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Sunday 16 October 2016

Wyatt's Galley of Forget

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Ships in Distress in a Raging Storm: Ludolf Backhuysen, c. 1690, oil on tinplate, 150 x 227 cm (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
Thomas Wyat[t]: Sonnet: My galy charged with forgetfulness

My galy charged wth forgetfulness
..Thorrough sharpe sees in wynter nyghtes doeth pas
..Twene Rock and Rock and eke myne ennemy Alas
..That is my lorde sterith wth cruelnes
And every owre a thought in redines
..As tho that deth were light in suche a case
..An endles wynd doeth tere the sayll apase
..Of forced sighes and trusty ferefulnes
A rayn of teris a clowde of derk disdain
..Hath done the wered cordes great hinderaunce
..Wrethed wth error and eke wth ignoraunce
The starres be hid that led me to this pain
..Drowned is reason that should me confort
..And I remain despering of the port


Thomas Wyat[t] (1503-1542): Sonnet: My galy charged with forgetfulness (transcription from Egerton MS 2711, British Museum)

 
File:Vision-phill-1926-2b.jpg

Watercolor illustration of the Ship from Marot's Visions de Pétrarque, based on Petrarch's Canzone 323: artist unknown, 16th c. Manuscript Phill. 1926 at Berlin Staatsbibliothek. from Bildindex der Kunst und Arkitektur; image by Michael Hurst, 27 November 2011

Frank O'Hara: To the Harbormaster

I wanted to be sure to reach you;
though my ship was on the way it got caught
in some moorings. I am always tying up
and then deciding to depart. In storms and
at sunset, with the metallic coils of the tide
around my fathomless arms, I am unable
to understand the forms of my vanity
or I am hard alee with my Polish rudder
in my hand and the sun sinking. To
you I offer my hull and the tattered cordage
of my will. The terrible channels where
the wind drives me against the brown lips
of the reeds are not all behind me. Yet
I trust the sanity of my vessel; and
if it sinks, it may well be in answer
to the reasoning of the eternal voices,
the waves which have kept me from reaching you.


Frank O'Hara: To the Harbormaster, 1954, from Meditations in an Emergency, 1957


File:Petrarch-smm2-glasgow-03-ship.jpg

Illustration of the Ship from Marot's
Visions de Pétrarque: artist unknown, c. 1540s;
manuscript SMM2 at Univ. of Glasgow; scanned from Les Poetes Francais de la Renaissance et Petrarque; image by Michael Hurst, 20 September 2011

John Berryman: Sonnet 15
What was Ashore, then?... Cargoed with Forget,
My ship runs down a midnight winter storm
Between whirlpool and rock, and my white love's form
Gleams at the wheel, her hair streams. When we met
Seaward, Thought frank & guilty to each oar set
Hands careless of port as of the waters' harm.
Endless a wet wind wears my sail, dark swarm
Endless of sighs and veering hopes, love's fret.

Rain of tears, real, mist of imagined scorn,
No rest accords the fraying shrouds, all thwart
Already with mistakes, foresight so short.
Muffled in capes of waves my clear signs, torn,
Hitherto most clear, -- Loyalty and Art.
And I begin now to despair of port. 
.............................................(AFTER PETRARCH & WYATT)

John Berryman: Sonnet 15, from Sonnets for Chris, 1952, published as Berryman's Sonnets, 1967
File:Vision-phill-1926-2a.jpg

Watercolor illustration of the Ship from Marot's
Visions de Pétrarque, based on Petrarch's Canzone 323: artist unknown, 16th c. Manuscript Phill. 1926 at Berlin Staatsbibliothek. from Bildindex der Kunst und Arkitektur; image by Michael Hurst, 27 November 2011

Petrarch: Rime CLXXXIX (Passa la nave mia colma d’oblio)

Passa la nave mia colma d’oblio
..Per aspro mare, a mezza notte, il verno,
..In fra Scillo e Cariddi; et al governo
..Siede 'l signore, anzi ’l nimico mio.                                       
A ciascun remo un penser pronto e rio,
..Che la tempesta e ’l fin par ch’abbi a scherno:
..La vela rompe un vento umido, eterno
..Di sospir, di speranze, e di desio.                                           
Pioggia di lagrimar, nebbia di sdegni
..Bagna e rallenta le già stanche sarte,
..Che son d’error con ignoranzia attorto.                                
Celansi i duo miei dolci usati segni;
..Morta fra l’onde è la ragion e l’arte:
..Tal ch’i’ ’ncomincio a desperar del porto.

Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca), 1304-1374: Rime CLXXXIX

File:Petrarch-smm2-glasgow-04-ship.jpg

illustration of the Ship from Marot's Visions de Pétrarque: artist unknown, c. 1540s; manuscript SMM2 at Univ. of Glasgow; scanned from Les Poetes Francais de la Renaissance et Petrarque; image by Michael Hurst, 20 September 2011

My vessel heavy with oblivion
..Passes through sharp seas, middle of night, winter,
..Between Scylla and Charybdis; and at the rudder
..Sits the lord, [who is] also my enemy.
And every oar [is] a thought ready and evil
..Which seems [to hold] in scorn [both] the tempest and the goal:
..The sail bends with an eternal wet wind
..Of sighing, of hope and of desire.
Rain of tears, clouds of disdain
..Drench and drag at the already wearied shrouds
..That are twisted by ignorance and error.
Shut out, my two sweet familiar signals;
..Dead beneath the wave are reason and art
..So that I begin to despair of reaching port. 
                       


Seashore with Shipwreck by Moonlight: Caspar David Friedrich, 1825-1830, oil on canvas, 77 x 97 cm (Nationalgalerie, Berlin)

Destruction Island LIghthouse | by USFWS Pacific

Lighthouse on Destruction Island, WA.: photo by Doug Zimmer (USFWS) / USWS - Pacific Region, 6 October 2011

Destruction Island LIghthouse | by USFWS Pacific

Lighthouse on Destruction Island, WA.: photo by Doug Zimmer (USFWS) / USWS - Pacific Region, 6 October 2011

Destruction Island LIghthouse | by USFWS Pacific

Lighthouse on Destruction Island, WA.: photo by Doug Zimmer (USFWS) / USWS - Pacific Region, 6 October 2011


Wave at Cape Disappointment on the WA coast as the storm rolls in. via @KIRO7Seattle #wawx: image via La Gringuitica @La Gringuitica, 15 October 2016
 


 Mirad la cara de la desesperación. Fue anoche aunque no haya sido titular de ningún diario. 113 salvados sí, pero 17 muertos al fondo #Med: image via PROACTIVA OPEN ARMS @PROACTIVA_SERV, 13 October 2016 



 Mirad la cara de la desesperación. Fue anoche aunque no haya sido titular de ningún diario. 113 salvados sí, pero 17 muertos al fondo #Med: image via PROACTIVA OPEN ARMS @PROACTIVA_SERV, 13 October 2016 


Astral rescatando en naufragio ahora mismo, de momento mujer joven 17 años y bebe 3 desaparecidos, seguimos búsqueda: image via Oscar Camps @campsoscar, 12 October 2016


 winter storm, Kohoku (Lake Biwa, Shiga prefecture, Japan). Tremendous winter wind this day. I remember thinking more arms would be helpful as I had one hand steadying the tripod, an umbrella under my arm and my free hand wiping down the filter. Oddly, days like that make me feel alive: photo by Stephen Cairns, 9 December 2012

10 comments:

Sandra said...

"I am always tying up
and then deciding to depart."...love that idea !

beautiful analogy between the sea and feelings!

bookperson said...

wonderful

poetowen said...

A heartbreaking & beautiful post on this rainy morning.

vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras) said...

4 (from George Seferis' "Mythistorema")

Argonauts

And a soul
if it is to know itself
must look
into its own soul:
the stranger and enemy, we’ve seen him in the mirror.

They were good, the companions, they didn’t complain
about the work or the thirst or the frost,
they had the bearing of trees and waves
that accept the wind and the rain
accept the night and the sun
without changing in the midst of change.
They were fine, whole days
they sweated at the oars with lowered eyes
breathing in rhythm
and their blood reddened a submissive skin.
Sometimes they sang, with lowered eyes
as we were passing the deserted island with the Barbary figs
to the west, beyond the cape of the dogs
that bark.
If it is to know itself, they said
it must look into its own soul, they said
and the oar’s struck the sea’s gold
in the sunset.
We went past many capes many islands the sea
leading to another sea, gulls and seals.
Sometimes disconsolate women wept
lamenting their lost children
and others frantic sought Alexander the Great
and glories buried in the depths of Asia.

We moored on shores full of night-scenes,
the birds singing, with waters that left on the hands
the memory of a great happiness.
But the voyages did not end.
Their souls became one with the oars and the oarlocks
with the solemn face of the prow
with the rudder’s wake
with the water that shattered their image.
The companions died one by one,
with lowered eyes. Their oars
mark the place where they sleep on the shore.

No one remembers them. Justice



(Translation by Edmund Keeley)

Hilton said...

Beautiful assembly of poems. Thanks.

TC said...

Very many thanks to everyone.

"The companions..."

tpw said...

What a terrific little anthology of poems. Thanks, Tom. (Off to Ireland on Friday for a family visit.)

STEPHEN RATCLIFFE said...

Great to see this Tom, Petrarch's "Passa la nave mia colma d’oblio" and its descendants (plus these photos), especially after such storm-tossed seas out here these last few days . . .

TC said...

Terry, Steve, thanks for the word, post Typhoon.

Wyatt's diplomatic (and spying) duties required a fair amount of travel over water.

Petrarch could get to Avignon merely by crossing the Alps. No boats needed.

(Merely, he said.)

Say hello to the old country for all of us, tpw.

Steve, I understand the next Typhoon is already brewing in the east Pacific... now said to be loitering somewhere between the Sea of Japan and Destruction Island Light.

STEPHEN RATCLIFFE said...

Thanks Tom for this and yes, they say there's another on the way (storm that is, maybe a euphemism for Typhoon brewing up somewhere southwest of Japan, another reported yesterday bearing down on the Philippines w/ 140 mph winds. Last week's coincided with full moon high tides (6.2' on Saturday, 6.4' Sunday, breaking against the seawall to the right of Brighton 'ramp' sending clouds of water into cypress branches above it (will back channel a photo to you) -- meanwhile a lake today (Lago de Pacifico) but maybe time to batten down the hatches soon enough.