tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post5701920533178346364..comments2024-03-23T20:37:37.891-07:00Comments on First Known When Lost: SkylarkStephen Pentzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-47118715157783340382015-01-12T09:57:35.996-08:002015-01-12T09:57:35.996-08:00Ms Jones: That is a touching and lovely way to rem...Ms Jones: That is a touching and lovely way to remember your son. Thank you very much for sharing it. Seeing a kingfisher beside a river is indeed a fitting setting in which to recall him and the things that he loved.<br /><br />And thank you very much for your kind words about the blog. I appreciate your taking the time to visit and comment.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-81566775550964834722015-01-12T02:12:44.353-08:002015-01-12T02:12:44.353-08:00Stephen
I totally agree with John Ashton's wor...Stephen<br />I totally agree with John Ashton's words - there is a sense of joy amidst birds and nature.<br />Your words struck a chord with me "birds are well-suited to serve as emblems of the soul".<br />We are very fortunate in that we get sightings of kingfishers from time to time - these we see as a sign from our late son who was a fisherman and saw kingfishers along our river.<br />Our last sighting was on Christmas morning when we took roses down to the river for our son - it gave us joy,comfort and hope.<br />Thank you for your extraordinary blog - it is a total delight.<br />PamAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07439733741172072058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-3527064315200543922015-01-10T10:31:42.046-08:002015-01-10T10:31:42.046-08:00SolanusGirl: Thank you. I appreciate your kind wo...SolanusGirl: Thank you. I appreciate your kind words.<br /><br />I agree with you about thrushes. In fact, I had thought to add a brief comment about them in the post, but I felt it was getting too long. As you suggest, I will no doubt come to them in the future.<br /><br />Thank you for mentioning Hopkins' "The Caged Skylark." As you may have noticed, I posted his "The Sea and the Skylark" back in December. And "The Caged Skylark" brings to mind another subject on which there have been numerous poems over the centuries: caged songbirds.<br /><br />Thank you again.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-10023263768391630862015-01-10T08:35:46.971-08:002015-01-10T08:35:46.971-08:00Aha, what a lovely post! Thanks for brightening my...Aha, what a lovely post! Thanks for brightening my day. I love skylark poems AND thrush poems (you could spend a lot of time on those too! :) ). Your choices were all new to me, which added enjoyment. My favorite skylark poem is Hopkins' 'The Caged Skylark,' which also treats the soul/body theme and the longing for a time when we, like the lark, will be "perfectly at home in both places" - heaven and earth - as you so aptly remarked in your post. Thanks again for bringing me around to what's real! :)SolanusGirlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11344691864939257115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-42592731586057559712015-01-09T19:41:10.300-08:002015-01-09T19:41:10.300-08:00Fred: Thank you very much: the haiku and Blunden...Fred: Thank you very much: the haiku and Blunden's poem are perfect companions. I have come across a few haiku by Onitsura in Blyth's books, but not this one. I appreciate your sharing it. Another instance of common themes being shared throughout the world.<br /><br />Thanks again.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-27305461192765866512015-01-09T16:06:48.047-08:002015-01-09T16:06:48.047-08:00Stephen,
With reference to your comment regarding...Stephen,<br /><br />With reference to your comment regarding Blunden's poem that removing one line would turn it into something that sounds like a haiku, I thought you might be interested in this haiku:<br /><br /> After the goddess <br />sang, in silence she became<br /> a small, shy green bird.<br /> -- Onitsura --<br /> from More Cricket Songs<br /> trans. Harry Behn<br />Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10233846613173866140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-57006441360681863862015-01-09T10:42:26.600-08:002015-01-09T10:42:26.600-08:00Anonymous: Thank you very much for the wonderful ...Anonymous: Thank you very much for the wonderful lines from Shakespeare, which go quite well here. I particularly like "sings hymns at heaven's gate."<br /><br />As you suggest, we have hardly scratched the surface when it comes to larks!<br /><br />Thanks again.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-77569623092823429502015-01-09T10:37:09.190-08:002015-01-09T10:37:09.190-08:00Mr Ashton: As always, thank you for the kind words...Mr Ashton: As always, thank you for the kind words. I agree with you about Ampu's haiku: I have never gotten to the bottom of it, and I don't think I ever will.<br /><br />Thank you for the lines from Meredith's poem, which I ought to visit as well.<br /><br />I'm pleased that you mentioned blue tits in tandem with sparrows. Coincidentally, last week I read Norman MacCaig's "Blue Tit on a String of Peanuts," which captures their essence wonderfully. As we have discussed in the past, it is often these "ordinary" scenes that one encounters on daily walks that are the most extraordinary, if we pay attention.<br /><br />Thank you again.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-49209029152311953712015-01-09T09:13:49.494-08:002015-01-09T09:13:49.494-08:00In one of his most beloved sonnets, number 29, Sha...In one of his most beloved sonnets, number 29, Shakespeare uses the lark, rising from the air at sunrise and rising into the air until it sings at heaven's gate, as a simile to describe how love remembered chases away self-loathing and despair. The lark, like the nightingale, is much more than a bird in English and American poetry.<br /><br />When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,<br />I all alone beweep my outcast state<br />And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries<br />And look upon myself and curse my fate,<br />Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,<br />Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,<br />Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,<br />With what I most enjoy contented least;<br />Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,<br />Haply I think on thee, and then my state,<br />Like to the lark at break of day arising<br />From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;<br />For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings<br />That then I scorn to change my state with kings.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-27527767240270959562015-01-09T06:56:25.250-08:002015-01-09T06:56:25.250-08:00Mr Pentz,
What a delightful post, there are so m...Mr Pentz, <br /><br />What a delightful post, there are so many wonderful things here. The Basho haiku, the few short lines of Blunden, and the final haiku of Ampu which is one to be read,read again and then time given to it afterwards.<br />In light of your mention of Vaughan Williams ( a favourite of mine too) I read again Meredith's Lark Ascending which I'd not read for a long time and which has some beautiful lines;<br /><br />"He rises and begins to round,<br />He drops the silver chain of sound<br />Of many links without a break, <br />In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake,<br />All intervolv’d and spreading wide,"<br /><br />Two days ago I was taking a walk along a path I ofen walk on my way to some local woods and all along the length of the path there were sparrows and blue tits flitting in and out of the spaces in the hedgerow left by the leaves that have fallen during autumn and winter. There is always such a sense of joy to see and be present among these ordinary, extraordinary creatures.It was a beautiful day and the light on the heaped, fallen leaves between the trees, and the bark of the silver birches was, as it almost always is beyond my poor abilty with words to adequately describe.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Like water-dimples down a tide<br />John Ashtonnoreply@blogger.com