Continuing meme sheepage.
So, to recap; Ian gave me these seven words - doggerel, paean, shameful, decadent, delicious, glory, mentor - and I wrote on "glory" straight away. I also got these from John - spooky, song, pop, politic, flat, far, plan, tea.
To continue, then:
Doggerel
A deorgatory term, doggerel, for those who came in late, is generally held to be verse with little literary merit, and thus is Bad Poetry. Personally, I have a soft spot for quite a bit of doggerel, and I hold that it is a very different thing from Bad Poetry indeed. In fact, some of my favourite poetry has no literary merit what so ever, but is still lovely to recite. Doggerel is frequently humourous, although rarely intentionally so, and while there is some truly dreadful poetry out there, there is much doggerel to be sucked on and savoured, something like a dreadful sweet whose flavour you get to perversely like before you can swallow it.
After all, who could not love:
Dust to dust, and ashes to ashes,
Into the tomb the Great Queen dashes.
Paean
Oddly enough, paeans are frequently my least favourite form of verse, simply because they are often bad enough to be lauded as doggerel in the highest form. There are some marvellous examples about, and those are usually good because they are moderate in their praise of a person or event. (If you aren't familiar with the term, a paean is poetry that traditionally is about a triumph, usually in the form of thanks to god(s) for safe victory, and in more modern times has come to mean any poetry of praise, frequently taken to excess. I've never been able to make up my mind if my dislike of so many paeans is because of over fulsomeness of praise usually smacks to me of insincerity, or because I'm not a huge fan of praising death and destruction competently executed. The more likely truth is simply that so much of it is just plain bad.
And yet, I've written more than enough of it in my time, too, usually in an SCA context, applauding deeds of chivalry and valour. So it can't be all bad.
Shameful
What do I consider shameful? Right now, my country's stand on refugees. I'm appalled that we seem to have this idea that it's perfectly fine to lock people up in horrendous conditions, worse than those we subject tried and convicted criminals to, on the grounds that these refugees might be lying. Our media gets great ratings by drumming up hysteria about illegal immigrants, branding them as refugees. It taps into the darkest part of Australia's psyche, the racist heritage of the White Australia policy of old, and I'm frequently shocked by the vitriol expressed towards refugees by people I know and consider friends. I've actually ended one friendship because of it. I particularly hate the way "economic refugees" are dismissed, as though escaping crippling poverty isn't a legitimate reason to need shelter elsewhere. Most post-war European migrants to Australia in the 50s were economic refugees, after all.
I'm aware that people smuggling is an issue, and I'm aware that there are people who try to bypass the system. I'm also aware that most illegal immigrants aren't refugees, nor are they claiming to be, but people from wealthy western countries who outstay their visas. And I believe there is a need for temporary placement when refugees first arrive, but not detention centres! There needs to be somewhere recently arrived refugees can be helped; they need treatment for their mental and physical health, need to learn to speak English and acquire a degree of literacy, they need to be educated as to Australian law and customs, especially in relation to the status of women and the relative lack of corruption. It's hard to understand how big a change that last one can be - when one lives in a society where backsheesh and bribery are endemic, leaving the dishonesty one needs to survive behind can be a very difficult thing to do, and it needs to be conciously addressed and learned.
But we aren't doing those things. We're locking away men, women and, most appallingly of all, children, we are failing to care for them, and we are pre-emptively punishing them because they might not be 100% truthful about their previous circumstances. And not only are we doing this to people who risk their lives to come to us, but those who come through legal chanels are branded as people who don't really deserve to be here. Because "refugee" has become a word in Australia that means liar, cheat and foreigner. I'd like to think that even if my mother and her family hadn't come to Australia as a refugees, I'd still find that shameful.
The rest will have to wait until tomorrow.
To continue, then:
Doggerel
A deorgatory term, doggerel, for those who came in late, is generally held to be verse with little literary merit, and thus is Bad Poetry. Personally, I have a soft spot for quite a bit of doggerel, and I hold that it is a very different thing from Bad Poetry indeed. In fact, some of my favourite poetry has no literary merit what so ever, but is still lovely to recite. Doggerel is frequently humourous, although rarely intentionally so, and while there is some truly dreadful poetry out there, there is much doggerel to be sucked on and savoured, something like a dreadful sweet whose flavour you get to perversely like before you can swallow it.
After all, who could not love:
Dust to dust, and ashes to ashes,
Into the tomb the Great Queen dashes.
Paean
Oddly enough, paeans are frequently my least favourite form of verse, simply because they are often bad enough to be lauded as doggerel in the highest form. There are some marvellous examples about, and those are usually good because they are moderate in their praise of a person or event. (If you aren't familiar with the term, a paean is poetry that traditionally is about a triumph, usually in the form of thanks to god(s) for safe victory, and in more modern times has come to mean any poetry of praise, frequently taken to excess. I've never been able to make up my mind if my dislike of so many paeans is because of over fulsomeness of praise usually smacks to me of insincerity, or because I'm not a huge fan of praising death and destruction competently executed. The more likely truth is simply that so much of it is just plain bad.
And yet, I've written more than enough of it in my time, too, usually in an SCA context, applauding deeds of chivalry and valour. So it can't be all bad.
Shameful
What do I consider shameful? Right now, my country's stand on refugees. I'm appalled that we seem to have this idea that it's perfectly fine to lock people up in horrendous conditions, worse than those we subject tried and convicted criminals to, on the grounds that these refugees might be lying. Our media gets great ratings by drumming up hysteria about illegal immigrants, branding them as refugees. It taps into the darkest part of Australia's psyche, the racist heritage of the White Australia policy of old, and I'm frequently shocked by the vitriol expressed towards refugees by people I know and consider friends. I've actually ended one friendship because of it. I particularly hate the way "economic refugees" are dismissed, as though escaping crippling poverty isn't a legitimate reason to need shelter elsewhere. Most post-war European migrants to Australia in the 50s were economic refugees, after all.
I'm aware that people smuggling is an issue, and I'm aware that there are people who try to bypass the system. I'm also aware that most illegal immigrants aren't refugees, nor are they claiming to be, but people from wealthy western countries who outstay their visas. And I believe there is a need for temporary placement when refugees first arrive, but not detention centres! There needs to be somewhere recently arrived refugees can be helped; they need treatment for their mental and physical health, need to learn to speak English and acquire a degree of literacy, they need to be educated as to Australian law and customs, especially in relation to the status of women and the relative lack of corruption. It's hard to understand how big a change that last one can be - when one lives in a society where backsheesh and bribery are endemic, leaving the dishonesty one needs to survive behind can be a very difficult thing to do, and it needs to be conciously addressed and learned.
But we aren't doing those things. We're locking away men, women and, most appallingly of all, children, we are failing to care for them, and we are pre-emptively punishing them because they might not be 100% truthful about their previous circumstances. And not only are we doing this to people who risk their lives to come to us, but those who come through legal chanels are branded as people who don't really deserve to be here. Because "refugee" has become a word in Australia that means liar, cheat and foreigner. I'd like to think that even if my mother and her family hadn't come to Australia as a refugees, I'd still find that shameful.
The rest will have to wait until tomorrow.