Judy
he wrote his poems on his sister Mary while also riding a horse.
Amazing. What an athlete! Didn't she mind being written on, not to
mention the hooves?
Other well-known athletic poets: Leopardi, Pope.
2008/8/24 Judy Prince <[log in to unmask]>:
> "Sprezzatura"----variously defined as "nonchalance", "the finest art that
> hides its art", "studied casualness", "an aristocratic indifference towards
> one's own works", "the appearance of careless gaiety", "skill in seeming
> effortlessness in horsemanship, sword display, singing, dancing, speaking,
> and writing so as to catch the eye of those higher in the hierarchy, and
> especially that of the prince"----gives us Baldassari Castiglione's keyword
> for the ultimate courtier of the Renaissance.
> Philip Sidney, often said to be The Courtier in Elizabeth's England, studied
> to be such. He wrote his poems, emphasising that they were trifles, many
> written slapdash as he rode his horse near Wilton House, on his sister Mary,
> Countess of Pembroke's estate (her husband, Henry Herbert, Earl of
> Pembroke). Sidney was superiorly skilled in riding, swordplay and military
> campaigns as well as in writing poetry and argumentation. He was an
> influential and prototypic blend of sportsman and artist.
> Have sport and art ever been far separate from governing, from politics,
> from jockeying that impossible perfection of skills requisite to "play on
> The Big Team" or, similarly, to make way for a new Big Team?
>
> Athletes and poets may train while wisely sequestered, but their aim is to
> connect to others, to _show_ their skill and power, and to gain from the
> show material as well as immaterial rewards. Much can be said about the
> intrinsic joy of athletic and poetic acts---and it is real---but we can't
> set aside the existence of the extrinsic goals of the performers.
>
> Judy
>
--
David Bircumshaw
Website and A Chide's Alphabet http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
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