Alternative For goodness' sake, br Plead his friends, br Cut out the razzmatazz. br Make a point and get it across. br Use slang. And put some jargon br Into your stuff. All right, say some, br The keener diagnosticians, br Perhaps it's not the gimmicks, br But where's your bite, br The cerebral edge, there's no br Dialectic. What to do? br The poet wonders. Strip br The Muse, put her on a Suzuki, br Make her sputter Hegelian quirks br Like all the rest? br Or shall I whistle Lillibullero br And gae to my Anna? Disquisition on Matters of Principle Later br He got his own back, br Obliquely, in some of his verse: br A mistake his friends, at one br With his critics, condemned. br Although, on further reflection, br A number (of both parties) agreed that br From a mere poetological viewpoint br It didn't, perhaps, matter, in principle, br Whether br But rather br And that br If Drab Prospect These voices, proceeding - whence else? - from the poet's marasm, br Keep up their susurrus, annoying the Muses br With their dissensions and fuss, obscuring Apollo br With interminable logodaedal mist.