Do not ask me to read your stuff,
and say, at the same time, "This may not be the best."
Why would I want to bother, then,
to read this poem or any of the rest
you have? If you suggest
this lack of quality, I already know enough.
Author's Notes/Comments:
I think young poets say disparging things about their work for two reasons: either attempting to head off criticism by being first to criticize, or trolling for encouragement by the reader's denial of the assertion "Oh, don't be so hard on yourself." So I will share a marvelous moment, from the Autumn of 1976, provided by Professor Bob P---, with whom I studied literature at college. I had brought him a long poem (four hundred some lines) which was my imitation of John Milton's closet drama, Samson Agonistes. I had asked him to read it, and assess it, and he had agreed. When I handed him the manuscript, I said, "It probably isn't as good as it should be." He paused for a moment, then said, "Okay," and handed it back. After an awkward pause, he said, "I am very busy. You asked me to take time to read your poem, which I was willing to do, but then you told me it probably isn't as good as it should be. If you already know this, what more can I add, and why would you have asked me to take the time to read it?" Then he laughed and said, "I will still read it, but take this as a lesson. Never tell your reader about the quality of the poem: if it is 'not as good as it should be,' then why offer it to them? Let the reader(s) assess the poem's quality. If it is publishable, then you better know that it is your best." He handed the poem back to me a few days later and said, "It is a colossal bore," and then directed me to the Modernist poets, starting me with T S Eliot, whom I studied on my own for three years; and, in reaction to whom, I was led to Wallace Stevens, whom I have been reading without pause, since October of 1978.
Oh, by the way, this epigram may not be the best I have posted.
