Talk:Tea (poem)

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"Tea" is a highly regarded poem by a highly regarded poet, perhaps the finest of the 20th century. The page gives students of Stevens a point of entry into the poem. It also connects the reader to the literature. I agree that the page is `stub class', but I don't understand the importance as `low'. The poem is an important poetic achievement. Others will surely add to my stub and make the case for its importance. Rats (talk) 00:44, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

Rats, I can see you are obviously a big fan of Stevens. This is not a problem. However, I think you may need to step back and look at this objectively. You have stated that this is a "highly regarded poem" and that it is "an important poetic achievement", but there are no sources verifying this. The only source currently in the article talks about the poem in the context of the book it was published in. Are there any independent discussions of the poem by itself? Otherwise, it's not clear why this poem deserves its own independent article.--Aervanath lives in the Orphanage 05:39, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

I hope that the new Eleanor Cook reference justifies removing the flags. It's an independent discussion of the poem itself, in a distinguished press. Maybe this is enough to spare the page's life? If the Cook ref doesn't show that I'm stepping back enough, I can add more. I don't have time to do an exhaustive comparative study, but the anecdotal evidence of Ah!_Sunflower or Fire_and_Ice_(poem), for example, suggests that "Tea" is relatively deserving of an article. The "Tea" page has more citations, and the commentary is fuller than these examples. I think I can say this with a degree of objectivity, even if I prefer Stevens's poetry to Blake's or Frost's. I wouldn't stress the word 'independent' however, because the poem's connection to the larger collection in which it appears, Harmonium, is significant. I tried to bring this out by adding just now a reference to the main essay's "The Mind of China" section. It's connectedness makes it different from some other poem pages, which are `orphaned'. (See for instance Dei_sepolcri) Rats (talk) 23:58, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

Rats, the Cook reference takes care of all of my concerns. Good job! However, I am re-adding the {{orphan}} tag, since the orphan criteria are quite clear on what does and doesn't qualify as an orphan, as "orphan" is a precisely defined technical term on Wikipedia. It doesn't refer to the status of the subject, merely to how many articles have wikilinks to this one. Looking at Special:WhatLinksHere/Tea_(poem), though, it looks like there only needs to be one other article that links here before it meets the requirements. Dei sepolcri, interestingly, already had enough incoming wikilinks, so I've removed that orphan tag. Happy editing!--Aervanath lives in the Orphanage 20:34, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

Thanks! I've removed the orphan flag because I think I've fixed the problem. (There are now links from the Java and Tea pages.) If the problem persists, put the flag back up please and I'll try again.Rats (talk) 01:25, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

Looks good!--Aervanath lives in the Orphanage 01:30, 3 October 2008 (UTC)