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Dictionary Lesson (Free verse) by Dovina

When I said, “I love you,” and soon realized its reciprocal, “You love me,” and its result, “We are in love,” and much later, with its contrary, “I don’t love you,” and finally its opposite, “I hate you,” and when, after a long hiatus, its many reverses blured into, “I have no feeling for you,” I realized my dictionary is a history, written ahead of fact, a compendium of devolution.

zodiac 20-Nov-04/12:59 AM
No I'm not.

1) Since we're talking about an imaginary transformation, it's not like it fucking matters, but if I were told to reverse all the terms of "x > 1", I would answer "1 < x". The statement "I love you" is roughly equivalent.

2) One would be tempted to say the opposite of "a Negro man" is "a White man". Unfortunately, no one but the most floundering duff would say something like that. For one thing, it implies a polarity between Negro Man and White Man which doesn't really exist. The real opposite of "a Negro man" is "a non-Negro Man".

Look at it this way: The statement "I love you" can easily be rewritten as "The statement 'I love you' is true". What's the diametric opposite of that? ANSWER: "The statement 'I love you' is false", or "I don't love you."

3) What's so fucking hard to understand about the following?
con·trar·y ( P ) Pronunciation Key (kntrr)
adj.
Opposed, as in character or purpose
...
Opposite in direction or position: Our boat took a course contrary to theirs. See Synonyms at opposite.
...
Something that is opposite or contrary.
Either of two opposing or contrary things:
...

Ergo, the words "reciprocal", "contrary", "opposite" and "reverses" as used in your poem are expressing THE EXACT SAME THING!!!

4) Ibid.

5) Ibid.

6) "My dictionary, read in the feeling of the time, is..." means something totally different from "I realized my dictionary is...". In fact, that's more-or-less the revision suggestion I made earlier. I'm not arguing your meaning, I'm arguing that what you said in the poem is different from your meaning. You've essentially just agreed.

7) I agree that my last couple of poem are pretty feelingless. I've been trying for something different and not acheiving it. Before that, my posts kick your posts' asses. Anyway, you're just saying that because I don't "feel" your poems. BUT ISN'T THERE ANOTHER POSSIBILITY???!?! THAT YOUR POEMS AREN'T VERY GOOD AT RELATING FEELING?!!?! YES!!!!!!

8) I count only two "reverses" in this poem: from "I love you" to "you love me", and from "I love you" to "I don't love (or hate) you". Ergo, your going on about "its many reverses" is a load of guff. Ergo, you're something like saying "Earlier it was light, but now it's dark. I have a hangover. My experience of the world is an unending devolution." Bow'ls.




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