Poetry Thread

[Marion Arnott]

By permission of the Boss, the poetry thread, so beloved by a samll select group which you are all welcome to join, returns. Kicking off with a Plath poem which has gven me the shudders for years. It's the final lines that get to me...


http://plagiarist.com/poetry/1390/

[Bob Lock]

Dylan Thomas's THE FORCE THAT THROUGH THE GREEN FUSE DRIVES THE FLOWER sends a shiver down my spine:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15379
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[des2]

Thanks for opening this thread, Marion.
I can't remember the Sylvia Plath poem I posted just before the old boards disappeared, but here is her 'Daddy':
http://www.internal.org/view_poem.phtml?poemID=356

I love Dylan Thomas, too. Although I think Rhys Hughes has gone on record in saying he is overrated.
Here is 'Death Has No Dominion':
http://perso.orange.fr/isa-gali-atari-unofficial/dylan.html

Which sort of revibes with the Plath poem Marion just posted?
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[Marion Arnott]

Yes, it does, Des: 'there were always two' - Daddy and Hughes. I have always been vaguely disturbed by the Holocaust imagery in 'Daddy'. Too much perhaps? Perhaps a statement about domestic Fascism, forgetting that it requires cooperation in a way that the Jewish Holocaust did not?

Bob and Des - afraid I'm with Rhys! Thomas is good and his words are mighty, but also a bit blowsy for my tastes, a bit lacking in substance, like a clever child who never manages to amoung too much.

Sacrilege? Probably!

[des2]

In certain moods, I really love 'Under Milk Wood' - especially with Richard Burton in it.
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[Bob Lock]

Well I have to admit I haven't read much of Thomas's prose, just scraps here and there. However, I quite like a lot of his poetry even though as Marion says it can be somewhat blowsy but I wouldn't go as far as to call it over-rated
Here's an obvious one to mention, and this link has an audio rendition too, nice.
Do not go gentle:
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15377
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[Marion Arnott]

In certain moods, he makes me think of huge overblown peonies! Isn't it funny how the same poet, and a recognised 'great' at that, can have different effects on people? I like individual lines, but fine the overall work too sparwling and full of things I can't quite identify. There you go...

[Marion Arnott]

Nice reading of the Thomas there, Bob.

Plath's obsession with dying put me in mind of Keats who didn;t want to:

When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain;
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love;--then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.

He's so much more human somehow...

[des2]

A beautiful reading by Dylan Thomas himself. I heard that recording many years ago on the Home Service on the wireless. Nce to hear it again. Absolutely matchless. Didn't Bob Dylan name himself after Thomas?

Here is my favourite sonnet on death:

Death be not Proud (Holy Sonnets: X)
by John Donne

Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so,
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure: then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
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[des2]

BTW, Marion,


those lines from Keats:

--then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.


were quoted on the title page of NEMONYMOUS TWO
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[Bob Lock]

Hi Marion,

I quite liked that Keats' piece, and that wasn't me reading it BTW, Marion!
However, I do have an audio of me reading my Moby Dick poem if you'd like to see how my voice holds up against Thomas and Burton, hehe and you can always throw rotten tomatoes at the screen in appreciation

http://www2.blogger.com/profile/03141837277102776901

there should be a link there somewhere

Des,
Yeah, I think you're right, Bob Dylan did change his name from Zimmerman when he started out. Have you heard his latest CD Modern Times? Quite enjoyable.

Bob
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[Marion Arnott]

[Marion Arnott]

[rhysaurus]

The reason I don't like the work of Dylan Thomas and believe him to be overrated is because my ex-girlfriend worshipped him, to the extent of living in the house where he was born and becoming events organiser of the Dylan Thomas centre.

She loved Dylan Thomas but treated me badly. Ergo: Thomas is overrated and rubbish and I hate him. Simple!

For a similar reason I dislike Kerouac and Tolkien. My literary biases have nothing to do with literary merit. My way saves time!

[Marion Arnott]

My ex liked Jeesica Rabbit - but I never cared for the dame anyway!