Month: February 2017

When I was one and twenty – A. E. Housman

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When I was one-and-twenty

When I was one-and-twenty
I heard a wise man say,
`Give crowns and pounds and guineas
But not your heart away;
Give pearls away and rubies
But keep your fancy free.’
But I was one-and-twenty
No use to talk to me.

When I was one-and-twenty
I heard him say again,
`The heart out of the bosom
Was never given in vain;
‘Tis paid with sighs a plenty
And sold for endless rue.’
And I am two-and-twenty
And oh, ’tis true, ’tis true.

A. E. Housman (1859 – 1936)

Here is another love poem in similar vein to my previous Coleridge Post made up of two eight line stanzas with rhyming scheme abcbcaaa / abcbadad and an easy flowing rhythm.

The advice from a wise man goes unheeded and youth must fall in love – falling is unavoidable … part of life … hopefully there is a getting up again without too many scars and the endless rue will eventually fade away. But ‘tis better to have loved’ than never loved at all’ which reminds me of a Tennyson poem.

The personal life for A. E. Housman, who had a dedicated and unrequited same sex love, was used to good effect in another poem. This time in a delightful poem by Wendy Cope who plays on this fact in relation to her, hopefully fictitious, choices of partners –

Another Unfortunate Choice

I think I am in love with A E Housman.
Which puts me in a worse than usual fix.
No woman ever stood a chance with Houseman
And he’s been dead since 1936.

Wendy Cope (1945 –

‘worse than usual fix’ – implying that previous choices for a partner have led to a degree of disappointment for one reason or another.

A link to A. E. Housman on Wikipedia 

Tho’ hid in spiral myrtle Wreath – Coleridge

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Tho’ hid in spiral myrtle Wreath

Tho’hid in spiral myrtle Wreath,
Love is a sword that cuts its Sheath:
And thro’ the Slits, itself has made,
We spy the Glitter of the Blade.

But thro’ the Slits, itself had made,
We spy no less too, that the Blade
Is eat away or snap atwain,
And nought but Hilt and Stump remain.

Samuel Coleridge (1772 – 1834)

This poem on love from Coleridge equates love as a sword and love hiding in a wreath … showing the duality of love … the glitter of the blade only to be followed by a self-destructive nature … a sword that cuts its sheath … and all that is left is the hilt and the stump … the remnants … hopefully to be viewed in a positive light. Just an aspect of humanity … pain and joy … that’s the story of life … but special pain and special joy!

Another understanding of this poem may come from the first line. The ‘Tho’ could be an actual person who is to blame for the broken relationship – a person hiding ‘in spiral myrtle wreath’ … which doesn’t sound very nice and a little sinister. Perhaps Coleridge is being nice by saying the ubiquitous ‘love’ is to blame rather than the nature of any individual lover.

I do not know the context and the date of writing which could provide more insight.

Myrtle – evergreen bush with blue-black fruit
Wreath – a memorial on a grave
Sheath – a case for the blade of a knife
Hilt – the handle of a sword

Coleridge on Wikipedia … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Taylor_Coleridge

since feeling is first – e e cummings – analysis

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Since feeling is first

since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don’t cry
—the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids’ flutter which says

we are for each other: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life’s not a paragraph

and death i think is no parenthesis

e e cummings (1894 – 1962)

S1 – eec did not pay any attention to traditional syntax (he developed his own unique syntactical way of expression) … he is talking about love and feelings and how love is expressed, and if you think of syntax in relation to love – which to me relates to discipline and order – then it becomes an inhibiter of full expression, and in relation to a kiss it will not be a full kiss in all its enormity – scary, because if you are totally uninhibited in your love life you may become the stereotyped fool – love and fool both being four letter words that combine to form a bit of an oxymoron.

S2 – Perhaps everyone becomes a bit of a moron when spring is in the air, not me of course for I have English heritage. eec swears by all the flowers that his best brain gesture stands no match for the flutter of an eyelid which dissolves all reason. Love and flattery always have connection, so too love and laughter.

S3-4 Interestingly, you can’t put death in brackets and life is not a paragraph … eec indicates he is putting his writing to one side for the sake of love … (it is a whole story of many chapters … the question is whether there is a full stop to the last sentence … well of course there is a no full stop as you can see in the above!)

Details of e e cummings on Wikipedia … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._E._Cummings

NB Syntax – the ordering of and relationship between the words and other structural elements in phrases and sentences. The syntax may be of a whole language, a single phrase or sentence, or of an individual speaker.

May all those love-fools enjoy this day with a laugh!

‘Not waving but drowning’ – Stevie Smith -Analysis

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Not waving but drowning

Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he’s dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.

Stevie Smith (1902 – 1971)
(Florence Margaret “Stevie” Smith)

Stevie Smith did suffer a bit from depression and at one stage she tried to commit suicide. To what extent she endured life and put on a good face for others is not known. But I think this poem does reflect something of her nature. This poem is all about pretence, and isn’t it a more common human trait for people to try to give positive response even if it is only skin deep. I like the explanatory words of the dead man talking, explaining to everyone but only after he has died.The dead always speak louder than the living because they have more time on their hands.

The ‘comfort zone’ is never a permanent state and we are often encouraged by others in life to move to the ‘uncomfortable’ in order to develop. Well, it is all about balance of course. The poor dead man tells us it was ‘cold’ always. Clearly he should have been more honest and let someone know he was living in hell or should I say kicking frantically in order to stay afloat. Apparently  this fellow also enjoyed larking about so beware of those that play games because they may be hiding a sinking underside.

This poem was number four in popularity by respondents in the BBC Poetry rankings of 1996 so clearly readers could identify with the words. And for those reading this and are out of their depth at the moment make sure you can easily swim to safety whenever you need to!

Death was a key theme in the poetry of Stevie Smith. She regarded death as a welcome friend someone who would be with her to the end, and of course at the end. I know we are all drowning poetically but I do hope we are all enjoying being in the water too! And I guess those that have learnt to swim enjoy it more!

For those interested in the life of Stevie Smith there is a marvellous autobiographical movie made in 1978 called ‘Stevie’. She lived most of her life with an aunt. Stevie is played by Glenda Jackson and her aunt by Mona Washbourne. I found the interplay between these two outstanding actors quite captivating. And the movie includes the reading of many of her poems.

She was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 1969. Here is a link to Stevie Smith on Wikipedia.