tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post293643708346141650..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: William Empson: Chinese BalladUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-68549111104536392002012-12-10T05:19:25.492-08:002012-12-10T05:19:25.492-08:00lovely poem...wonderful pics!lovely poem...wonderful pics!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-74141825425189783622012-12-10T02:48:26.931-08:002012-12-10T02:48:26.931-08:00Perhaps it's the "hard" side of Emps...Perhaps it's the "hard" side of Empson that makes the more tender side credible, for me.<br /><br />A bit about his time in the Far East, from The Poetry Archive (UK):<br /><br />"Seven Types of Ambiguity made Empson's name and he was nominated for a fellowship at Magdalene College (Cambridge). However, when contraceptives were discovered in Empson's rooms the ensuing scandal meant the fellowship was rescinded and Empson was plunged into financial hardship. This crisis, though painful, was also the catalyst for a period of stimulating travel in the Far East which was to exert a powerful influence on his imagination. First Empson took up a teaching post in Japan followed, in 1937, by an invitation to teach at the University of Peking. However, when he arrived Empson found the staff on the brink of leaving in the face of the Japanese invasion. Empson fled with them and lived a peripatetic existence for two years teaching English poetry entirely from memory. Empson loved China, despite the hardships, and became very knowledgeable about Buddhism which he respected (as opposed to Christianity which he found morally repugnant and criticised openly). Despite these upheavals, Empson found time to publish his second groundbreaking book of criticism Some Versions of the Pastoral in 1935. The majority of his poetry was also written during the 20s and 30s. He returned to England at the outbreak of the Second World War and was employed by the BBC making broadcasts to the Far East. Empson married Hetta Crouse in 1941 and the couple had two sons. After the war Empson returned to Peking University for a further five years where he witnessed the rise of communism, leaving in 1952 when teaching conditions became more restricted."TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-11913133296873172512012-12-09T13:00:31.454-08:002012-12-09T13:00:31.454-08:00There's a tenderness here that isn't alway...There's a tenderness here that isn't always there in Empson.<br /><br />When you have made them smash them back.<br /><br />It's a child's game - playing seriously, making and unmaking. That "see-saw rhythm" is just right.Mose23https://www.blogger.com/profile/01100756913131511440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-76562712025508733912012-12-09T08:32:35.678-08:002012-12-09T08:32:35.678-08:00And thank you for your discriminating eye and ear,...And thank you for your discriminating eye and ear, Steve.<br /><br />That "broken-back" line, the oldest kind of line in English poetry -- always makes me think of Wyatt, and how that rocking-horse see-saw rhythm induces a simplicity and directness of feeling.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-60681267289968128672012-12-09T08:14:47.450-08:002012-12-09T08:14:47.450-08:00Tom,
Thanks for this, a beautiful Sunday morning ...Tom,<br /><br />Thanks for this, a beautiful Sunday morning offering --<br /><br />So your flesh shall be part of mine,<br /> And part of mind be yours.<br /><br />And the 'broken' ('faltering') rhythm of the last line, how it conveys all the feeling in the poem.<br /><br />And those pictures of those mountains and rivers. . .<br /><br />12.9<br /><br />light coming into sky above still black <br />ridge, fingernail moon through branches<br />in foreground, sound of wave in channel<br /><br /> being that lets the present,<br /> such that this is not<br /><br /> frame picture, work of said,<br /> landscape and figures<br /><br />whiteness of moon in cloudless blue sky,<br />tree-lined green of ridge above channel<br /><br />STEPHEN RATCLIFFEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12339481653546188412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-63022281704388040342012-12-09T04:10:14.158-08:002012-12-09T04:10:14.158-08:00And too, see:
William Empson: Aubade
William Emp...And too, see:<br /><br /><a href="http://tomclarkblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/william-empson-aubade.html" rel="nofollow">William Empson: Aubade</a><br /><br /><a href="http://tomclarkblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/william-empson-ignorance-of-death.html" rel="nofollow">William Empson: Ignorance of Death</a><br /><br /><a href="http://tomclarkblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/william-empson-let-it-go.html" rel="nofollow">William Empson: Let It Go</a>TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.com