Tuesday, September 28, 2010

News at Eleven: [Allen] Ginsberg scolded his graduate students

when assignments were incomplete or undone. Sloppy mechanics made him cross. On one occasion he made of an example of me over my failure to capitalize the "d" in "Duomo." This, in the era of typewriters, before the advent of Spellcheck. I think that Ginsberg believed being a poet was an important job. Poets keep the world safe for imagination, and imagination preserves the liberty of even those who care as little for it as for poetry. Ginsberg's admiration for nonconformists did not always extend to emerging poets enrolled in his classes. He was one of those who believed poets should read newspapers, and that a poet should know a rule before breaking it.

from The Huffington Post: Allen Ginsberg: Buddhist Rabbi

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1 comment :

Eric Lester said...

OK, I'll bite. Why does "duomo" need to be capitalized?