It's there, the misanthropy; but perhapsI haven't disclosed it yet.
(I was asked on Saturday by one I confide in if I like Elid any better than
I did when I first heard from him and I had to say "not really". He was
chattering to me on the bus this morning - one and a half lines at least -
and was quite droll and self-knowing; but I think this poem is more like it.
It may be the way he is treated, some of which is there in the poem; but
that may be understandable. We only get his side of it directly while his
potential uselessness in a community that needs everyone efficient is only
implied over the totality of the poems perhaps..
Way back I published some of his accounts of dealings with the ruling thug
and the thug's clerk. I'm not quite sure how that fits in with this - I
wrote a few words here in reply to Patrick, seeing this set when the island
declined as a destination towards the end of the Roman period; whereas boss
men as tsome Elidius texts.shows them would have been later, perhaps much
later. I'm not sure that much is known of that interregnum period but I
have assumed that there continued to be contacts from both what is now
France and from Cornwall. Maybe Portuguese. I've been told that where I go
now they originated as Portuguese pirates, which is unlikely to be very
true although I imagine we all have some Portuguese pirate DNA in us. They
say this as a criticism on other islands!
I shall probably leave the set with a variety of time lines and
certainties. So it is with many such - there is for instance the (now)
island where Arthur is buried. I've left him to his sleep sofar, thinking
it too much to bring him into it. Mind you, KIng Arthur will be returning
soon the way things are going. I'd enjoy is debate with David Cameron
Thanks for reading me
L
For whatever reason, yes, he's sometimes misanthropic. I doubt Islanders
were very amicable, struggling to make a living and not terribly keen on a
man with strange accent (+diction? syntax?) who spoke to them as a leader
but actually couldn't do very much
On 13 January 2015 at 21:33, Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I obviously missed this earlier, L.
>
> I like its trajectory from then to now implied.
>
> But 'Each guards its news' leaves me a bit quizzical about Elidus's
> misanthropy, which I hadn't felt to this degree before (I don't think).
>
> D
> On Jan 8, 2015, at 3:46 AM, Lawrence Upton <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> > Few boats put out; and fewer now arrive.
> >
> > It is seasonal *and* it is permanent.
> >
> > Once there were more than one a day, with hopes
> >
> > of new buildings and new businesses. Today
> >
> > it is unusual seeing outsiders;
> >
> > and winter makes it worse. All this I'm told;
> >
> > though there is evidence: decay, poverty
> >
> > and fear in the midst of signs of past prosperity.
> >
> >
> >
> > Some still come. Two were here this afternoon,
> >
> > staring at maps, at us, asking for beds.
> >
> > No one tells me anything. Each guards its news
> >
> > in case there is profit, the fools. Blank looks
> >
> > become smug looks, bags jangling with bright coins
> >
> > hidden by hastily gathered clothes. Their greed
> >
> > seems habitual. There is no desperation
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > [Elidius is one of the names of one who may have lived at some time after
> > the Roman period on Scilly, or, as it then seems to have been called,
> > Ennor. There is no evidence of him apart from the earlier name of St
> > Helen's island, where it is said he may have been buried, Insula Sancti
> > Elidii. His feast day is 8th August. Until now he has had no
> hagiographer. ]
> >
> > Apologies for posting a day late
> >
>
> Douglas Barbour
> [log in to unmask]
>
> Recent publications: (With Sheila E Murphy) Continuations & Continuation 2
> (UofAPress).
> Recording Dates (Rubicon Press).
>
> that we are only
> as we find out we are
>
> Charles Olson
>
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