tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post5623661268204202990..comments2024-03-23T20:37:37.891-07:00Comments on First Known When Lost: Perspective, Part Sixteen: ContinuityStephen Pentzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-68758726532893634302015-11-26T09:05:47.054-08:002015-11-26T09:05:47.054-08:00Anonymous: Thank you very much for your kind word...Anonymous: Thank you very much for your kind words, which I greatly appreciate. I'm pleased to hear that you discovered Nick Drake. His music fits this season well, I think. "River Man," for example.<br /><br />Thank you again. Happy Thanksgiving!Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-68810438785306732722015-11-26T08:45:28.442-08:002015-11-26T08:45:28.442-08:00Mr. Floyd: Thank you very much for the Shakespear...Mr. Floyd: Thank you very much for the Shakespeare (which goes well here), and for your own thoughts. Your observation that "each of us has to choose" gets to the heart of the matter. My presumption is that those who choose good will always outnumber those who choose evil.<br /><br />As always, thank you for visiting. Happy Thanksgiving!Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-38258116999175186802015-11-24T20:00:13.464-08:002015-11-24T20:00:13.464-08:00This blog stays with me all week and it is a pleas...This blog stays with me all week and it is a pleasant staying. Your comments and poems like "On Inishmann" are a delight to my consciousness. I discovered the music of Nick Drake today and then read your posting for November 23. It just doesn't get any better than that.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-81830841170746854482015-11-24T10:00:44.441-08:002015-11-24T10:00:44.441-08:00Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless s...Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,<br /> But sad mortality o'er-sways their power, <br /> How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea, <br /> Whose action is no stronger than a flower? <br /> O, how shall summer's honey breath hold out <br /> Against the wreckful siege of battering days, <br /> When rocks impregnable are not so stout, <br /> Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays?<br /> O fearful meditation! where, alack, <br /> Shall Time's best jewel from Time's chest lie hid?<br /> Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back? <br /> Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid? <br /> O, none, unless this miracle have might,<br /> That in black ink my love may still shine bright. <br /><br /><br />I know of no other poet who declares more avidly than Shakespeare in his sonnets that poetry will last when all else crumbles and fades into dust. He is certain that the beauty of the one the he loves, the deep passion of his love for the receiver of the sonnets, will endure the ravages of time, and somehow--the magic of poetry--keep love and beauty alive forever. <br /><br />I think you are right (you almost always are) when you suggest that love will last when all else, the evil and the malevolent, has fallen into the abyss of the years, the grinding mill of inexorable and blind time. <br /><br />I think this is what Crashaw and Larkin are saying. We can hope that what is best about being a human being will endure and that the malignant excrescences that fester and infect the heart will in time be cast into exile.<br /><br />I suppose we know better. Evil will endure, but so will love. Perhaps, in the end, each of us has to choose. I think Shakespeare, Crashaw, and Larkin, all three in the midst of evil, choose to believe that love will endure, and that the tomb Larkin views and the sonnet Shakespeare writes reveal more about the human heart than the latest carnage-filled headline.<br /><br />In black ink love still shines bright.Bruce Floydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-21881867567469072802015-11-23T18:24:24.644-08:002015-11-23T18:24:24.644-08:00Mr Ashton: Thank you very much for your kind word...Mr Ashton: Thank you very much for your kind words about the post. I visit Lake Superior every so often because I have relatives in Minnesota, and I never fail to see something amazing on the North Shore.<br /><br />I think that your friend's comment -- "we must stay human" -- is perfect. It gets to the heart of the matter much more succinctly than I have. We are in a contest with inhumanity.<br /><br />Yes, "let them sleep: let them sleep on . . ." is beautiful. I need to explore Crashaw's work further. Interestingly (as you probably noticed), Crashaw's Delights of the Muses and Herrick's Hesperides were both published in 1648. A great deal of fine poetry was written in that time.<br /><br />I too was sad to hear of Tomlinson's death earlier this year, and, as you did, I returned to his poetry earlier this autumn. I've been meaning to write a post in his memory.<br /><br />As ever, thank you for visiting again, and for sharing your thoughts.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-88755098276790130692015-11-23T08:51:17.586-08:002015-11-23T08:51:17.586-08:00The opening to your post Mr Pentz is beautiful. I ...The opening to your post Mr Pentz is beautiful. I saw amazing skies myself a few mornings back. The extraordinary combination and blending of colours are so difficult to describe. <br />The recent news has been bleak and depressing, and I agree with you completely. There are no explanations or justifications for this evil. A friend of mine said we must stay human. I thought at first that sounded a little naïve, but thinking more deeply I know what they mean, and though it may sound simplistic it is what we must endeavour to do. <br /><br />The Crawshaw poem is lovely and entirely new to me, though I'm very fond of some other Cavalier poets. The final section from " Let them sleep" is very touching, as also is this great favourite from John Clare. Which serves to remind me I haven't looked at Clare's poetry for a while as I've been reading a recently acquired volume of the Collected Poems of the Charles Tomlinson, who sadly died earlier this year.John Ashtonnoreply@blogger.com