tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post1800693895877318824..comments2024-03-23T20:37:37.891-07:00Comments on First Known When Lost: How To Live, Part Twenty-Six: DwellingStephen Pentzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-3272206199210186512016-06-21T22:47:46.418-07:002016-06-21T22:47:46.418-07:00Ms. Westerhout: That's very nice of you to sa...Ms. Westerhout: That's very nice of you to say. Sometimes I feel that I have exhausted the contents of my mind, so a comment such as yours is greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-4329781195116377422016-06-21T22:41:15.066-07:002016-06-21T22:41:15.066-07:00Mr. Medlin: I had forgotten about Fuller's &q...Mr. Medlin: I had forgotten about Fuller's "day job": thank you for reminding me. As you say, an interesting parallel.<br /><br />Your schedule for reading Stevens is a good one: "a few poems at a time over several months" is perfect -- it gives them time to sink in.<br /><br />Thank you again for the follow-up thoughts.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-65115216125832701452016-06-21T22:33:25.362-07:002016-06-21T22:33:25.362-07:00Susan: It's very nice to hear from you again....Susan: It's very nice to hear from you again. I hadn't thought of that aspect of Tanner's work -- and I should have. I was thinking something along the lines you suggest when I was recently reading Thomas Hardy's poems: he was writing wonderful poems up until his death at the age of 87. What a marvelous thing!<br /><br />I think that Tanner remained true to his Muse throughout his life, although Samuel Palmer's influence is perhaps more evident in his earlier works than in his later works. But his theme is consistent and constant: his love of the English countryside. All his work is beautiful, from beginning to end.<br /><br />As always, thank you very much for visiting. I hope that you have a lovely summer as well.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-49356480945328215042016-06-21T19:24:41.594-07:002016-06-21T19:24:41.594-07:00Just a brief note of deep appreciation for the del...Just a brief note of deep appreciation for the delightful discoveries I make through each of your postings. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13204127165550190242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-79703390463895514482016-06-21T01:57:42.384-07:002016-06-21T01:57:42.384-07:00Many thanks for your Stevens list. Because of othe...Many thanks for your Stevens list. Because of other commitments I shall have to read Stevens a few poems at a time over several months - perhaps no bad thing. So it will be ages before I am ready to 'prognosticate'. Ah, Roy Fuller, yet another fine poet and critic now largely forgotten. I knew him tangentially; I was active at the Poetry Society in London during the 1980s and he was a regular reader on the poetry circuit having retired from his job as (famously!) a director of the Woolwich Building Society. And there, of course, he shares a great similarity with Wallace Stevens. John Medlinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13895129397891151844noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-4758274198539686282016-06-20T19:17:30.587-07:002016-06-20T19:17:30.587-07:00It's interesting -- & wonderful -- to me t...It's interesting -- & wonderful -- to me that Robin Tanner's engravings in this post cover a 50-year period. At my age of 78, I feel inspired by the idea of an artist creating such fine works for fifty years.<br />Have a lovely summer, SusanAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-675219017099965582016-06-19T10:57:46.665-07:002016-06-19T10:57:46.665-07:00Mr. Medlin: Thank you for your follow-up thoughts....Mr. Medlin: Thank you for your follow-up thoughts. At the risk of being annoying, I cannot resist providing a list of my favorite poems by Stevens, bearing two things in mind: (1) it is always exciting to browse at whim and (2) you and I may, as with de la Mare's four-line poems, see things differently (which is perfectly fine). In no particular order, but as they come to mind, I respectfully suggest the following (most, if not all, of which have appeared here in the past): "The River of Rivers in Connecticut," "This Solitude of Cataracts," "The Poem that Took the Place of a Mountain," "A Rabbit as King of the Ghosts," "The House Was Quiet and the World Was Calm," "Autumn Refrain," "The Region November," "The Course of a Particular," "The Plain Sense of Things," "A Quiet Normal Life." Feel free to completely disregard my suggestions, of course!<br /><br />For some reason, Stevens never seems to have caught on in the UK (as opposed to being an academic cottage industry over here). But I think that one of the best contemplations on Stevens's attractions was written by Roy Fuller: an essay titled "Both Pie and Custard," which may be found in his Owls and Artificers: Oxford Lectures on Poetry (Andre Deutsch 1971). (Which is a delightful book as a whole, by the way.) You may already be familiar with both the essay and the book. If not, I highly recommend both. Another Englishman who has written well on Stevens is Frank Kermode (again, as you may already know).<br /><br />Thank you very much for stopping by again.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-23571048958593984932016-06-19T02:00:18.193-07:002016-06-19T02:00:18.193-07:00Yes, it's fascinating how people can disagree ...Yes, it's fascinating how people can disagree on specifics whilst agreeing on an overall view of a poet. I might mention that noting your approbations of Wallace Stevens over the past couple of years - a poet I had barely noticed and had a very negative view of - I just the other day bought a copy of his Collected Poems - well it was second-hand and going for a song - and I shall start to read him shortly. It will be interesting to find whether my instinctive view of his work changes as I come to know it much better.John Medlinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13895129397891151844noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-90543058724994024412016-06-17T20:33:49.635-07:002016-06-17T20:33:49.635-07:00Anonymous: Thank you very much for sharing Berry&...Anonymous: Thank you very much for sharing Berry's poem, which is new to me. It is lovely, and it fits perfectly here. Thanks again.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-42846370345571386852016-06-17T20:31:28.005-07:002016-06-17T20:31:28.005-07:00Mr. Medlin: It's very nice to hear from you a...Mr. Medlin: It's very nice to hear from you again. I'm afraid we are of opposite views when it comes to de la Mare's quatrain poems: I'm quite fond of them. In fact, I sometimes return to his Collected Poems solely to read his four-line poems. (I even counted them once: there are 39 of them in the Collected Poems.) But that's the way these things go. I'm sure we both agree that he is a wonderful poet who wrote many wonderful poems. And that is all that matters.<br /><br />Thank you very much for visiting again.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-82336891372967593722016-06-17T09:51:10.035-07:002016-06-17T09:51:10.035-07:00The Silence - Poem by Wendell Berry
Though the a...The Silence - Poem by Wendell Berry<br /><br /><br />Though the air is full of singing<br />my head is loud<br />with the labor of words.<br /><br />Though the season is rich<br />with fruit, my tongue<br />hungers for the sweet of speech.<br /><br />Though the beech is golden<br />I cannot stand beside it<br />mute, but must say<br /><br />'It is golden,' while the leaves<br />stir and fall with a sound<br />that is not a name.<br /><br />It is in the silence<br />that my hope is, and my aim.<br />A song whose lines<br /><br />I cannot make or sing<br />sounds men's silence<br />like a root. Let me say<br /><br />and not mourn: the world<br />lives in the death of speech<br />and sings there. <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-85976072647560857902016-06-16T08:00:51.234-07:002016-06-16T08:00:51.234-07:00I take the point you are making but do think Walte...I take the point you are making but do think Walter de la Mare can do much better than the quatrains you quote!John Medlinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13895129397891151844noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-76267574040558592122016-06-16T07:58:20.290-07:002016-06-16T07:58:20.290-07:00Mudpuddle: Thank you very much for your kind word...Mudpuddle: Thank you very much for your kind words about the post. And thank you as well for the poem by Kokuin, which is apt in this context. I appreciate your stopping by again.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-89104741661422914352016-06-15T16:13:15.559-07:002016-06-15T16:13:15.559-07:00stunningly good... i like this one:
i'm twen...stunningly good... i like this one:<br /><br />i'm twenty-seven years<br />and always sought the Way.<br />well, this morning we passed<br />like strangers on the road.<br /><br />Kokuin, 10 c. (trans stryk/ikemoto, zen poems of china and japan)Mudpuddlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17194891656971454279noreply@blogger.com