_how_is said vs _what_is said --- choice?

Rao Veluri (rveluri@smtpgate.anl.gov)
Wed, 01 Oct 97 13:31:42 CST 

     
     [Alert: This post is not anti-hindoo, not anti-sanskrit, 
     not anti-chandassu, and certainly does not contain lewd 
     or chaste references to the female anatomy. - vrv]
     
     Friends:
     
     I give you two poems. I do not want to say _who_ wrote the
     poems. Let us be honest partners (shed the egoes and high flown
     verbiage!) and discuss, if _how_ is said is more/less important 
     than _what_ is said. This is not a challenge to any one. I have
     been in my prosaic way struggling to resolve it for myself!
     
     Poem 1.
     
     I, too, sing America.
     
     I am the darker brother.
     They send me to eat in the kitchen
     When company comes,
     But I laugh,
     And eat well,
     And grow strong.
     
     Tomorrow,
     I'll be at the table
     When company comes.
     Nobody'll dare 
     Say to me,
     "Eat in the kitchen,"
     Then.
     
     Besides,
     They'll see how beautiful I am
     And be ashamed-
     
     I, too, am America.
     
     ____________________
     
     Poem 2.
     
     When I die
     Do not throw the meat and bones away.
     But pile them up,
     And
     Let them tell
     By their smell
     What life was worth
     On this earth
     What love was worth
     In the End.
     
     ___________
     
     If I give importance to _how_ it is said, than to 
     _what_ is said, then in my opinion, both the
     pieces fail as poetry. ( Of course, for some other better-read
     folks on telusaa, irrespective of _how_, _what_,
     and _who_ said it, they may be utter failures as poems.
     And, I respect and humbly bow down to that opinion too!)
     
     Can we have a discussion/dialogue on these poems, in reference
     to _how_ and _what_?
     
     ____________________
     
     Begin Side Bar:
     
     Is it possible for us to read vaa.ci.vee's second poem
     again? Doesn't the last line of the poem say something worth
     its salt? Would it be possible to look at the poems, particularly
     the second one, in light of The Genesis? 
     May be I am too pedestrian, simplistic, and stupid. Which I 
     don't deny a bit. 
     
     But, it is worth giving it a shot from a different perspective.
     
     End Side Bar
     _______________________
     
     Best wishes.
     
     V R Veluri
     
     ps: I 'll let you know about the author(s)
     in a later post, if it is necessary.