tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post7155352859169556984..comments2024-03-23T20:37:37.891-07:00Comments on First Known When Lost: Christmas, Part Seven: "Out In The Dark"Stephen Pentzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-52361519967997639942012-12-24T20:43:06.671-08:002012-12-24T20:43:06.671-08:00Fred: ah, that's very nice! I hadn't tho...Fred: ah, that's very nice! I hadn't thought of that. "All out-of-doors looked darkly in at him" and the rest of the poem go together wonderfully with "Out in the Dark" and "The Fallow Deer at the Lonely House."<br /><br />I agree wholeheartedly about "a common perspective," especially when it comes to Thomas and Frost. The last stanza -- and especially the "if you love it not" -- sound to me as if they could have been written by Frost. I think that they had the sort of relationship where they could complete each other's thoughts. "The only brother I ever had," as Frost said of Thomas after Thomas died.<br /><br />As you and I have discussed before, they both have that knack for turning things around and inside out over the course of a poem, and finishing with a reversal.<br /><br />It's always good to hear from you. Merry Christmas.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-18224063161776916932012-12-24T20:30:21.643-08:002012-12-24T20:30:21.643-08:00Alex: thank you very much for that perspective on ...Alex: thank you very much for that perspective on Thomas. There is an elegiac feeling to much of what he wrote, isn't there? I agree with you that, in particular, he was writing an elegy for the English countryside and for its way of life. I'm certain you've heard the anecdote (told by Eleanor Farjeon, I believe): after he joined the army, she (or someone else) asked him what he was fighting for; he picked up some soil and said "This."<br /><br />To pull a phrase by Yeats out of its context: his poetry seems like "a continual farewell." <br /><br />I think that Hardy had a similar sense that things were passing away. Which may explain why he was so keen to bring Dorset's past (and his memories of it) into his poems and novels.<br /><br />Thank you very much for all of your thoughts throughout the year. Merry Christmas to you as well.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-22084690489556851222012-12-24T09:02:05.616-08:002012-12-24T09:02:05.616-08:00Ms. Aykroyd: I'm pleased that you liked the p...Ms. Aykroyd: I'm pleased that you liked the poems. And I hope that Thomas continues to grow on you!<br /><br />As always, thank you for stopping by.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-24173170739991058712012-12-24T08:59:33.708-08:002012-12-24T08:59:33.708-08:00acornmoon: and I thank you for your visits as wel...acornmoon: and I thank you for your visits as well. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-87751400117583908002012-12-24T07:41:41.492-08:002012-12-24T07:41:41.492-08:00Stephen,
Thomas and Hardy, and yet another, Frost...Stephen,<br /><br />Thomas and Hardy, and yet another, Frost. I couldn't help but think of his "An Old Man's Winter Night," which begins--<br /><br />"All out-of-doors looked darkly in at him<br />Through the thin frost, almost in separate stars,<br />That gathers on the pane in empty rooms."<br />- - - - - - <br /><br />And the last three lines<br /><br />"One aged man--one man--can't keep a house,<br />A farm, a countryside, or if he can,<br />It's thus he does it of a winter night."<br /><br /><br />Influences? Probably not, but a common perspective, a way of thinking and seeing?Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10233846613173866140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-27447917013948891302012-12-24T07:29:59.783-08:002012-12-24T07:29:59.783-08:00Edward Thomas' poems can appear, at first sigh...Edward Thomas' poems can appear, at first sight, rather flat, loosely formed, and suffused with an unexplained melancholy. But when you study them more closely you become aware of the originality and intensity with which he observed the natural world and wrote lyrically about English landscapes and country folk. <br /><br />His poetry evokes the English countryside before it became littered with the houses and traffic of far too many people. He was a man who loved the England of 1912, and, with hindsight, he seems to be bidding it a long farewell. As Robin Skelton, the editor of my copy of Edward Thomas' <i>Selected Poems</i>, observes, it's a terrible thing that so often we appreciate people and places only when we are on the point of leaving them. <br /><br />A hundred years on his poems are especially haunting, if, like Thomas Hardy, you're a man who used to notice such things. <br /><br />Happy Christmas, Stephen.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-27097106038697050002012-12-24T05:30:28.023-08:002012-12-24T05:30:28.023-08:00Thanks; the Edward THomas poem and the Hardy poem ...Thanks; the Edward THomas poem and the Hardy poem are both beautiful. I like the connection you've drawn, whether or not it was deliberate, known or conscious. Edward Thomas is growing on me...Clarissa Aykroydhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08571136118573329263noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-39588742177788462142012-12-24T01:28:29.837-08:002012-12-24T01:28:29.837-08:00Dear Steven, I would like to thank you for showing...Dear Steven, I would like to thank you for showing us such beauty throughout the year. With all good wishes for a very Happy Christmas and an inspirational New Year.Acornmoonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14982884920388966786noreply@blogger.com