September 2011
18 posts
1 tag
Best Society
When I was a child, I thought, Casually, that solitude Never needed to be sought. Something everybody had, Like nakedness, it lay at hand, Not specially right or specially wrong, A plentiful and obvious thing Not at all hard to understand. Then, after twenty, it became At once more difficult to get And more desired - though all the same More undesirable; for what You are alone has, to achieve...
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Ode pour l'election de son sepulchre
The age demanded an image Of its accelerated grimace, Something for the modern stage, Not, at any rate, an Attic grace; Not, not certainly, the obscure reveries Of the inward gaze; Better mendacities Than the classics in paraphrase! The “age demanded” chiefly a mould in plaster, Made with no loss of time, A prose kinema, not, not assuredly, alabaster Or the “sculpture” of rhyme.
(Ezra Pound,...
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Legend
As silent as a mirror is believed Realities plunge in silence by… I am not ready for repentance; Nor to match regrets. For the moth Bends no more than the still Imploring flame. And tremorous In the white falling flakes Kisses are, — The only worth all granting. It is to be learned— This cleaving and this burning, But only by the one who Spends out himself again. Twice and...
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High Windows
When I see a couple of kids And guess he’s fucking her and she’s Taking pills or wearing a diaphragm, I know this is paradise Everyone old has dreamed of all their lives — Bonds and gestures pushed to one side Like an outdated combine harvester, And everyone young going down the long slide To happiness, endlessly. I wonder if Anyone looked at me, forty years back, And thought, That’ll be...
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For Kitty
Caeli, Lesbia nostra, Lesbia illa, illa Lesbia, quam Catullus unam plus quam se atque suos amauit omnes, nunc in quadriuiis et angiportis glubit magnanimi Remi nepotes.
(Catullus 58, watercolor by Badges The Elder)
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Monumentum Aere, Etc
Exegi monumentum aere perennius reglalique situ pyramidum altius, quod non imber edax, non aquilo impotens possit diruere aut innumerabilis annorum series et fuga tempoum. Non omnis moriar multaque pars mei vitabit Libitinam; usque ego postera crescam laude recens, dum Capitolium scandet cum tacita virgine pontifex. Dicar, qua violens obstrepit Aufidus et qua pauper aquae Daunus agrestium regnavit...
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I Am Vertical
But I would rather be horizontal. I am not a tree with my root in the soil Sucking up minerals and motherly love So that each March I may gleam into leaf, Nor am I the beauty of a garden bed Attracting my share of Ahs and spectacularly painted, Unknowing I must soon unpetal. Compared with me, a tree is immortal And a flower-head not tall, but more startling, And I want the one’s longevity and...
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The Dream
For Kitty
Image of her whom I love, more than she Whose fair impression in my faithful heart, Makes me her medal, and makes her love me, As kings do coins, to which their stamps impart The value: go, and take my heart from hence, Which now is grown too great and good for me: Honours oppress weak spirits, and our sense Strong objects dull; the more, the less we see. When you are gone, and reason...
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To Peace
Word that trembles with the glory Of self-conquest, mend, control. Thirst for quickening compassion, Grow till craving make us whole. Power of God, alive with glory, Unself-love as majesty, Make us one, submerging hatred; Peace of heaven, make us free.
(Marianne Moore)
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Alberto Savinio - L’Intensite dramatique de...
Les oiseaux, les anciens Egyptiens, ont le regard de profil. De par la position de sa tête, Alexandre avait le regard de trois quarts. Les tableaux de Poussin sont placés face au soleil qui se couche. La Poésie Italienne regarde en face. Elle possède un regard digne d’une déesse. Sans soupçons et sans sous-entendus. C’est sa sincérité et sa forme de rhétorique spécifique. Dans la...
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How To Fix the Schools
Peter Newman Brooks was educated at King Edward’s School, Birmingham, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where read the Historical Tripos. A University Prizeman in Ecclesiastical History holding the Crosse Studentship from 1956-1958, he gained a research award at Peterhouse, and as Supervisor at Magdalene College taught undergraduates reading for both parts of the Historical and Theological...
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A Collect for Peace - Horace 2.16
Otium diuos rogat in patenti prensus Aegaeo, simul atra nubes condidit lunam neque certa fulgent sidera nautis; otium bello furiosa Thrace, otium Medi pharetra decori, Grosphe, non gemmis neque purpura ue- nale neque auro. Non enim gazae neque consularis submouet lictor miseros tumultus mentis et curas laqueata circum tecta uolantis. Viuitur paruo bene cui paternum splendet in mensa...
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Coverdale - Expectans expectavi
I waited patiently for the Lord * and he inclined unto me, and heard my calling.
He brought me also out of the horrible pit, out of the mire and clay * and set my feet upon the rock, and ordered my goings.
And he hath put a new song in my mouth * even a thanksgiving unto our God.
Many shall see it, and fear * and shall put their trust in the Lord.
Blessed is the man that hath set his...
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Elizabeth Bishop - One Art
For Kitty
The art of losing isn’t hard to master; so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster. Lose something every day. Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent. The art of losing isn’t hard to master. Then practice losing farther, losing faster: places, and names, and where it was you meant to travel. None of these will bring...
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Sophisticated and Highly Educated Moderns - Part 2
Badges The Elder
Joachim Jeremias:
This crisis of prayer among the educated has its effects on the people. To be sure, prayer does not cease. But men become unsure of themselves, and the infiltration of foreign relations, especially oriental cults, contributes to this uncertainty. People do not know to which deity they should pray in particular circumstances—hence the altars for...
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Leopardi - Il Primo Amore, The End
For Kitty
Né gli occhi ai noti studi io rivolgea, E quelli m’apparian vani per cui Vano ogni altro desir creduto avea.
Deh come mai da me sì vario fui, E tanto amor mi tolse un altro amore? Deh quanto, in verità, vani siam nui!
Solo il mio cor piaceami, e col mio core In un perenne ragionar sepolto, Alla guardia seder del mio dolore.
E l’occhio a terra chino o in sé raccolto,...
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Sophisticated and Highly Educated Moderns - Part 1
Badges The Elder
Joachim Jeremias:
At no other point does the inner corruption and decay of the Hellenistic world—especially of the Levant—in New Testament times become so apparent as in the sphere of prayer. Measured by biblical standards, Greek prayer was lacking in seriousness and reverence even in the pre-Hellenistic period. This is evident, for example, in the fact that from...