The Young Outsiders versus The Old Insiders

[F L Light]

It has been more than a year since I last posted at OL. These couplets might reconcile youth with experience.

The Young Outsiders

a

The young outsiders hate the old inside,

Profaning their proprietary guide.

b

The old insiders are Misesian,

Not needing from the state an outer plan.

a

The young outsiders hate the old inside,

With outer arrogance unqualified.

b

The old insiders are Misesian,

Who need no centralizing guardian.

a

The young outsiders hate the old inside

And recompensive concord cannot bide.

b

The old insiders libertarian are,

Unlike the youth who need a commissar.

a

The young outsiders hate the old inside,

Having external ignorance unbeautified.

b

The old insiders libertarian are

And with despotic adolescence jar.

a

The young outsiders hate the old inside,

Not learning how good will is ratified.

b

The old insiders are Objectivists,

Exactly to encounter what exists.

Edited October 7, 2007 by F L Light

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

FL,

Thank you for that.

I have a personal preference in poetry for avoiding grammatical inversions in order to find easier rhymes, but in this poem, with the hypnotic repetition and play on old/young and inside[r]/outside[r], it did not stand out as much. It kinda worked (although I still prefer no inversion at all unless there is a specific thematic reason and not rhyme). To give an unasked-for suggestion, in your shoes, this hypnotic repetition is an addition to your technique I would consider continuing and developing.

I like this poem.

Michael

[F L Light]

Michael,

Antiphonal couplets is what I call this style of repetition. Tibetan Buddhists use something like this form:

"After the purification ceremony in the chapel is concluded, the outside

ceremony continues. The lamas, followed by men and women, move in a

circular dance while reciting prayers. A bonfire is built, and groups of

men and women continue to chant the mani hymns. Groups of men and women

exchange songs of sadness (tser-glu) in antiphonal couplets (Desjarlais,

1991). These exchanges of songs of sadness continue until dawn."

Tibetan Buddhism and the resolution of grief by Robert Goss

There are shadows of this style in the stichomuthia sections of Greek tragedy.

There is hardly a line in Greek tragedy without inversion or transposition, I do not believe in the deconstruction of poetry, which would allow nothing poetically unusual or unprosaic. Deconstruction is the ultimate pedestrian end of art.

Let transposition set the potency

Of neurons to revise philosophy.

I have already composed a number of manuscripts of antiphonal couplets.

How is it that I have yet to receive an intelligent reply, like yours, at Solop?

F L

The Eleutherian Laureate

Edited October 12, 2007 by F L Light