In Tuscany in the yellow summer fields, a "maracas-like rattle" as Martin
says, and plenty of them in poems as well. You can find them also here in
the north, but it has to be a very hot summer and then there are the
crickets too. Completely different sounds, songs, cries whatever that is. I
am surprised you do not have them in England.
On 8/16/07, Joanna Boulter <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Am not sure whether it was cicadas or crickets I encountered in Malaysia
> many years ago, but it was certainly something very similar, and they made
> a
> great deal of noise, especially at night. This could be rather exotically
> pleasant; but when combined with dengue fever the effect is as though
> one's
> head is being assaulted by a road drill.
>
> Ah, thems wuz the days!
>
> joanna
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "MJ Walker" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2007 11:26 AM
> Subject: Re: poem revised
>
>
> LA CIGALE ayant chanté
> Tout l'Esté
> Se trouva fort dépourveuë
> Quand la Bize fut venuë -
> La Fontaine (but he got it from an Oriental tale)
> The cicada having sung/ all the summmer long/ finds itself without a
> crumb/ when the winds of autumn come.
> You could come to the South of France, although one doesn't actually see
> them very often - they make an awful noise which has been described as a
> maracas-like rattle. Their wings sort of cover their body like a roof,
> unlike grasshoppers & such.
> mj
>
> Roger Day wrote:
>
> >i don't know what cicadas sound like, I don't even know wht they look
> like.
> >
> >On 8/16/07, Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> >>Well I have trouble with the first line -surely we know what they sound
> >>like
> >>-could it not be more informal shorter like say just(he says
> >>tentatively!!)
> >> cicadas trill
> >>(or what ever they do blast stridulate ??barrack? clamour?? ballyhoo??
> >>Cacophony?? Stridulating (like poets at a reading!!
> >>Cheers P
> >>
> >>-----Original Message-----
> >>From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> >>Behalf Of andrew burke
> >>Sent: 16 August 2007 07:27
> >>To: [log in to unmask]
> >>Subject: poem revised
> >>
> >>After a number of drafts, and some suggestions from p'etcers, notably
> >>Max 'Cooee' Richards, I have revised my 'snap' poem, Changing the
> >>Sprinkler (including changing its title):
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>Gibb River Evening
> >>
> >>
> >>In the shrill sound of cicadas
> >>I move the sprinkler
> >>pulling the hose over
> >>red rocky ground.
> >>
> >>Who drinks here
> >>beneath the evening sky
> >>with the lace silhouette
> >>of tall gums before
> >>the pink sky's edge?
> >>A straw-necked ibis
> >>wings away and quacks
> >>like a duck. Beneath
> >>ochre-red clay, amongst
> >>a complex syntax of roots,
> >>strongest of earth's creatures
> >>push and pull a way
> >>through thickest breath.
> >>Webbed eggs fill a dark cavity,
> >>a thick-bellied vein worms
> >>by a deep chamber.
> >>
> >>I turn my ear to
> >>a chortle, a choking sound
> >>below the cicadas -
> >>once, then nothing.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>--
> >>Andrew
> >>http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
> >>http://www.inblogs.net/hispirits
> >>http://www.flickr.com/photos/aburke/
> >>
> >>
> >>--
> >>No virus found in this incoming message.
> >>Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> >>Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.11.19/953 - Release Date:
> >>14/08/2007
> >>17:19
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
>
> --
> Ne'er fash your thumb what gods decree
> To be the weird of you or me.
>
> Robert Fergusson
>
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