tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post7297756149901475925..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: John Keats: To AutumnUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger29125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-8509541671134253332018-11-29T17:51:49.325-08:002018-11-29T17:51:49.325-08:00The genius of my German 101 teacher: we learned He...The genius of my German 101 teacher: we learned Herbsttag by heart the first week and 55 years later I can still recite that beautiful poem. Keats and Rilke in these two poems offer two similar yet distinct meditations on the season. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13064286515109088077noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-10706623573207495392012-09-27T16:12:51.077-07:002012-09-27T16:12:51.077-07:00Artemisia,
I think it's that subdued minor ke...Artemisia,<br /><br />I think it's that subdued minor key, in To Autumn, with its acceptance of a recessive mode of feeling, as the shades of evening come down, that sets off the abundance of the harvest (the major key). Those full-grown lambs may not be around for long, and the gnats will surely be gone by morning. The expansiveness of the embrace of life, in all its majestic fullness -- and all its fragility and fleetingness -- is truly remarkable. Indeed I don't know that there's a better poem in English than this one.<br /><br />Not many poems that I can think of offer such breadth, such dimension, such depth. Were one to wish to speak of the consolations of poetry, it's here I'd want to turn first.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-7648198577670945422012-09-27T15:57:38.587-07:002012-09-27T15:57:38.587-07:00Keats in his “To Autumn,” and then (in my mind) Ri...Keats in his “To Autumn,” and then (in my mind) Rilke’s “Herbsttag, (Autumn Day).” The music of Keats whose ear was made of gold will keep poetry alive forever. Rilke too was a master of the major and minor keys…One can forget how beautiful poetry can be until one is once again startled by the sheer magic of what is truly poetic genius. Thank you TC for bringing Keats forward.Artemesiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06120821017998835883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-8583328234160164152012-09-27T14:57:30.607-07:002012-09-27T14:57:30.607-07:00I can see a brand emerging here. A couple of John ...I can see a brand emerging here. A couple of John Keats Power Bars, yes -- the New Poetry Spinach.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-29686908965901604422012-09-27T14:19:32.562-07:002012-09-27T14:19:32.562-07:00See, you've got your traditional Keats, and th...See, you've got your traditional Keats, and that's fine if you don't want him for anything more than a few hours' quiet contemplation on some Grecian Urns. But today's lifestyle calls for Power Keats. Sha-ZAM.Norahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14439557611640319928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-64212950211058781642012-09-27T13:23:32.849-07:002012-09-27T13:23:32.849-07:00Nora, thanks very much for that. Such a short life...Nora, thanks very much for that. Such a short life, so many long biographies. But this one sounds interesting. There are always scales left to be balanced. In this case, off with the frail, sickly, sensitive poet. "Keats emerges as a caloric, even occasionally robust figure..."<br /><br />A caloric Keats, for an age of furious workouts and scrupulous nutritional balancing. This expands our conception!TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-13070967937558165422012-09-27T11:39:32.463-07:002012-09-27T11:39:32.463-07:00I just ran across this review, and thought you mig...I just ran across this review, and thought you might enjoy it: <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/94e39034-018d-11e2-83bb-00144feabdc0.html#axzz27UyKieAx" rel="nofollow">Beauty that must die</a>Norahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14439557611640319928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-53771007469745353612012-09-25T13:23:14.675-07:002012-09-25T13:23:14.675-07:00That is amazing truly.
It was poor Keats's am...That is amazing truly.<br /><br />It was poor Keats's ambition to be "numbered among the English poets when I die."<br /><br />And now in "the fullness of time" his poems must be hunted out by impoverished scholars as a clandestine pleasure!TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-43886961393954077172012-09-25T10:09:55.487-07:002012-09-25T10:09:55.487-07:00I'm coming a little late to this but, there we...I'm coming a little late to this but, there we are.<br /><br />"With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, And still more, later flowers for the bees"<br /><br />That "thoughtful and quiet power" is something to be reckoned with. The words, "...and still more..." pressing us close to the tipping point where ripeness ebbs to entropy ("concession, resignation and subsidence") have been turning about my head all day.<br /><br />We never had Keats at school; a moral failing in our education. As with most of the good things, I had to hunt him out myself.Mose23https://www.blogger.com/profile/01100756913131511440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-82348474940593481862012-09-25T05:47:20.286-07:002012-09-25T05:47:20.286-07:00winchester, our sister city.winchester, our sister city.gamefacedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16562522181852339258noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-75582012148327970952012-09-25T04:39:26.575-07:002012-09-25T04:39:26.575-07:00It's awfully good, isn't it, Kevin?
And t...It's awfully good, isn't it, Kevin?<br /><br />And to think that the Geograph UK project covers the whole of the UK, grid coordinate by grid coordinate, so that the photos serve a useful mapping function, as well as capturing terrain that would otherwise go unseen. And the compositions are almost always impressive. No glitz and no gloryland, although in a case like this one the glory is already there in the landscape, so it's the composition, as you suggest.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-52168546102257570212012-09-24T21:55:26.770-07:002012-09-24T21:55:26.770-07:00I'm sorry, all I can say is that top photo is ...I'm sorry, all I can say is that top photo is so incredibly well composed.-K-https://www.blogger.com/profile/03289562368002376807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-84188466180589245532012-09-24T16:48:24.298-07:002012-09-24T16:48:24.298-07:00Lucy,
Wonderful to hear from you -- now at the b...Lucy, <br /><br />Wonderful to hear from you -- now at the beginning of your Springtime!TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-86387194731928865592012-09-24T16:36:03.861-07:002012-09-24T16:36:03.861-07:00Beauty all around. Ochre, red, yellow, golden, bro...Beauty all around. Ochre, red, yellow, golden, brown, orange, crimson, copper... So many hues take hold of the dry leaves that our eyes cannot grasp its entire splendour...<br /><br />My favourite season, no doubt about that. And this Ode is only comparable to the glow of Autumn itself.<br /><br />Blessed wise Nature that keeps on inspiring poetic words in the souls of men and women.<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-5418197505471517642012-09-24T16:16:21.361-07:002012-09-24T16:16:21.361-07:00What They Would Eat Along Bachelor Creek
Stayman ...What They Would Eat Along Bachelor Creek<br /><br />Stayman Apple: (A.K.A. Stayman Winesap)<br /> Firm apples <br />with a complex sweet tart flavor, <br />prized for cooking, eating and storing. <br />Their primary color <br />is deep crimson, <br />with touches of green. <br />They are fall apples. <br />They began as a seedling of winesap; <br />originated in Kansas; <br />and were introduced in 1866.<br /><br /><br />D’anjou pear: (A.K.A. Buerre D’Anjou)<br /> Found sometimes before 1700 in the Anjou region of France. <br />It was brought <br />to the United States in 1842. One hundred years later <br />the red variations were developed in Oregon. <br />This winter pear <br /> has a mild, sweet flavor and abundant juice. <br /> It is best eaten fresh out of hand for baking <br />or poaching before they are fully ripe.<br /><br /><br />Seek-No-Further apple (A.K.A. Rambo, Cooper and Scribner) <br /> Introduced in America <br />ca 1640 <br />by Swedish settler Peter Gunnarson Rambo. <br />This apple was later known as Johnny Appleseed’s—<br />John Chapman’s—<br />favorite apple.<br /><br />Starking apple: (A.K. A. Starking Delicious, Hawkeye)<br />Started as a small, insignificant seedling in Jesse Hyatt’s Pern, Iowa orchard, about 1870. A yellow Bellflower tree was thought to be one of the parents as it was near and had the peculiar long pointed shape terminating in five points at the blossom end. It was said by Luther Burbank to be “the best quality of any apple I have so far tested.” Hiatt sent four apples in 1893 to a fruit show sponsored by Stark Nurseries. It won first prize and was named Delicious: it has become one of the most popular apples.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Baldwin Apple: (A.K.A. Woodpecker)<br /> The Baldwin <br />is a medium to large yellowish <br />or greenish apple <br />mottled with red, <br />and a slightly tart taste; <br />the flesh is crisp, firm, <br />rather tender, juicy. <br />It is good for desert and cooking. <br />It ripens in autumn. <br /> The seedling originated in Lowell, Massachusetts, <br />around 1740. <br />By 1852, it had become the most widely used apple <br />in the U.S. <br />until the 1920s. <br /><br /><br /><br />Canut pear: no information found<br /><br /><br /><br />Fall Pippin apple: (A.K.A. Autumn Pippin; Cathead, Cobbett’s Fall, Cobbett’s Fall Pippin, Concombne Acien, Holland Pippin, Pound Pippin)<br /> This large yellowish winter apple is enjoyable eaten raw <br />or used in cooking. <br />It has been confused <br />with the Holland Pippin, <br />ripens later, <br />but is of better quality. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(Found along Bachelor Creek, Margaret Kanipe Homestead, Oakland, Oregon)Susan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-71425088711500923372012-09-24T15:52:33.889-07:002012-09-24T15:52:33.889-07:00Yes, I see=the middle pedal to help sustain or pro...Yes, I see=the middle pedal to help sustain or prolong the life of a piece/song/poem/blossom/oozing.<br />=Autumn<br />the n<br />means winter<br /><br />noteSusan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-87179732350653211132012-09-24T15:44:55.558-07:002012-09-24T15:44:55.558-07:00My Italian Busen Freund
we do everything together...My Italian Busen Freund<br /><br />we do everything together<br />there is nothing you don't I don't know<br />about you<br />trusted friend<br /><br />yes we make everything together<br />we smile our little smiles<br />about each other<br />when someone else mentions it<br /><br />I never said thanks <br />but I don't have to<br />bosom friend neither do you buddy<br />bud hazelnut shell gourd bee leg filling<br />sunshine Autumn light warmthSusan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-86320680792071985672012-09-24T15:32:39.843-07:002012-09-24T15:32:39.843-07:00Susan, as to the time-sense in the participle, it ...Susan, as to the time-sense in the participle, it seems a kind of sustain, mimetic of the sostenuto hum of the "waiful" -- as ms. has it -- "choir" of gnats. Pitt the Younger might have reminded us that here in the last of the Odes Keats has altered his Ode stanza, extending it to eleven lines and including a couplet in lines 9-10 that works as a kind of crest, with the closure of the stanza a falling-back, followed by a distinct pause. <br /><br />With the close of each stanza, as Barbara Everett puts this, the poem "seems to be slowing to a standstill, to be stopping (on "cease', 'look', 'croft'), overspilling into the retrospectively rhyming eleventh line that brings the stanza home." <br /><br />In a poem that seems to be about concession, resignation and subsidence as much as it is about the ripeness and fullness that precedes those states, this sostenuto effect contributes subtly but (I think) essentially to the total meaning.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-88327682451598405142012-09-24T15:18:12.717-07:002012-09-24T15:18:12.717-07:00Nature, then, is explored without conquering--this...Nature, then, is explored without conquering--this is a different kind of mapping out of the territory of the season. It is more than noticing or observation. It is co-(mm)union? Right word?Susan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-86794904697484103602012-09-24T15:15:18.794-07:002012-09-24T15:15:18.794-07:00"To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shel..."To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells..."<br /><br />"Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun..."<br /><br />intimate<br />voyeuristic<br />microscopic<br />lush filling detail<br />enclosed, encapsulatingSusan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-66314741879674848102012-09-24T15:09:17.135-07:002012-09-24T15:09:17.135-07:00It is curiously agreeable to consider the conspira...It is curiously agreeable to consider the conspiracy of Autumn with the "maturing sun" (in the holograph draft one of the poet's serendipitous slips of the pen makes "maturing" into "naturing") to bring harvest and season to fruition. The sun is characterized as male, but its embrace with Autumn is not amorous but that of a companion, a "bosom friend" -- German busen freund < Sanskrit bhas to puff out or swell -- they are, it may be said without too much stretching, bosom buddies, conspiring to bring everything to a state of bursting fullness; but it all happens as if without the assertion of any Will.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-82935980467192022522012-09-24T15:06:28.747-07:002012-09-24T15:06:28.747-07:00Definition:
A verb form--made by adding -ing to t...Definition: <br />A verb form--made by adding -ing to the base form--that functions as an adjective. Present participles are the only verb forms that are completely regular.<br /><br />The present participle is used with a form of the auxiliary be to express the progressive aspect.<br /><br />The chalk stream<br />progressive regular<br /><br />stream of consciousness<br />(they call it now)<br /> active progress<br />to the ooze point<br />of hope in despair<br />over Autumn<br />its light<br />& non-light.Susan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-60135689148482637142012-09-24T13:41:09.028-07:002012-09-24T13:41:09.028-07:00"Where are the songs of Spring? Aye, where ar..."Where are the songs of Spring? Aye, where are they?"<br /><br />Eye, where are they<br />distracting<br />present participle<br /><br />hidden despair--<br /><br />roots all there<br />but what to reach?<br />Not yet<br />the system frozen<br />icingSusan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-22171035650637755162012-09-24T12:33:51.497-07:002012-09-24T12:33:51.497-07:00Uncanny, seeing the picture of Pitt. I was once a ...Uncanny, seeing the picture of Pitt. I was once a regular visitor to Sparsholt College. We were often tempted to graffiti the sign for Pitt by adding 'the younger.'Jonathan Chanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03647746685252448938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-90090499301278324532012-09-24T12:13:42.203-07:002012-09-24T12:13:42.203-07:00Over this way, we’ve enjoyed two glorious, cool, d...Over this way, we’ve enjoyed two glorious, cool, dry, and absolutely cloudless days, so with your permission I’ll borrow those two cumulus clouds from yesterday’s post and install them in the mind's eye for effect. Your ‘storybook casement’ evokes boyhood memories . . . of books and casements both. Coincidentally, this dry weather makes me less short of breath, so I'm off to rake some of autumn’s ‘mellow fruitfulness’ from the yard.Hazenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13417573435195561519noreply@blogger.com