Okay, my primary objection to the poem is that it's awful. It's not just that it's laden with stereotypes, but it's distastefully unoriginal and lacking in artistic value. This is gift shop poetry. I would perhaps be less appalled by its obvious lack of intrinsic value if it were placed (appropriately) on a coffee mug or a greeting card, but to proclaim this as the state's best - or, at least, most characteristic - poem is, in my opinion, acutely disrespectful to the rather significant literary canon that has been produced by writers and poets from Mississippi. Personally, I'm less convinced that this would put forth the "wrong image" of Mississippi to the rest of the country or the world. (The world is interested in our state poem? Get real.) I think, rather, that it's more a matter of pride in our abilities to create better works of art than this grade-school introduction to Words That Rhyme (no matter how hard they are forced). That's not even to mention the lack of any significant rhythmic flow in the poem (is there any sense to
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I don't know that it's fair to say that the population would be unable to understand a real poem. Even if that were the case, I don't see how pandering to the masses' ignorance would be a victory for the arts.
And 'simplicity' is not the operative word here. The operative word is awful.
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The argument against it is that 90% of Mississippi wouldn't understand a real poem in its place.
But again, the simplicity of it is a bit unnerving for a state poem.
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And 'simplicity' is not the operative word here. The operative word is awful.
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