tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post8606932179940686287..comments2024-03-23T20:37:37.891-07:00Comments on First Known When Lost: SpringStephen Pentzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-12492208296079576802014-04-14T22:05:57.343-07:002014-04-14T22:05:57.343-07:00Sam Vega: yes, although there may a difference of...Sam Vega: yes, although there may a difference of about 5 degrees in latitude, we are very similar -- dampness, if nothing else! Vancouver (which is just up the road about 140 miles) even more so, I think.<br /><br />I agree with you about the movement in "High Windows": it is marvelous how he moves from that harsh beginning to the closing image -- which, if you pick it apart, is not exactly optimistic or hopeful, but is nonetheless, as you say, transcendent.<br /><br />As always, thank you for visiting, and for your thoughts.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-56289515400341448902014-04-14T21:55:48.201-07:002014-04-14T21:55:48.201-07:00Anonymous: you and I have similar tastes: I poste...Anonymous: you and I have similar tastes: I posted Hopkins's "Spring" on March 30 in tandem with Philip Larkin's "Coming." It is apt here as well. I agree that it does carry a warning (lovely, though) of the loss of Eden.<br /><br />Thank you very much for your thoughts.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-60611395748741789402014-04-14T21:49:18.774-07:002014-04-14T21:49:18.774-07:00Nigel PJ: I've lived with that poem for years,...Nigel PJ: I've lived with that poem for years, and I never noticed that. You'll not catch me making any comments on the cuisine of Northern Ireland or Ireland (or the UK, for that matter)! I will say that Mahon is known for revising previously-published poems. (Often to the chagrin of his admirers, such as myself.) He hasn't, however, tinkered with that particular line over the years!<br /><br />Thank you very much for visiting.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-72764795062673927562014-04-13T16:06:57.604-07:002014-04-13T16:06:57.604-07:00Although we live so far apart, I'm often surpr...Although we live so far apart, I'm often surprised to see how closely our seasons coincide, even in their smallest details. Some accident of latitude and micro-climate, perhaps. And beyond this, there is the little miracle of how subtle differences of season and mood can be conveyed by words or paintings.<br /><br />The Larkin poem is my favourite by him. I like the way it moves from such bitterness and grossness of expression to something religiously transcendent. Many thanks.Sam Vegahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05978971199859845931noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-55014383309547346652014-04-13T10:54:21.952-07:002014-04-13T10:54:21.952-07:00NOTHING is so beautiful as spring—
When weeds,... <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />NOTHING is so beautiful as spring— <br /> When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush; <br /> Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush <br />Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring <br />The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing; 5 <br /> The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush <br /> The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush <br />With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling. <br /> <br />What is all this juice and all this joy? <br /> A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning 10 <br />In Eden garden.—Have, get, before it cloy, <br /> Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning, <br />Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy, <br /> Most, O maid’s child, thy choice and worthy the winning. <br /> <br /><br /><br />Nobody is more exuberant about the arrival of spring than the shy priest Hopkins. Hopkins sees spring as noting less than a reminder of the world before the Fall. Implicit in the poem is the transitory grandeur of spring: it will indeed "cloy" and "cloud," leaving, I suppose, only Frost's oven bird to sing of a diminished world. You appositely quote Frost: "Nothing gold can stay." <br /> <br /> <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-44700911360272966802014-04-13T09:19:00.802-07:002014-04-13T09:19:00.802-07:00"While I sit with my paper and prawn chow mei..."While I sit with my paper and prawn chow mein"<br />Paper and prawn dishes? Would that be the adoption of Chinese cuisine to N. Ireland?Busyantinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06022645116824297149noreply@blogger.com