Poetry

[baboon2004]

thanks both. when i have time i will read that bit about Yeats and history.

have to agree with Corpsey - I am put off by the thought that so much understanding of a poet's personal symbology/numerology/mythology is needed to appreciate his work.

[luka]

its not needed to appreciate it, its just another dimension to it. there are poets who cant be enjoyed without doing the background reading but thats not the norm.

[Corpsey]

Blake is another example that springs to mind immediately.

[luka]

yeah and he was the big influence on yeats. you can enjoy a lot of it without background reading just as you can enjoy kubrick without reading about how he faked the moon landings. i just happen to enjoy reading about faking the moon landings more than i enjoy watching the films. its another dimension like i say. more brilliant than the sun is largely about that mode of enjoyment.

[Corpsey]

This is heavy going for a hot, hungover day. I rather like the idea of history operating in cycles, as much as I disbelieve it, or at the least doubt it.

[luka]

learn to think in terms of symbols and images. its not so much an attempt at literal verifiable truth its about encapsulating reality and experience in a series of images/symbols. thats whats going on here and its why theres so much common ground between a poet like yeats and occultism.

[Corpsey]

What are your favourite Yeats poems, luka?

I've got a volume of his poetry and I've been dipping into it haphazardly.

I liked this one, which seems more straightforward than e.g. Leda and the Swan

WHY should not old men be mad?
Some have known a likely lad
That had a sound fly-fisher's wrist
Turn to a drunken journalist;
A girl that knew all Dante once
Live to bear children to a dunce;
A Helen of social welfare dream,
Climb on a wagonette to scream.
Some think it a matter of course that chance
Should starve good men and bad advance,
That if their neighbours figured plain,
As though upon a lighted screen,
No single story would they find
Of an unbroken happy mind,
A finish worthy of the start.
Young men know nothing of this sort,
Observant old men know it well;
And when they know what old books tell
And that no better can be had,
Know why an old man should be mad.

[luka]

i dont know corpsey. i dont really read poetry. im not into it.

[Corpsey]

I don't believe you, you need more people.

Here's a rather good one I read last night.

24. Fallen Majesty

ALTHOUGH crowds gathered once if she but showed her face,
And even old men’s eyes grew dim, this hand alone,
Like some last courtier at a gypsy camping place,
Babbling of fallen majesty, records what’s gone.

The lineaments, a heart that laughter has made sweet,
These, these remain, but I record what’s gone. A crowd
Will gather, and not know it walks the very street
Whereon a thing once walked that seemed a burning cloud.

[luka]

The gyres are a way to hold all of human history in a single thought. There's no room for sub clauses or caveats sadly.

[baboon2004]

Emily Dickinson:

Tell all the truth but tell it slant —
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind —

This is a fabulously interesting article on Emily Dickinson, and what her work might or might be trying to communicate about trauma, whether intentionally or subconsciously: as well as feeding into the discussion of how (real or imagined) biographical detail can interact with a poet's work: http://psyartjournal.com/article/sho...emily_dickinso
Most academic articles on art strip the art of its magic; this one manages to enhance the poetry, imo. I picked up a random book of ED's poetry recently, and what I read was almost unbearably trite...the contrast between that and this itself strongly suggests she experienced trauma....the switch between the unbearably bland and the unbearably affecting

[luka]

There was an Old Man of Whitehaven,
Who danced a quadrille with a Raven;
But they said - "It's absurd, to encourage this bird!"
So they smashed that Old Man of Whitehaven.

Edward Lear.

[Mr. Tea]

There was an Old Man of Whitehaven,
Who danced a quadrille with a Raven;
But they said - "It's absurd, to encourage this bird!"
So they smashed that Old Man of Whitehaven.

Edward Lear.

"Limericks" where the first and last lines end in the same word can get to fuck.

[luka]

Intemperate judgement. That is the standard form.

[Mr. Tea]

I don't care, they're lazy and rubbish.