Saturday, May 15th, 2004

Blake

Saturday, May 15th, 2004 12:15 pm
mothwing: Image of a death head hawk moth (Default)
There are some poets who never fail to send shivers down my spine or make my eyes water at the beauty of their words. Many of these poets are British, rather few Germans don't strike me as strangely clumsy and brutal. I haven't read William Blake's poems for a while, but I know that Crocky loves him, so I re-read some poems in a collection of his works.

Crocky and I had a very interesting discussion on how poems can be 'destroyed' through literary analysis. Blake is a poet whom I encountered at school and now at the university time and time again and whose works are discussed and dissected until there is hardly anything left. I have always, well, liked him since I first discovered him and I found it amazing how little can be done to him and his poems.

Re-reading 'London' for example I found that the effect it has on me hasn't changed. It is still one of the greatest poems ever written and never fails to give me goosebumps - repeated reading even seems to have increased added to it's effect on me because, having only liked this poem back in '00, now I completely adore it.

London

William Blake

I wander thro' each charter'd street
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe

In every cry of every Man,
In every Infants cry of fear,
In every voice: in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear

How the Chimney-sweepers cry
Every blackning Church appalls,
And the hapless Soldiers sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls

But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlots curse
Blasts the new-born Infants tear
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.

An version illustrated by the poet himself can be found on this page.

Dreeing my wyrd

Saturday, May 15th, 2004 01:42 pm
mothwing: Image of a death head hawk moth (Default)
Do you know those moments in which you think of someone you love and miss terribly and then they suddenly call?
Do you know the feeling when this recurs with special people over and over again, like an - or even the - eternal being winking?

I have just decided I shall believe in fate and metaphysical connections between human beings again from now on.
Some things just are too unlikely to be coincidental.

Profile

mothwing: Image of a death head hawk moth (Default)
Mothwing

January 2022

M T W T F S S
     12
345678 9
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      

Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Sunday, August 31st, 2025 12:15 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios