Palinody

is an ode in which the writer retracts a view or sentiment expressed in an earlier poem.

The firstest, most famous palinode is by Stesichorus, where he recants an earlier poem in which he blames Helen for being the root cause of the Trojan war:

That story is not true.
You [Helen] never sailed in the benched ships.
You never went to the city of Troy.

Stesichorus, according to Anne Carson's "The Autobiography of Red" was the first author to have given adjectives --" the latches of being" -- their importance in language.

Anyway, Carson's poem is a re-working of the myth of Geryon, the monster who herded Zeus' red cattle, based on fragments by the adjectival Stesichorus.

A very intellectual discussion is taking place at Simply Jews, the equivalent of the theological debate: how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

It has to do with everything referred to in this introduction, from Palin, who acts the Helen in the current American politics, (the object of both lusty villification* and rapturous gushing**) to red cows, or white bears.

Recommended for the woefully bored. As you can see.
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* "Palin is a conniving, manipulative, asshole "
"She�s a bigot, a racist and a liar"
" This woman is the devil!" (from here)

** "Sarah Palin.... despite her beauty, her smiles, and her humor.... was also Annie Oakley- deadly and no man’s pushover;" (Chesler)