🚀 go-pugleaf

On Wednesday, August 10, 2022 at 7:00:08 PM UTC-4, Zod wrote:
> Will Dockery wrote: 
> > On Saturday, July 30, 2022 at 3:57:27 PM UTC-4, NancyGene wrote: 
> >> On Saturday, July 30, 2022 at 7:05:04 PM UTC, George Dance wrote: 
> >> 
> >>> > > > > Today's poem on Penny's Poetry Blog: 
> >>> > > > > A July Day, by Eben E. Rexford 
> >>> > > > > [...] 
> >>> > > > > A glory wraps the hills, and seems 
> >>> > > > > To weave an atmosphere of dreams 
> >>> > > > > [...] 
> >>> > > > > https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/2022/07/a-july-day-eben-e-rexford.html 
> >>> > > > > 
> >>> > > > > Picture: William Merritt Chase (1849-1916), Summer at Shinnecock Hills, 
> >>> > > > > 1891. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons 
> >>> > > > What a boring, sing-song poem! 
> >>> > > Look who's talking. 
> >>> > > 
> >>> > > You and Michael Pendragon specialize in dreary sing-song, second handed rhymes, Nancy Gene. 
> >>> > You defend a poem that you didn't read by attacking Michael's and our poems? 
> >>> Not really. 
> 
> >> You are "not really" defending the poem 
> 
> > That's right, but the poem is just as good or better than the bland sing-song second handed poetry you and Michael Pendragon churn out, Nancy Gene. 
> 
> > HTH and HAND.
> I found this poem to be quite cogent...

FYI: 

Cogent
adjective
1a : appealing forcibly to the mind or reason : convincing cogent evidence
b : pertinent, relevant a cogent analysis
2 : having power to compel or constrain cogent forces

If these definitions (courtesy of Merriam-Webster) don't sound like they're describing poems, it's because the word "cogent" doesn't apply to poetry.

A criminal lawyer's argument can be cogent; a textbook can be cogent; a scientific paper can be cogent; a newspaper article can be cogent; a philosophical argument can be cogent; a political speech can be cogent... but a poem neither can, nor should, be.

One does not use poetry to present and analysis or argument.  A poem captures an emotion, a mood, a tone.  Nor does poetry seek to appeal to reason.  Poetry employs symbolism and metaphors which are often difficult to understand and/or open to multiple interpretations.  There are often numerous layers (and meanings) to an individual poem.  

To call a poem "cogent" is to compare it to "The Federalist Papers" or "Origin of Species."

There are only a handful of poems where "cogent" would be even remotely applicable: Lucretius' "On the Nature of Things," for example (although it includes the use of metaphor); but "A July Day," a whimsical idyll, is not one of them.

Rexford's poem is easy to follow, and clearly expressed -- but that doesn't make it cogent.  There is no argument or analysis being set forth in "A July Day."  It's a poem, not a term paper, and you do it an unintentional disservice by describing in terms generally reserved for the latter.