Christopher Ricks on Friday

Christopher Ricks began his lecture/panel by stating that, in contrast to the categorization of T.S. Eliot as the great poet/critic, Ricks himself was a critic, but no poet. He then proceeded to give a lecture of such quality, both in content and in aural aesthetic, that I daresay he proved himself wrong. To say the least, it was an astounding performance, painstakingly thought-out and carefully delivered. A lecture ostensibly about the poetic quality of Bob Dylan's lyrics, the list of topics Ricks didn't touch upon might be shorter than the list of topics he did; his ability to compress such a wealth of material into such a brief time slot (approx. 2 hours) and such an accessible package was nothing short of a feat. It was poetry, and I am glad to have been able to attend.