Dave,
Y(ogh)urts to you, Patrick, Scottish spellers, and nomad abodes ...
looks as if it's come down to Muse = Inspiration in the form of One the poet feels compelled to write about, the One the poet would like to know her/his words.
i wonder: does a poet have several muses simultaneously? at times, prolly yes. and when one cannot imagine a beloved audient, does inspiration stay stuffed, inaccessible, 'til replaced with another One?
Despite Philip Sidney's reputed muse (Stella with the blonde hair and black eyes), i don't think he felt strongly about anything except global Protestantism (ok, slight exaggeration here), nor have i been enthusiastic about much of his poetry. still, his well honed one-liners can sparkle startlingly.
a couple weeks ago, hearing bits of Old Arcadia, i noted a sentence that struck me and seems relevant to the muse thread:
"He let fall his arms and remained so fastened in his thoughts as if Pamela had grafted him there to grow in continual imagination."
(Oxford U P, 1985, p. 70)
Chirs, dears,
judy/joodles/Omnia
> From: David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 2006/01/14 Sat PM 01:21:44 EST
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: More on the Muse
>
> I've just noticed, Doug, that so far none of the British members of the list
> have expressed a liking for the Sidney poem. That might just be an apparent
> matter, so I'd be hesitant to draw inferences, but ....
>
> (aside to Rob - just discovered the Feegle word for a poet is a +gonagle+. I
> like that)
>
> (For Patrick - 'yoghurt' is the old Scots spelling for a nomad's abode)
>
> Best
>
> Dave
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Douglas Barbour" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2006 5:58 PM
> Subject: Re: More on the Muse
>
>
> > An interesting comment, Jon. I found the Chaucer intriguing &
> > beautiful, but, like you, felt a distance. I've taught the Sidney many
> > times, but always with many of the others from that suite, which
> > definitely places the apparent banalities of that first one in
> > perspective. Of course, despite all the talk about the biographical
> > aspects, by now at any rate it's a great story, a fiction told from the
> > point of view of only one of the protagonists
> >
> > Of course, my absolute fave remains 'They fle from me'...
> >
> > Doug
> > On 13-Jan-06, at 9:27 PM, Jon Corelis wrote:
> >
> > > Reading them together it strikes me how much more alien the Chaucer one
> > > sounds to me, while Sidney speaks in accents that seem to me more
> > > contemporary than Tennyson's. The Chaucer makes me think of a medieval
> > > tapestry, beautiful but frozen, while Sidney might be crooning into a
> > > microphone. Well, you asked.
> > Douglas Barbour
> > 11655 - 72 Avenue NW
> > Edmonton Ab T6G 0B9
> > (780) 436 3320
> >
> > the words come down on
> > the white page a dream of snow
> >
> > at mid-Atlantic.
> >
> > Wayne Clifford
>
|