I don't think they did much naked dancing. This was and to some extent
remains a Methody country. I tell a story of must be 20 years ago, trying
to find a place in St Ives that I knew well without going the way I always
went. (Turned out that there was no such way.) I was high up, which was
right, and aware I was near, so I asked a man trimming his hedge; and he
put me right. I thanked him by God bless you, which is my London parlance
in the way that others here might say "thanks, Boss" or "thanks,
Chief" without intending deference. And he replied boisterously "And to
you, Sir, and to you". There's a painter, forget who - I saw him in a
filmed interview - found himself shunned in the 1950s because he painted
on a Sunday.
So, no, not much naked dancing in the 1850s. Lots of indelicate behaviour,
I am sure.
Glad you liked the poem
L
On 26 March 2014 21:49, Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Liked it a lot, L. But, even with the music (of the poem), if it's
> Cornish weather I doubt they or you would dance naked....
>
> D
> On Mar 26, 2014, at 11:28 AM, Lawrence Upton <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> > Oh you know me, Patrick. I'm more inclined to fiddle. Last time I went
> > there it was Cornish weather - now and then it offers you a day that
> > self-proposes to be using first day of creation light; and mostly it's
> > grey. Anyway I got there and it seemed very small. It was me that was
> > small, shrivelled. It was wet and muddy. The field, the path etc. Yet I
> > know and knew it's a fascinating place.
> > Few people go there. There's another one a few fields over that takes
> > forever if you take roads seriously; and that's much more visited - The
> > Merry Maidens. That's the one where there was all the fuss 150 years ago
> > I'm grateful for your comment. That's rather the effect I wanted, to
> maybe
> > reflect the way the stones have been seen "recently" and the way one
> > guesses perhaps wildly they might have been seen - chances are we are
> > nearer to the birth of Christ than boscawen un is; and yet somehow it's
> > still there.
> > In the face of that all a man *can do is fiddle.
> >
> > L
> >
> >
> > On 26 March 2014 17:17, Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]
> >wrote:
> >
> >> L thanks enjoyed that has that sort of riddling feel-do you dance there
> or
> >> fiddle?P
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On
> >> Behalf Of Lawrence Upton
> >> Sent: 26 March 2014 13:10
> >> To: [log in to unmask]
> >> Subject: Boscawen un
> >>
> >> nineteen a round
> >>
> >> and one in the middle
> >>
> >>
> >> nineteen unsound
> >>
> >> but one with a fiddle
> >>
> >>
> >> and they then each give voice
> >>
> >> and get back their voices
> >>
> >>
> >> heavy stone all
> >>
> >> changing as the weather
> >>
> >>
> >> nineteen alone
> >>
> >> and one, quite together
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> *Boscawen-un*
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> [Boscawen un has been translated as *the pasture of the farmstead at the
> >> elderberry tree*]
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> [*Boscawen un * is a bronze age stone circle in the far west of Cornwall
> >> In
> >> Christian centuries the stones have been associated variously - either
> the
> >> work of Satan, or some apparatus of Satan; or the bodies turned to
> stone of
> >> dancers breaking the Sabbath... In the 1850s employers in west Cornwall
> >> were
> >> complaining that young employees had not turned up but were dancing at a
> >> nearby stone circle. At such dances, the musician would stand by the
> >> central
> >> stone when such remained, as it does at B U. It would be called the
> daunce
> >> men.... men here is Cornish for stone. There you are: am intro longer
> than
> >> the poem]
> >>
> >
>
> Douglas Barbour
> [log in to unmask]
>
> Recent publications: (With Sheila E Murphy) Continuations & Continuation 2
> (UofAPress).
> Recording Dates (Rubicon Press).
>
> Something else is out there
> godamnit
>
> And I want to hear it
>
> C.D.Wright
>
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