tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post5047662995470317226..comments2024-03-23T20:37:37.891-07:00Comments on First Known When Lost: "The First Winds Of Autumn"Stephen Pentzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-68619911246048048102015-09-25T09:20:58.246-07:002015-09-25T09:20:58.246-07:00Fred: Yes, at times like that, I need to call in ...Fred: Yes, at times like that, I need to call in my nephews for help. I'm at a loss.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-90779739483567796542015-09-25T08:53:18.836-07:002015-09-25T08:53:18.836-07:00Stephen,
Very--and perplexing also.Stephen,<br /><br />Very--and perplexing also.Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10233846613173866140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-79769390167677182802015-09-25T07:56:52.410-07:002015-09-25T07:56:52.410-07:00Fred: Thank you very much for your follow-up comm...Fred: Thank you very much for your follow-up comment. I hope you get those computer issues worked out. It sounds very frustrating.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-11522785133623785952015-09-24T21:49:35.377-07:002015-09-24T21:49:35.377-07:00Stephen,
I guess we will just have to agree to di...Stephen,<br /><br />I guess we will just have to agree to disagree here. <br /><br />So far, the problem remains. For some reason, the problem doesn't exist here as I'm able to reply using the PC. It's a strange situation where I can reply on some blogs, such as yours, while I'm blocked on others, including my own.<br /><br />Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10233846613173866140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-51744957509615173142015-09-23T19:10:29.524-07:002015-09-23T19:10:29.524-07:00Fred: You and I are in complete agreement that bo...Fred: You and I are in complete agreement that both Symons and Stevens regard the wind as being something of a "threat," or something perhaps to arouse "fear." I also agree that Symons is warning us about the dangers associated with falling in love with the wind. I guess where we may depart is how Symons and Stevens themselves intend to deal with the wind. In my view, as I indicated in my original (probably inarticulate!) response to your first comment, I think both of them still intend to embrace the wind. But, yes, I agree they see something of a threat in it.<br /><br />Thank you very much for your follow-up thoughts. I know from reading your blog recently that you are having computer issues, so I appreciate your taking the time to respond. I hope you get the problems resolved.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-9372967676750958562015-09-21T10:59:32.393-07:002015-09-21T10:59:32.393-07:00Stephen,
Symons,
"Therefore have fear, all ye...Stephen,<br />Symons,<br />"Therefore have fear, all ye who love the wind.<br />There is no promise in the voice of the wind,<br />It is a seeking and a pleading voice<br />That wanders asking in an unknown tongue<br />Infinite unimaginable things.<br />Shall not the lovers of the wind become<br />Even as the wind is, gatherers of the dust,<br />Hunters of the impossible, like men<br />Who go by night into the woods with nets<br />To snare the shadow of the moon in pools?"<br /><br />If you don't see this as a warning about listening to the wind, then I have no further argument, except that the entire poem suggests the dangers of listening to it and therefore a warning against it. <br /><br />As for Stevens, the title suggests a threat to me. <br />Vocalissimus: a song without words, a voice searching for a syllable but can't find it, in sleep, a nightmare?<br /><br />However, Stevens is hard for me to make sense of much of the time, so I could be wrong here.Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10233846613173866140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-31733236285480487562015-09-11T08:02:48.408-07:002015-09-11T08:02:48.408-07:00Fred: I hope to hear from you soon. Thanks.Fred: I hope to hear from you soon. Thanks.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-5788360830278953892015-09-11T07:20:53.586-07:002015-09-11T07:20:53.586-07:00Stephen,
My computer is down and I'm typi...Stephen,<br /><br />My computer is down and I'm typing this laboriously by hand, one letter at a time. I will respond later to your response. <br />PFredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10233846613173866140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-31219953546570976802015-09-08T20:54:39.598-07:002015-09-08T20:54:39.598-07:00Mr. Floyd: I'm pleased you liked the poem by S...Mr. Floyd: I'm pleased you liked the poem by Symons. This is one among many fine poems by him, in my humble opinion. It's a pity that he, Dowson, John Gray, Victor Plarr, and other poets of the Nineties seem neglected. But these things have a way of working themselves out over the years. They won't be forgotten.<br /><br />Thank you for the lines by Tennyson, which capture part of the essence of autumn, and for the poem by Ernest Hilbert, who is new to me.<br /><br />As ever, thank you for visiting, and for sharing your thoughts.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-300913553560727972015-09-07T21:00:24.462-07:002015-09-07T21:00:24.462-07:00billoo: Thank you very much for the lines from Tu ...billoo: Thank you very much for the lines from Tu Fu and Merwin, which are lovely, and which complement the other poems nicely. And thank you as well for your thought-provoking final observation. "Ghostly" is a fine way to put it. "Ghostly," but not frightening. It applies particularly well to Frost's poem, I think.<br /><br />As ever, thank you for stopping by.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-87899470266443538922015-09-07T10:15:42.205-07:002015-09-07T10:15:42.205-07:00Sir,
I was not familiar with Symons's "T...Sir,<br /><br />I was not familiar with Symons's "The Lovers of the Wind." I felt a stab of regret that I had missed such a splendid poem. I find myself reading it over and over again. Thank you for introducing me to a great poem, though of course the panjandrums of criticism would brand us heretics, barbarous in our taste. I even confess to an affinity for Dowson.<br /><br />To me, Symons's poem dwarfs the mediocre work of most contemporary poets, who, it seems to me, do nothing but write vapid prose and arrange it into lines to look like a poem, though no poem it is. <br /><br />Tennyson's melancholy line comes to mind: "In looking on the happy autumn fields / And thinking of the days that are no more." As you intimate, the stealing away of summer and the arrival of autumn touches something deep in the human psyche. To the imagination, autumn is much more than just a season. Is it a profound symbol?<br /><br />A few days ago I came across the below poem, one I had never read before, by a poet I'd never heard of. The poem possesses the serenity of Keats's great ode "To Autumn." The conclusion of the poem says it best, this mystery of autumn to the human heart:<br /><br /> . . .learn to love<br />All that leans into its finish, truly pleased<br />To bask in bereavement’s graceful glow,<br />Alive in it, until it, too, must go.<br /><br /><br /> Consolations of Autumn<br /> by Ernest Hilbert<br /><br />Some are happiest when autumn comes,<br />Long for turning leaves, aficionados of first frost,<br />Put out gourds, ornamental sheaves of wheat.<br />They dress front porches as forsaken tombs,<br />Imagine themselves ghoul, zombie, and ghost,<br />Use kitchen knives to jab holes in sheets.<br />They relish mornings when windows are panes of ice,<br />Yearn to don soft panoplies of scarves and gloves,<br />And wait all year to welcome the hard freeze<br />That forces birds south, woodchucks to earth, mice<br />To infiltrate warm cupboards, learn to love<br />All that leans into its finish, truly pleased<br />To bask in bereavement’s graceful glow,<br />Alive in it, until it, too, must go.<br /><br />Bruce Floydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-43466144932345529792015-09-06T21:41:59.515-07:002015-09-06T21:41:59.515-07:00Bex: I'm hard put to come up with appropriate ...Bex: I'm hard put to come up with appropriate words to thank you for your kind thoughts. But please know that I deeply appreciate them. My only goal is to share the things I love, and it is extremely gratifying and humbling to find that these things may resonate with others. But please note that I only see myself as a messenger: it is the poets and the painters who matter. My task is to stay out of their way.<br /><br />I'm delighted that you discovered the blog, and, if it provides a few moments of calm space to you now and then, I am, as I said above, humbled and gratified. Again, thank you so much.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-70245817883724675822015-09-06T18:25:56.328-07:002015-09-06T18:25:56.328-07:00A cloud in the wind
At the corner of the world.
T...A cloud in the wind<br />At the corner of the world.<br /><br />Tu Fu.<br /><br />It is the same child now who watches the clouds change.<br />They appear from out of sight and change as the moment passes through them.<br />Merwin.<br /><br />Stephen, without voice does time stop? Isn't there something ghostly about that?billoohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10716970909272480118noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-66233619717989782782015-09-06T07:59:54.639-07:002015-09-06T07:59:54.639-07:00George: Thank you for the line by Yeats, which is...George: Thank you for the line by Yeats, which is lovely. And thank you as well for providing the connection between the Bible verse and Symons's poem, which is a nice parallel. Many of the Nineties poets were alternatively living a bohemian, absinthe-tinged life or contemplating converting to Catholicism and joining the priesthood (which John Gray actually did). So your observation is an apt one.<br /><br />Thank you very much for visiting again, and for sharing those thoughts.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-87695373426983596832015-09-06T07:43:09.394-07:002015-09-06T07:43:09.394-07:00Fred: That's an interesting thought. Poetic ...Fred: That's an interesting thought. Poetic words for the sound of the wind tend to be along the lines of "roaring" and "sighing," don't they? Words that have an element of sadness or disturbance in them. And then there is "soughing," which is gentle, but still has a tinge of sadness to it. Hence the desire to "shut out" its sound?<br /><br />That being said, do you think Stevens is talking about shutting out the wind? I'm not sure: he seems to be compelled to listen to it, but he wants it to "speak." And I'm not so sure about Symons's lover of the wind wanting to shut out the wind either. Yes, the wind "cries," "and there is no promise in the voice of the wind," but perhaps this is a classic subject of Nineties poetry: doomed/tragic love. The lovers of the wind know their love is doomed/tragic, but they will not give it up: they continue to listen. I think that this is the point of the lovely final lines: "like men/Who go by night into the woods with nets/To snare the shadow of the moon in pools." A case of unrequited love. But they cannot help but listen to the wind. Just a thought.<br /><br />As always, it is a pleasure to hear from you. Thank you very much for stopping by again.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-45824543755261927812015-09-06T06:28:40.248-07:002015-09-06T06:28:40.248-07:00I have to tell you, I love your web site. I have n...I have to tell you, I love your web site. I have non-stop chronic pain - it rules my life for most of the 24 hours of every day. Except when I light on your page, with the wonderful artwork there, the ambiance of your page design is splendid, and the content of your text is even more so. I am no intellectual, just a person who enjoys the written word, and I've just come to realize that for the minutes when I am reading your blog, my pain all but disappears and your words replace it, somehow. It's such a wonderful feeling, to have something be so engrossing that actual pain can fade into the background of my consciousness like that. So, I think you so much for your very well done and wonderful blog! Bexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10474693933075104971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-5018674544428232962015-09-05T22:31:59.784-07:002015-09-05T22:31:59.784-07:00I suppose that my favorite line regarding wind is ...I suppose that my favorite line regarding wind is in Yeats's "1919": "Those winds that clamor of approaching night." As for Symonds, doesn't the King James Version translate as "The wind bloweth where it listeth" what plainer translations give as "the Spirit breathes where it will"?Georgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14819154529261482038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-78713542616450999692015-09-05T10:16:50.267-07:002015-09-05T10:16:50.267-07:00Stephen,
Is it a coincidence?
Three of the four ...Stephen,<br /><br />Is it a coincidence?<br /><br />Three of the four poems speak of shutting out the sound of the wind.<br /><br />The fourth, Saigyo's haiku, is ambiguous. The winds "waken feelings --/ the first winds of autumn" in those previously "indifferent" to their surroundings. <br /><br />Seeing the winds' effects seems to be acceptable, but hearing?Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10233846613173866140noreply@blogger.com