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Re: Edsel Ford poem: CHW to Jansy
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Charles wrote: My unironic belief is that there is much more than a hint of Wordsworth in Shade's poem.
"There was a time when meadow, grove and hill" comes from Intimations of Immortality (which, imho, is a great poem.).
Yes, Charles, we find WW on and off in PF.
Further links ( NB: the mention of Wye has already been studied in our List and in Pinchon's ):
Composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey, on revisiting the banks of the Wye during a tour.
How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee,
O sylvan Wye! thou wanderer thro' the woods,
How often has my spirit turned to thee!
And now, with gleams of half-extinguished thought,
With many recognitions dim and faint,
And somewhat of a sad perplexity,
An internet source informs that "Wordsworth's The Prelude is literally the autobiography of an orphan. It records in its way the death of the poet's mother when Wordsworth himself is almost eight, and that of his father when he is thirteen. It is specified 'in its way' because, as many readers have noted, even though the poet tells of his mental growth, oddly, the deaths of his parents are barely mentioned at all...."
There is a hint of something similar when we succintly learn from Shade's "autobiographical poem" ( as I read it being described somewhere, perhaps by Kinbote?) that his ornithologist parents died while he was still young.
The same source observed hints of oedipal dreams in WW:
"The sublime in Nature is 'masculine', and connected with the memory of the poet's father. The beautiful is 'feminine', and connected with the mother. But the most significant thing about this matrix, it is here maintained, has to do with Wordsworth's insisting in his poem that, with regard to his 'fostering', he feels himself to have been 'A favored being' (I.364). The poet speaks of himself in this light as 'a chosen son . . . I was a freeman, in the purest sense / Was free, and to majestic ends was strong' (III.82-90).
Here I saw a reference that interprets gender like you did in a former posting, when you wrote:
The moon is the scholar (masculine, until the modern C20th liberation of woman) gravely tethered by academic tenure to the earth, and only shining by light reflected from the female sun, Das Ewig-weibliche, round which the earth, and Life as we know it...
[ Modern views following Lacan also indicate that "there is no Ewig-weibliche" for "A Woman" doesn't exist - and Man is only its metaphor,they quickly add. This is a consequence from the conclusion that "women are always plural or...serial."]
The lines I had in mind, actually, didn't come from Tintern Abbey ( my first acquaintance with it came through a movie with Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood with the title "Splendor in the Grass" and I love these lines almost half a century later). As you suggested, they are from WW's own autobiographical lines in "The Prelude"
There was a time when whatsoe'er is feigned
Of airy palaces, and gardens built
By Genii of romance; or hath in grave
Authentic history been set forth of /Rome, 80
Alcairo, Babylon, or Persepolis;
Or given upon report by pilgrim friars,
Of golden cities ten months' journey deep
I agree with your additional observation: " I do find The Prelude prosaic. If one admires The Prelude one may well admire Shade's poem. It is not a parody, but it is a pastiche. Edsel Ford's poem, or the little bit that has been quoted, strikes me as very much a pastiche of The Prelude." Pastiche of pastiche, though, add up to inspired bit of verse and poetry, no?
Jansy
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"There was a time when meadow, grove and hill" comes from Intimations of Immortality (which, imho, is a great poem.).
Yes, Charles, we find WW on and off in PF.
Further links ( NB: the mention of Wye has already been studied in our List and in Pinchon's ):
Composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey, on revisiting the banks of the Wye during a tour.
How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee,
O sylvan Wye! thou wanderer thro' the woods,
How often has my spirit turned to thee!
And now, with gleams of half-extinguished thought,
With many recognitions dim and faint,
And somewhat of a sad perplexity,
An internet source informs that "Wordsworth's The Prelude is literally the autobiography of an orphan. It records in its way the death of the poet's mother when Wordsworth himself is almost eight, and that of his father when he is thirteen. It is specified 'in its way' because, as many readers have noted, even though the poet tells of his mental growth, oddly, the deaths of his parents are barely mentioned at all...."
There is a hint of something similar when we succintly learn from Shade's "autobiographical poem" ( as I read it being described somewhere, perhaps by Kinbote?) that his ornithologist parents died while he was still young.
The same source observed hints of oedipal dreams in WW:
"The sublime in Nature is 'masculine', and connected with the memory of the poet's father. The beautiful is 'feminine', and connected with the mother. But the most significant thing about this matrix, it is here maintained, has to do with Wordsworth's insisting in his poem that, with regard to his 'fostering', he feels himself to have been 'A favored being' (I.364). The poet speaks of himself in this light as 'a chosen son . . . I was a freeman, in the purest sense / Was free, and to majestic ends was strong' (III.82-90).
Here I saw a reference that interprets gender like you did in a former posting, when you wrote:
The moon is the scholar (masculine, until the modern C20th liberation of woman) gravely tethered by academic tenure to the earth, and only shining by light reflected from the female sun, Das Ewig-weibliche, round which the earth, and Life as we know it...
[ Modern views following Lacan also indicate that "there is no Ewig-weibliche" for "A Woman" doesn't exist - and Man is only its metaphor,they quickly add. This is a consequence from the conclusion that "women are always plural or...serial."]
The lines I had in mind, actually, didn't come from Tintern Abbey ( my first acquaintance with it came through a movie with Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood with the title "Splendor in the Grass" and I love these lines almost half a century later). As you suggested, they are from WW's own autobiographical lines in "The Prelude"
There was a time when whatsoe'er is feigned
Of airy palaces, and gardens built
By Genii of romance; or hath in grave
Authentic history been set forth of /Rome, 80
Alcairo, Babylon, or Persepolis;
Or given upon report by pilgrim friars,
Of golden cities ten months' journey deep
I agree with your additional observation: " I do find The Prelude prosaic. If one admires The Prelude one may well admire Shade's poem. It is not a parody, but it is a pastiche. Edsel Ford's poem, or the little bit that has been quoted, strikes me as very much a pastiche of The Prelude." Pastiche of pastiche, though, add up to inspired bit of verse and poetry, no?
Jansy
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm