Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Fallen Leaves Redux


Eve? Plain as day— 
Something about her 

Nature made me want 
To swirl round her ankles 

So she could sweep me away. 



5 comments:

  1. nature has its ways,
    as does a fine woman,
    leaving a man airborne
    a lovely poem Vassilis.

    ~robert

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  2. Vassilis,

    I can't believe I'm about to admit that at some point c. 1959, wandering the barren forests of the Interior, I taught myself this poem -- of which you have now put me in mind with your shorter, better one:


    He would declare and could himself believe
    That the birds there in all the garden round
    From having heard the daylong voice of Eve
    Had added to their own an oversound,
    Her tone of meaning but without the words.
    Admittedly an eloquence so soft
    Could only have had an influence on birds
    When call or laughter carried it aloft.
    Be that as may be, she was in their song.
    Moreover her voice upon their voices crossed
    Had now persisted in the woods so long
    That probably it never would be lost.
    Never again would birds' song be the same.
    And to do that to birds was why she came.

    (PS. Does that qualify, do you think, for the intentional fallacy, the pathetic fallacy, or perhaps both at once? -- remembering that it did once seem a flaw in any "serious" poem that it did not fall prey to at least one proper fallacy. "Fallacy", back then, of course, being to gibberish critical jargon what the intensely noisome and disagreeable "iconic" seems to be today. As in -- "Nice hat, dear." "Yes, quite iconic, don't you think?")

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  3. Robert,

    Leaving a man airborne yes but up in the air? That's another matter.

    Tom,

    That you should choose--at the tender age of around 18--to teach yourself this "Frosty" poem only goes to show how precocious a poetic child you were, my boy--nothing pathetic about that!

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  4. vassilis
    beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you and thanks for following faithfully, fatally.

    ReplyDelete

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