I have really enjoyed my survey classes of British and American Lit. I just wanted to share some of my favorites that I have been reading lately.
This Is Just To Say
by William Carlos Williams
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
In a Station of the Metro
by Ezra Pound
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
Leda and the Swan
by W. B. Yeats
A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.
How can those terrified vague fingers push
The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?
And how can body, laid in that white rush,
But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?
A shudder in the loins engenders there
The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnon dead.
Being so caught up,
So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?
The Red Wheelbarrow
by William Carlos Williams
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
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6 comments:
I want to incorporate Leda and the Swan into my vows.
I SAID this blog is "Totally Unrelated to All Things Wedding." Way to ruin it for everybody. Just kidding. I guess I like it because she is being raped by a swan and Yeats makes you feel just how disturbing and horrible some of our myths are. If that's not talent I don't know what is. However, when Dr. Winterhalter tried to relate this poem to the story of Jesus's conception, or as she called it "the story of when Mary was raped by a dove," I think she took it a little too far.
I read some parody's of the Williams' poem. They were really funny. I'll have to see if I can find them.
We covered Leda and the Swan in my Irish Lit class a couple of months ago. He published two versions and the earlier version is a lot less disturbing.
That poem reminds me of this painting by Klimt. It's about Danae (who was also impregnated by Zeus, like Leda). Okay, so I'm a nerd. http://realmagick.com/images/articles/1973/danae.jpg
I love Yeats. Here is a nice poem by Yeats for after the wedding:
When You Are Old
WHEN you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
This is the poetry of the older Yeats - beautiful
That is beautiful. I love the phrase "the pilgrim Soul in you." Thanks, Alicia.
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