tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post10604428828661054..comments2024-03-23T20:37:37.891-07:00Comments on First Known When Lost: Dover Beach. Calais. Swanage.Stephen Pentzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-17602560787473907872014-10-23T09:03:20.369-07:002014-10-23T09:03:20.369-07:00Monophthalmos Rex: Thank you very much for your t...Monophthalmos Rex: Thank you very much for your thoughts. I agree with you on both counts -- provided that you read "keen delight" with tongue-in-cheek!<br /><br />Thanks again.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-42873594711901842632014-10-23T03:27:29.902-07:002014-10-23T03:27:29.902-07:00I can't see how Yeats could not have Dover Bea...I can't see how Yeats could not have Dover Beach in mind in his lines. And how much of modern poetry has followed his sentiment!Monophthalmos Rexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13814495216488968291noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-7845483701076280192014-10-21T21:22:30.610-07:002014-10-21T21:22:30.610-07:00Anonymous and Mr. Allen: Thanks to both of you fo...Anonymous and Mr. Allen: Thanks to both of you for sharing Hecht's variation on Arnold. I've always liked "a sort of mournful cosmic last resort." It gets to the heart of the matter. <br /><br />Thanks again.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-72318930488188860802014-10-21T21:14:22.367-07:002014-10-21T21:14:22.367-07:00Mr. Floyd: Thank you very much for sharing "...Mr. Floyd: Thank you very much for sharing "Last Week in October." Its time is here. Coincidentally, last week when I was out walking I saw just such a leaf suspended about six feet above the ground on a strand of web.<br /><br />I agree that Hardy's poem makes a good pairing with Frost's "October," with its "Slow, slow!" A thought I am in sympathy with right now.<br /><br />Thanks again.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-83810423488142891602014-10-21T14:15:36.257-07:002014-10-21T14:15:36.257-07:00I've always had sympathy with the feelings exp...I've always had sympathy with the feelings expressed in Anthony Hecht's The Dover Bitch:<br /><br /><br /><br />So there stood Matthew Arnold and this girl<br />With the cliffs of England crumbling away behind them,<br />And he said to her, ‘Try to be true to me,<br />And I’ll do the same for you, for things are bad<br />All over, etc., etc.'<br />Well now, I knew this girl. It’s true she had read<br />Sophocles in a fairly good translation<br />And caught that bitter allusion to the sea,<br />But all the time he was talking she had in mind<br />The notion of what his whiskers would feel like<br />On the back of her neck. She told me later on<br />That after a while she got to looking out<br />At the lights across the channel, and really felt sad,<br />Thinking of all the wine and enormous beds<br />And blandishments in French and the perfumes.<br />And then she got really angry. To have been brought<br />All the way down from London, and then be addressed<br />As a sort of mournful cosmic last resort<br />Is really tough on a girl, and she was pretty.<br />Anyway, she watched him pace the room<br />And finger his watch-chain and seem to sweat a bit,<br />And then she said one or two unprintable things.<br />But you mustn’t judge her by that. What I mean to say is, <br />She’s really all right. I still see her once in a while<br />And she always treats me right. We have a drink<br />And I give her a good time, and perhaps it’s a year<br />Before I see her again, but there she is, <br />Running to fat, but dependable as they come.<br />And sometimes I bring her a bottle of Nuit d’ Amour.<br />Roger Allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11012987757094423896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-24812785230804370682014-10-21T09:46:07.579-07:002014-10-21T09:46:07.579-07:00Some readers may find this parody by Anthony Hecht...Some readers may find this parody by Anthony Hecht of Arnold's "Dover Beach" amusing.<br /><br /> The Dover Bitch <br /> So there stood Matthew Arnold and this girl<br /> With the cliffs of England crumbling away behind them,<br /> And he said to her, 'Try to be true to me,<br /> And I'll do the same for you, for things are bad<br /> All over, etc., etc.'<br /> Well now, I knew this girl. It's true she had read<br /> Sophocles in a fairly good translation<br /> And caught that bitter allusion to the sea,<br /> But all the time he was talking she had in mind<br /> The notion of what his whiskers would feel like<br /> On the back of her neck. She told me later on<br /> That after a while she got to looking out<br /> At the lights across the channel, and really felt sad,<br /> Thinking of all the wine and enormous beds<br /> And blandishments in French and the perfumes.<br /> And then she got really angry. To have been brought<br /> All the way down from London , and then be addressed<br /> As a sort of mournful cosmic last resort<br /> Is really tough on a girl, and she was pretty.<br /> Anyway, she watched him pace the room<br /> And finger his watch-chain and seem to sweat a bit,<br /> And then she said one or two unprintable things.<br /> But you mustn't judge her by that. What I mean to say is,<br /> She's really all right. I still see her once in a while<br /> And she always treats me right. We have a drink<br /> And I give her a good time, and perhaps it's a year<br /> Before I see her again, but there she is,<br /> Running to fat, but dependable as they come.<br /> And sometimes I bring her a bottle of Nuit d' Amour.<br />-- Anthony Hecht<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-55904269712376507322014-10-21T09:43:21.860-07:002014-10-21T09:43:21.860-07:00Since we, you and your readers, have talked much a...Since we, you and your readers, have talked much about Hardy recently, I submit the following poem. Though we have ten days left in October, we can, I think, find the poem apt.<br /><br />It's interesting to compare Hardy's poem with Frost's "October." The tone of the poems is different, Frost more sanguine, or seeming to be: in truth both poems have the same theme: autumn as augury of man's fate.<br /><br /> Last Week In October<br /><br />The trees are undressing, and fling in many places —<br />On the gray road, the roof, the window-sill —<br />Their radiant robes and ribbons and yellow laces;<br />A leaf each second so is flung at will,<br />Here, there, another and another, still and still.<br /><br />A spider's web has caught one while downcoming,<br />That stays there dangling when the rest pass on;<br />Like a suspended criminal hangs he, mumming<br />In golden garb, while one yet green, high yon,<br />Trembles, as fearing such a fate for himself anon.J. B. Floydnoreply@blogger.com