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eruanto
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« Reply #165 on: 23:44:21, 03-06-2007 » |
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If I may be allowed to subject you all to that greatest of subcreators JRR Tolkien for a moment: I sit beside the fire and think
of all that I have seen,
of meadow-flowers and butterflies
in summers that have been;
Of yellow leaves and gossamer
in autumns that there were,
with morning mist and silver sun
and wind upon my hair.
I sit beside the fire and think
of how the world will be
when winter comes without a spring
that I shall ever see.
For still there are so many things
that I have never seen:
in every wood and every spring
there is a different green.
I sit beside the fire and think
of people long ago,
and people who will see a world
that I shall never know.
But all the while I sit and think
of times there were before,
I listen for returning feet
and voices at the door.This always gives me the shivers.  |
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Tony Watson
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« Reply #166 on: 00:34:44, 05-06-2007 » |
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Why does it give you the shivers, eruanto?
It's interesting that he uses the sitting by the fire image a lot. Tolkien once belonged to a literary club called the Kólbítar - literally the "coal biters" (Icelandic), or coal eaters. It's a disparaging term for idlers who used to sit so close to the fire that they could almost eat the coal.
I know The Hobbit is supposed to be for nine-year-olds, but I prefer it to The Lord of the Rings, which I've always felt to be overlong.
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« Last Edit: 00:47:38, 05-06-2007 by Tony Watson »
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pim_derks
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« Reply #167 on: 00:42:19, 05-06-2007 » |
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I know The Hobbit is supposed to be for nine-year-olds, but I prefer it to The Lord of the Rings, which I've always felt to be overlong.
I agree.  |
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"People hate anything well made. It gives them a guilty conscience." John Betjeman
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eruanto
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« Reply #168 on: 00:47:12, 05-06-2007 » |
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Why does it give you the shivers, eruanto? There's a lot in it which deals with both the past and the future. I guess it's the pagan in me coming through.  . Afraid so. ahem. moving on. It's interesting that he uses the sitting by the fire image a lot. Tolkien once belonged to a literary club called the kolbitar - literally the coal biters (Icelandic), or coal eaters. eh? must look that up...  so he did! I'd forgotten that, thankyou! And also the fire has associations with story-telling and looking back in a comfortable situation. I prefer it to The Lord of the Rings, which I've always felt to be overlong. In one of his letters, JRRT actually describes it as "too short" !!!  |
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Tony Watson
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« Reply #169 on: 01:02:16, 05-06-2007 » |
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I listen for returning feet
and voices at the door.
Those last two lines are an interesting twist that might give one the shivers. Whose voices and whose feet? |
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« Last Edit: 01:09:16, 05-06-2007 by Tony Watson »
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marbleflugel
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« Reply #170 on: 10:47:56, 10-06-2007 » |
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the return of Rafferty with a galvanised stylophone?
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'...A celebrity is someone who didn't get the attention they needed as an adult'
Arnold Brown
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trained-pianist
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« Reply #171 on: 11:54:58, 10-06-2007 » |
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Dreamy Notion
I woke up in the morning, just a dreamy notion
Of awareness, consciousness and motion
Feeling temporal numbness, bleeding reality
Open eyes to chaotic infinity.
All through the endless nights of battling
In our minds, comes to this day of searching
For our souls lost in the scorching sandstorm
Blowing over barren landscape, blowing home.
Liberty in servitude of the mind and freedom
For my weary sinews to die
I woke up in the morning, just a dreamy notion
Of you, me and the decaying mind.
Dreamy Notion
By sayantandatta
I never heard of the author. Do people like this poem?
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marbleflugel
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« Reply #172 on: 12:09:28, 10-06-2007 » |
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It's very good t-p.You have a great store ofgood things.It also describes a place in England called Bognor Regis very effectively.
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'...A celebrity is someone who didn't get the attention they needed as an adult'
Arnold Brown
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roslynmuse
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« Reply #173 on: 12:13:32, 10-06-2007 » |
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Definitely more articulate than George V...
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trained-pianist
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« Reply #174 on: 12:17:11, 10-06-2007 » |
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This is by the same author
And Fewer
If life were but of greater faith,
And would be seen with ease of the eye,
Man would be man, mate for mate,
And fewer, in vain, to die.
If God were not but an empty dream,
And dreams were not alone in dark,
Hope would be salvation, love divine,
And fewer, lie bleeding, in the winters stark.
If every word said would mean as much,
And every thought be pure and fine,
The sunshine would be warmer, moonlight brighter,
And fewer, in pain, silently cry.
If fate would have not been blind,
And the angels fair, in blessings bequeathed,
No man would break, warriors die,
And fewer, shiver, lonesome at night.
If the sky were blue and the trees green,
And all be fair and purged within,
No little child would cry in vain,
And fewer, as me, lie alone crying…
Sayantandatta.
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eruanto
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« Reply #175 on: 17:12:38, 10-06-2007 » |
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It also describes a place in England called Bognor Regis very effectively.  it seemed to me to be depicting Slough after Betjeman had had his way with it. |
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marbleflugel
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« Reply #176 on: 20:19:27, 10-06-2007 » |
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Slough had an urban beach a while before the trendies of Brick Lane put one in so indeed it should have been twinned with Bognor-civic grandeur,swaying palms plus a direct service totierra del fuego.
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'...A celebrity is someone who didn't get the attention they needed as an adult'
Arnold Brown
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trained-pianist
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« Reply #177 on: 20:22:38, 10-06-2007 » |
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 For a while I thought you were talking about Bangor.  It looks nice, only too much of rides. May be marbleflugel took a ride on one of these. |
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marbleflugel
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« Reply #178 on: 20:33:12, 10-06-2007 » |
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...risky as the transport systemincluding rides is run by pirates,so younever know where you will arrive.
A few miles up the beach towards Worthing you are in Betjeman country, England as it was in the 1930s-50s. I met a friend of Stanley Holloway's widow who still lives there in her nineties. (SH was in My Fair lady and Brief Encounter as well as being a music-hallperformer for many years). A few people there just about remember the society parties hosted by 30s bandleader Jack Hylton-as children spying fromthe top of the stairs.
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'...A celebrity is someone who didn't get the attention they needed as an adult'
Arnold Brown
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Don Basilio
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« Reply #179 on: 21:15:12, 10-06-2007 » |
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.I met a friend of Stanley Holloway's widow who still lives there in her nineties. (SH was in My Fair lady and Brief Encounter as well as being a music-hallperformer for many years).
He also starred in that wonderful film Passport to Pimlico which I saw yesterday for free at the Mediateque of the British Film Institute on the South Bank (formerly known as the National Film Theatre.) |
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance
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