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The Radio 3 Boards > The Music Boards > The Opera House > The Society for the Promotion Of Poor Poetry
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Author Topic: The Society for the Promotion Of Poor Poetry  (Read 303 times)
Reiner Torheit
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« on: 12:35:06, 14-06-2008 »
In the recent thread about DIDO & AENEAS there was a brief but worthwhile digression about examples of woeful wordsmithing in Purcell's librettos.

Would members like to contribute further examples of dreadful ditties and sliming rhyming in stage (or non-stage) works?  Let us name and shame the guilty parties!

To start you off, here's a fine piece of piffle from the Right Rev James Miller, Handel's librettist for JOSEPH & HIS BRETHREN:

"Ah jealousy - thou pelican!"
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
-  Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
perfect wagnerite
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« Reply #1 on: 12:44:51, 14-06-2008 »
It doesn't rhyme, but ...

A snatch of recit from Judas Maccabeus:

"Through slaughter'd troops he cut his way
To the distinguish'd elephant
But overwhelmed beneath
Triumphed in a glorious death."

 Huh

(I don't have a libretto to hand but Giordano's Fedora - which includes an aria sung by an anarchist describing the joys of cycling - ought to be a rich source of material)
« Last Edit: 12:49:51, 14-06-2008 by perfect wagnerite » Logged
At every one of these [classical] concerts in England you will find rows of weary people who are there, not because they really like classical music, but because they think they ought to like it. (Shaw, Don Juan in Hell)
harmonyharmony
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« Reply #2 on: 14:22:59, 14-06-2008 »
Quote from: Reiner Torheit on 12:35:06, 14-06-2008
"Ah jealousy - thou pelican!"

Well that one's a bit odd no matter how you look at it.
I've always assumed it refers to the fact that the pelican was supposed to draw blood from its breast in order to feed its young (hence 'self-wounding pelican' wherever that's from), so the poet is saying that the jealous individual only hurts him/herself.
BUT
Because of this incorrect idea about how the pelican feeds its young, it was widely used as a symbol for Christ. So how does jealousy fit in here?
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'is this all we can do?'
anonymous student of the University of Berkeley, California quoted in H. Draper, 'The new student revolt' (New York: Grove Press, 1965)
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Antheil
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« Reply #3 on: 16:29:10, 14-06-2008 »
PW's mention of elephants reminds me of this:

A silence filled the room
Awkward and clumsy as an elephant
In the crowded courts of your love
I was now a supplicant

Pet Shop Boys 'I made my excuses and left'  Quite Purcellian in its own way.  Or not.
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Reality, sa molesworth 2, is so sordid it makes me shudder
Morticia
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« Reply #4 on: 17:28:23, 14-06-2008 »
Quote from: harmonyharmony on 14:22:59, 14-06-2008
Quote from: Reiner Torheit on 12:35:06, 14-06-2008
"Ah jealousy - thou pelican!"

Well that one's a bit odd no matter how you look at it.
I've always assumed it refers to the fact that the pelican was supposed to draw blood from its breast in order to feed its young (hence 'self-wounding pelican' wherever that's from), so the poet is saying that the jealous individual only hurts him/herself.
BUT
Because of this incorrect idea about how the pelican feeds its young, it was widely used as a symbol for Christ. So how does jealousy fit in here?

hh, in the case of Christ I would have thought that it refers to the fact that he shed his blood in order to ensure the continuance of other lives. That's how I read it, even if the pelican nurture reference is wrong.
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harmonyharmony
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« Reply #5 on: 17:30:38, 14-06-2008 »
Well yes. I get that.
But it was the fact that it was a very well established symbol for Christ and then James Miller comes along and rips it out of context for a new metaphor. So it's clumsy as well as ugly.
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'is this all we can do?'
anonymous student of the University of Berkeley, California quoted in H. Draper, 'The new student revolt' (New York: Grove Press, 1965)
http://www.myspace.com/itensemble
Milly Jones
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« Reply #6 on: 18:57:49, 14-06-2008 »
Oh, pointy birds
Oh, pointy-pointy
Anoint my head
Anointy-nointy

(From The Man with Two Brains - Steve Martin)
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We pass this way but once.  This is not a rehearsal!
Morticia
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« Reply #7 on: 19:14:01, 14-06-2008 »
Quote from: harmonyharmony on 17:30:38, 14-06-2008
Well yes. I get that.
But it was the fact that it was a very well established symbol for Christ and then James Miller comes along and rips it out of context for a new metaphor. So it's clumsy as well as ugly.

Sorry hh, I obviously misread your post. I didn't mean to state the obvious Embarrassed
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harmonyharmony
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« Reply #8 on: 19:25:34, 14-06-2008 »
Quote from: Morticia on 19:14:01, 14-06-2008
Quote from: harmonyharmony on 17:30:38, 14-06-2008
Well yes. I get that.
But it was the fact that it was a very well established symbol for Christ and then James Miller comes along and rips it out of context for a new metaphor. So it's clumsy as well as ugly.

Sorry hh, I obviously misread your post. I didn't mean to state the obvious Embarrassed

 Embarrassed Sorry. Long day. It wasn't a terribly clear post.  Embarrassed

See you in the room of NOMs.
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'is this all we can do?'
anonymous student of the University of Berkeley, California quoted in H. Draper, 'The new student revolt' (New York: Grove Press, 1965)
http://www.myspace.com/itensemble
Mary Chambers
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« Reply #9 on: 21:21:18, 15-06-2008 »
Quote from: harmonyharmony on 14:22:59, 14-06-2008


(hence 'self-wounding pelican' wherever that's from)

It's in Finzi's Lo, the Full Final Sacrifice, words by Richard Crashaw.
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