Darryl: Good points. I did a poor job of defining univeral. I made it sound like a synonym for general, which it is not. Good poetry reaches the universal through the particular. This was best stated by William Carlos William’s famous dictum: “No ideas but in things.” He was right, the things (particulars) will lead to the ideas (universals), if written well. You are also right that polemics never make good art. More people should be familiar with the term polemic. Thanks for pointing this out.