all the poets, they studied rules of verse….

It’s not the first time I’ve noticed but I’m annoyed this morning at how Spain is apparently not part of “European poetry”. It must take a lot of effort to keep doing the Spain Is Invisible Dance.

You know a lot about medieval French verse forms? Great! I love you! Bring it on! But you don’t know everything, so don’t act all like, You Are Europe. (Note the sidebar.) And Spain, how is that Not-Europe? All the Germanic languages? Everything else? (Oh… we meant only the most important and influential European forms.)

Of course we all know what it is. It’s paternity anxiety, cultural inheritance, and the geneological tree – in that model, it goes Greece- Rome – Italians – France. Potency, real virility, can only reside in one cultural empire at a time, in the head of the household. Bastards aren’t so important in that family tree and in fact might even be embarrassing. And there is room for only one tree. The whole rest of the world is bastards.

Is it too much to hope for, that the AAP might just mention Uncle Garcilaso or Uncle de Leon?

Leaving aside the bigger questions of the poetic forms of the entire rest of the world which also might… just might… have “influenced” someone.

“… and the ladies, they rolled their eyes.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *