tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20735769.post8495916916249190016..comments2024-02-19T10:16:13.581+00:00Comments on Past Imperfect: Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529798893653033970noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20735769.post-40027953428011052282009-06-10T07:55:06.204+01:002009-06-10T07:55:06.204+01:00Rashbre: thank you for that link - it's a gre...Rashbre: thank you for that link - it's a great treat and so beautifully clear.<br /><br />All: follow Rashbre's link for something special in the manner of this post's subject.<br /><br />Kanani: I think familiarity eventually brings a glimmer of understanding- whether it's what he had in mind is beside the point. I always think Will the Shake would have been amused at the millions of interpretations scholars put on his work.Pathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01529798893653033970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20735769.post-47078792058111870052009-06-10T07:32:58.094+01:002009-06-10T07:32:58.094+01:00Sam: Clive James - there's a man I'd like...Sam: Clive James - there's a man I'd like to have on my 'folk I'd like to have a jar and a jaw with' list.Pathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01529798893653033970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20735769.post-50911157088905610682009-06-10T01:15:04.232+01:002009-06-10T01:15:04.232+01:00Prufrock.
I love the poem, however I remember read...Prufrock.<br />I love the poem, however I remember reading it when I was younger and not really "getting it." I aged about 15 years, and it all fell into place. I mean, I understand it probably as well as anyone does. That's not saying anything deep, but well, when speaking of Eliot, I suppose everything comes off as fairly glib.Kananihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08317494343177263398noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20735769.post-73526687501334314832009-06-09T22:26:22.548+01:002009-06-09T22:26:22.548+01:00Love Clive James. I'd watch or read anything ...Love Clive James. I'd watch or read anything he's had anything to do with.problemchildbridehttp://problemchildbride.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20735769.post-49892603956407933092009-06-09T22:21:20.926+01:002009-06-09T22:21:20.926+01:00Rashbre: thanks - I'll check that out. Tom W...Rashbre: thanks - I'll check that out. Tom Waits has always been a favourite.<br /><br />Kim: thank you for that little gem. I shall now be similarly afflicted!<br /><br />Sam: thank you so much for your - typically - generous comment. The two things you mentioned were the two things that troubled me but one has to remember the mores of that time which were quite different. I have a Collected Verses which I keep in the loo and I read and read - love the words and wonder about the meanings but sometimes the meaning doesn't matter there is such potent imagery. I'm glad you feel stirred to read him - now you're grown up. I'm not quite there yet:)Pathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01529798893653033970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20735769.post-5894082175002900272009-06-09T20:38:20.542+01:002009-06-09T20:38:20.542+01:00From a child I had the idea of Eliot as not a very...From a child I had the idea of Eliot as not a very nice man. My granny told me The Waste Land was a very great poem and it was one she read every few years, but that Eliot himself was not a very nice man at all. I think this has coloured my opinion of him, for better or worse, ever since. <br /><br />I haven't actually read the Waste Land all the way through, although I know some passages of it fairly well. I've read Prufrock though. In both I found a lot I liked but before all of that I'd read more incidental biographical snippets about him and the poems never quite took me away from the feeling that he was a man who tried to ingratiate himself by becoming more English than the english, that he was an anti-semite and the thing about abandoning his mad wife. This is a good example of why it is better to read a poet before reading about him or her.On reading about him here and there today before writing this, I see now, with older, more adult eyes, that: his marriage was clearly over before Vivien was institutonalized, and was, almost from the start, a source of great frustration to him (Virginia Woolf said of him "He was one of those poets who live by scratching, and his wife was his itch."; he himself suffered in his mind, later on; His anti-semitism was over-blown and he had many Jewish champions. <br /><br />So I have softened to the most egregious of the charges against him. <br /><br />Still his biography trips me up though, despite my knowing that's not necessarily a good thing to let happen. He seemed like a such a deeply and dismally conventional man, drawn by and even worshipful of convention. he was an American but a royalist, an Anglo-Catholic, and by all accounts a very strait-laced, uptight, fear-driven man. But his words and vision and his ability to be so highly aware of the physical world about him and it emotional resonances for us, and communicate that so well to the rest of us, defy that to adegree, making him a puzzle. how could a man that agile in his mind be so willing to bend himself to temporal institutions and societal powers, may of which were unjust. <br /><br />Of course poets don't have to be nice people. It might be better if they're sometimes not., But there is something antithetical about a conformist poet whatever his or her native talent might be. This is what i thought about him - which wasn't that often - in my teens and 20s and I haven't really <br /><br />What I should really do though, instead of blahing on here, is go and read his actual poems. It must be more than a decade since I last have, and as Rand says, he might be a poet moe easily understood with a few more years under the skull. I might be less Bolshie in my inclinations and more modulated now. In fact I know I am, I jsut have never read Eliot as an "adult" really - something that I didn't become until I was 30.<br /><br /> To be honest, reading his work now would be almost like the first time it's been so long. But the fact that it's <i>been</i> such a long time says its own thing too. <br /><br />Sorry to be so biographical in my response to this, but I don't know how else to respond, certainly not academically because I just don't know enough. On the strength of this post though, I feel like reading some Eliot tonight! Maybe I'll come back tomorrow raving about him, with the scales fallen from my eyes!problemchildbridehttp://problemchildbride.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20735769.post-18404443148965396902009-06-09T18:30:35.793+01:002009-06-09T18:30:35.793+01:00Unfortunately, since when I was about 13 someone o...Unfortunately, since when I was about 13 someone once said, "Do you know that TS Eliot is an anagram of Toilets?" and since then, I've never been able to get it out of my head when his name is mentionedKim Ayreshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02656677501116622953noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20735769.post-23994612177249365542009-06-09T16:48:30.789+01:002009-06-09T16:48:30.789+01:00I've enjoyed T.S.Eliot since back in schoolday...I've enjoyed T.S.Eliot since back in schooldays so its good to see you quoting a piece. <br /><br />The section you show also reminds me of another more recent brawling poet/songster in the form of Tom Waits. Check out <a href="http://www.lyricsmania.com/lyrics/tom_waits_lyrics_2575/rain_dogs_lyrics_7261/9th_and_hennepin_lyrics_84890.html" rel="nofollow">9th and Hennepin</a> for some similar imagery to this section. <br /><br />I may just load it on my place as a tune.rashbrehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01138427049001650099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20735769.post-59978178926476447972009-06-09T08:18:43.524+01:002009-06-09T08:18:43.524+01:00Eryol; ah I see. I remember the arm bit. Or per...Eryol; ah I see. I remember the arm bit. Or perhaps something more intimate - like D H Lawrence's fig. I pore over his selected poems and whilst I relish the phrases I share K Amis's feeling of an exclusive club to which I don't belong. Let me know about the Cummingsif you find it.<br /><br />Daphne: how I wish we had done it at school. Too Modernist I suppose. I'd love to attend a brain storm on him. There must be some references which are set in stone but I think looking at his life - especially with his first wife there could be lots of interpretations of his work.<br /><br />Naomi: it was a surprise to me. You wouldn't guess from his speaking voice and I knew his ashes were in East Coker. I think I have to do some more reading to satisfy my curiosity.Pathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01529798893653033970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20735769.post-25536577588523900402009-06-09T01:51:47.533+01:002009-06-09T01:51:47.533+01:00It is strange...I have ALWAYS tgought of him as En...It is strange...I have ALWAYS tgought of him as English, even though I know he was born in America. What he saud about his writing and the sensebility of his writing is no doubt right on the money.....!<br />Such an interesting talented complex man.OldLady Of The Hillshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02458879772193114892noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20735769.post-68758450128728225652009-06-08T17:41:25.857+01:002009-06-08T17:41:25.857+01:00Eliot's "Prufrock" to Robert Webb...Eliot's "Prufrock" to Robert Webb's "Flashdance" - from the sublime to the ridiculous. Just studying Eliot's poetry was an education in itself, thanks to Miss Bennett my English Lit. teacher.Daphne Wayne-Boughhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10581048408996935564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20735769.post-46875326892180096812009-06-08T15:59:42.398+01:002009-06-08T15:59:42.398+01:00Pat ~ I think the peach thing refers to the intens...Pat ~ I think the peach thing refers to the intense sensuality of eating a fruit that is smooth and downy (like the woman's arm in Prufrock), highly fragrant and flavoursome, drips when you bite into it so you have to watch those white trousers, and has a stone at its heart. <br /><br />I found the prog on iplayer and felt the odd tear drip from the end of my nose as I watched. Off to look out my ee cummins collected to find those poems that are so rude they cannot be read on air!Erylhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06008344023000459577noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20735769.post-18533107125421362692009-06-08T08:08:37.770+01:002009-06-08T08:08:37.770+01:00Randall: 'Do I dare to eat a peach?' I co...Randall: 'Do I dare to eat a peach?' I couldn't get what would be the danger of eating a peach? Eating an apple with false clackers would be hazardous but a soft peach you could eat with just your gums. What am I missing?<br /><br />J@udy: you've got a head start:)Pathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01529798893653033970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20735769.post-274321995248061082009-06-08T01:32:52.099+01:002009-06-08T01:32:52.099+01:00I studied him in college, but I didn't underst...I studied him in college, but I didn't understand much of what I read. Perhaps I'll try it again.kenjuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342414519714356343noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20735769.post-8477104635388972392009-06-08T01:00:04.870+01:002009-06-08T01:00:04.870+01:00Jimmy: "Eat A Peach"
Took me back to my...Jimmy: "Eat A Peach"<br /><br />Took me back to my bearded, long-haired, bandanna wearing days driving to Yosemite National Park listing to the album of the same name on the eight-track in a 1975 AMC Gremlin.<br /><br />Good times.<br /><br />Cheers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20735769.post-76424424437738680602009-06-07T23:13:41.974+01:002009-06-07T23:13:41.974+01:00Randall: he's growing on me. I though you'...Randall: he's growing on me. I though you'd like he was a local lad.<br /><br />Jimmy: that is strange - but what a good choice. It was read on the programme and I liked the sound of it. For some reason I saw a picture of Alec Guiness. Maybe he read it.<br />One thing I learned - he and his wife lived opposite a pub which explains a poem which is the sort of thing you would hear at closing time across the street.<br /><br />Eryl: I'm glad I made the effort because I know I'm going to realise more the more I read him.Pathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01529798893653033970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20735769.post-64273185062357674642009-06-07T22:04:30.746+01:002009-06-07T22:04:30.746+01:00I love TS Eliot, don't get him but love him no...I love TS Eliot, don't get him but love him nonetheless. Off to check iPlayer now to see if I can watch the show, xErylhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06008344023000459577noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20735769.post-78189795909918462922009-06-07T17:17:06.035+01:002009-06-07T17:17:06.035+01:00Uncanny Pat. I read aloud these few verses only a ...Uncanny Pat. I read aloud these few verses only a week ago, as we stood and said our last farewell to our brother on the shore of the loch.<br /><br />"I grow old... I grow old... <br />I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. <br /><br />Shall I part my hair behind? <br />Do I dare to eat a peach? <br />I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. <br />I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. <br />I do not think they will sing to me. <br /><br />I have seen them riding seaward on the waves <br />Combing the white hair of the waves blown back <br />When the wind blows the water white and black. <br /><br />We have lingered in the chambers of the sea. <br />By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown. <br />Till human voices wake us, and we drown."Barlinniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07555629852012324360noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20735769.post-39176176470644037952009-06-07T16:54:10.459+01:002009-06-07T16:54:10.459+01:00Eliot is one of those poets who come to you later ...Eliot is one of those poets who come to you later in life. I must confess, I wasn't a big fan when I was in college, but I picked up his collected verse cheap somewhere a few years ago and rediscovered him. Bottom line: I think you have to have some life experience before you can truly appreciate those of his ilk.<br /><br />BTW, something good from St. Louis, eh, dear?<br /><br />Cheers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com