Many people don't realize that the lyrics to "O Danny Boy" were written in
1910 by an English lawyer who never set foot in Ireland -- they are, in other
words, pure Edwardian stage-Irish sentimentality. A few years later he set
them to the tune known as "Londonderry Air," supposedly an ancient traditional
Irish melody, though I believe this has never been established by
folklorists.
Artie Shaw's objection to the popularity of his "Begin the Beguine" is
something that also happens in poetry. The only thing for a poet worse than
being totally unknown is to have one poem become famous among the general
public. For some reason, this type of popularity seems to exhaust popular
interest in the poet: Cavafy's "Ithaca" is a great poem, but most people
would never dream of reading his other poems, not in spite of, but perversely
because of, the fame of that one. A contemporary example is Jenny Joseph's
poem of which "When I am an old woman I will wear purple," "I will wear
purple," or "When I am old shall I wear purple?" are not the title or first
line. This poem was voted the best of all contemporary English poems by a
popular newspaper poll, and is the only single poem I know that actually has
its own web site (www.wheniamanoldwoman.com/). She probably rues the day she
wrote it.
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Jon Corelis [log in to unmask]
www.geocities.com/joncpoetics
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