January Meeting

The first meeting of 2012 presented us with a more-than-usual diversity of topics. W.B Yeats’s short poem ‘The Scholars’ challenged what we do anyway, reminding us that the poems we read were once creations over which their creators worked and struggled to express vividly the emotions they wanted to convey. W,H. Auden’s famous ‘Funeral Blues’ prompted considerable discussion and was much appreciated for its implicit expression of love and grief. 2 very short poems by Fleur Adcock ‘Half-way Street Sidcup’ and ‘Loving Hitler’ changed to tone. The latter – a child’s inadvertently inappropriate way of seeking attention. Carol Rumen’s ‘Rules for Beginners’ is certainly not the work of a beginner in poetry as the rondeau redoublé evokes the banality of an uneducated woman’s life.

We shall see what February brings!