:20:02
No, sir.
A science experiment.
:20:06
Radar.
:20:12
Gentlemen, open your texts
to page 2 1 of the introduction.
:20:16
Mr Perry, will you read the opening
paragraph of the preface...
:20:19
entitled "Understanding Poetry"?
:20:22
"Understanding Poetry
by Dr J. Evans Pritchard, PhD.
:20:27
To fully understand poetry,
we must first be fluent...
:20:30
with its metre, rhyme
and figures of speech.
:20:33
Then ask two questions:
One, how artfully has the objective
of the poem been rendered?
:20:37
And two, how important
is that objective?
:20:39
Question one rates
the poem's perfection.
:20:42
Question two rates its importance.
:20:44
And once these questions
have been answered...
:20:46
determining the poem's greatness
becomes a relatively simple matter.
:20:50
If the poem's score for perfection is
plotted on the horizontal of a graph...
:20:55
and its importance
is plotted on the vertical...
:20:59
then calculating
the total area of the poem...
:21:02
yields the measure of its greatness.
:21:07
A sonnet by Byron might score high...
:21:10
on the vertical,
but only average on the horizontal.
:21:14
A Shakespearean sonnet on the,
on the other hand would...
:21:17
score high both horizontally
and vertically...
:21:21
yielding a massive total area...
:21:22
thereby revealing the poem
to be truly great.
:21:27
As you proceed through the poetry in
this book, practise this rating method.
:21:31
As your ability to evaluate poems
in this manner grows...
:21:34
so will, so will your enjoyment
and understanding of poetry."
:21:43
Excrement.
:21:47
That's what I think of
Mr J. Evans Pritchard.
:21:50
We're not laying pipe.
We're talking about poetry.
:21:53
How can you describe poetry
like American Bandstand?
:21:56
"Oh, I like Byron. I give him a 42,
but I can't dance to it."