic_Blow
"The Platonic Blow, by Miss Oral" (sometimes known as "A Day for a Lay" or "The Gobble Poem") is an erotic poem by W. H. Auden. Thought to have been written in 1948, the poem gleefully describes in graphic detail a homosexual encounter involving an act of fellatio.
I meant the hard-core porny stuff. Would it shock SOL readers?
Given the wide variety of sexual acts / fetishes depicted in stories here, I rather doubt it would be too hardcore for Lazeez to accept.
BUT
There are undoubtedly readers who would be shocked / repulsed / traumatised by a poem depicting homosexual fellatio. Then again, there are readers who react in similar ways to a number of genres / codes.
The rest of us either ignore stories that don't interest us, or skip past the parts that we are not interested in. Simple, adult, effective. No drama required.
Damn. I made a banner and everything ...
Awesome!
But I said "drama" and that banner looks like an advert for Pussy Riot.
:)
I found an on-line copy.
I can see why it was so controversial by the standards of the time.
It's not my cup of tea and it's a poem to boot but it was well-written and descriptive. IMO it wouldn't be out of place on SOL.
AJ