 |
 |
"The poet is the seer, but the prose, the film and the radio work are more politically aware" I like this distinction KS On 24/08/07, Roger Day <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Thomas's psychodrama played out in that poem has little do with > Sitwell's fertive spinning. He might have intended it as a political > gesture - after all, he worked for the BBC during the war - but for > Thomas, the poetry was for being the seer, the ur-worldly, biblical > prohphet so little intentionally political is in the poem. The > politics is in the context, the refusal to mourn, get on with life > during war. Without the context, it becomes something else. > > The poet is the seer, but the prose, the film and the radio work are > more politically aware; he himself kept the two apart. > > Roger > > On 8/24/07, Jon Corelis <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > "In that great poem A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child > > in London, with its dark, magnificent, proud movement, we see Death > > in its reality -- as a return to the beginning of things, as a robing, > > a sacred investiture in those who have been our friends since the > > beginning of Time. Bird, beast, and flower have their part in the > > making of mankind. The water drop is holy, the wheat ear a place of > > prayer. The 'fathering and all-humbling darkness' itself is a > > begetting force. Even grief, even tears, are a begetting. 'The > > stations of the breath' are the stations of the Cross." > > > > -- Edith Sitwell > > > > > > Is the unstated fact that the poem is about a child who died in the > > Blitz make this a political poem? Does knowing or not knowing it > > change the poem? > > > > -- > > =================================== > > > > Jon Corelis www.geocities.com/jgcorelis/ > > > > =================================== > > > > > -- > My Stuff: http://www.badstep.net/ > "In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons." > Roman Proverb >