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News Values (some time last November) (Sonnet) by Nicholas Jones Switch on TV; let's hope there is something
That will divert me from all of this shit
Shut out all of my worries concerning
The modern world and what goes on in it
But then: NEWSFLASH; this programme is delayed
We interrupt our schedules to bring you
Despatches from the front line of today
Reports on happenings that must be viewed.
This could be anything, I think, could be
Explosions, war: I see inside my head
Destruction from the air or from the seas
Please Lord, let there not be too many dead.
But then the headline comes and they tell me
Butler who did not steal has now been freed.
Up the ladder:
Untitled
Down the ladder:
Chocolate Rabbit Ears & Gay Sex
Votes: (green: user, blue: anonymous)
Arithmetic Mean: 5.181818
Posted: February 21, 2003 3:38 AM PST; Last modified: February 21, 2003 3:38 AM PSTWeighted score: 5.090909 Overall Rank: 6187 Comments:
[7]
spank me baby yeah @ 195.92.194.18
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21-Feb-03/10:11 AM
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Reply
MY HEAD CANT TAKE THIS BUT YOUR AN INTELLECTUAL ICON, GECKOBLAST 7
i quite like this although i don't really think its a poem. maybe i only like it cuz i do the same thingwith the tv and the worrying and the fear and such
very well structured, very nice iambic and ryhme
i would suggest working on the couplet at the end... it feels a little stilted
Thank you for your kind comment. I agree, the ending in retrospect is a bit weak. I came up with lots of different lines, but none of them quite worked - it has to convey the information and also fit the sonnet structure.
oh come on the ending is the only good thing in the entire piece! "Butler who did not steal has now been freed." -- genius! You build up the tension, and the reader thinks it's going to be another Nicholas Jones epic about political issues and the labour party and welsh suffering and war in iraq, but then when the news comes on the headlines are just laughably mundane. Of course, rather than seeing the funny side of all this, I'm sure Nicholas Jones is deeply disappointed with the quality of "News Values" in modern society. "Why do we care more about butlers than we do about human suffering and welsh issues?" Well I've got news for you, Nicholas: if you want to watch your "Carry On" films in peace, along with all the other working class Labour bumpkins, then I suggest you get Sky TV rather than spending all your time (not to mention taxpayer's money) writing a PhD about it.
Yes, of course the bathos is the point. The end is meant to be laughably mundane. But perhaps I could express it better. But the point is, it does fucking matter that Princess Diana's ex-butler gets more coverage than, say, 966 people being massacred in the Congo last month. By the way, my PhD is on a poet called Harri Webb who was a hardcore Welsh Nationalist, and designed the symbol used by the Free Wales Army, one of the least competent terrorist groups in history.
Sounds just like a PhD on "Why won't those bloody tories let me watch 'Carry On' films in peace!", to me. But don't worry, Nicholas. At least you're doing something useful - I'm sure there's a great deal we could learn from dangerously incompetent welsh terrorists.
Harri Webb wasn't actually a terrorist, he just designed the symbol. But he did write the mighty 'Advice to a Young Poet' which goes
Are you related to Dr Thomas Jones?
Something freaky happened there, and cut a bit off my message.
The poem goes: Sing for Wales or shut your trap All the rest's a load crap. Which is pretty succinct. No, I'm not Dr. Thomas Jones. But there was a Dr. Thomas Jones who inspired the following short poem: Where now he lies his own routine Will suffer scant disruption For none could say he'd ever been A stranger to corruption.
I know. That's why I asked if you were related.
He was your father, wasn't he? 254 view(s)
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