Very much loving the linked haiku. Reminds me in a way of a villanelle, quite polished and crystalline in the Asian manner. Villanelle is fiendishly difficult to accomplish in English (I can think of TWO that truly work), so I am imagining your feat was not so simple as it appears, either. Very clever, Sir, but not in an oh-I-am-so-clever-look-at-me kind of way. Euge! (My daughter is taking Latin, and I am along for the ride).
Why thank you (though I wouldn't mind too much if the links made people look at me). Which are the two villanelles in English that you like? I'm going to guess Bishop's One Art is on the list?
And I salute the Latin studies: I've made a couple of informal attempts but they haven't quite taken, I have to admit. I did work through an entire "Teach Yourself Latin" book while riding the exercise bike at the Y years ago. My problem is that I've always retained concrete things better than abstract things (grammatical rules, studied on their own, being an abstract thing). I should try again with more emphasis on reading things and less on worrying about getting everything exactly right. Same with classical Greek. And several other languages. Which brings me to the other problem, lack of time.
Bishop's One Art I am appalled to say I do not know, but I am now keen to investigate. Do Not Go Gentle is my villanelle paradigm, and I somewhat grudgingly always cite I Sleep to Dream, although it seems tinged with Look at me! I wrote me a villanelle! (Sorry Roethke).
The thing about being 15 is you still have time. She's taking Latin and Spanish 3 right now, is planning to continue Latin through AP (IV), Spanish through VI on independent study, and take Greek junior and senior years. She's been so excited about Latin (she loves her teacher, so there're our private school dollars at work) that she has been teaching me stuff as she goes. I wish it was sticking (my old brain is less retentive of anything beyond bile and self-recrimination).
OK. I forget how magnificent Bishop is. WAAAAAY better than I Sleep to Dream: Roethke is knocked off the list (as he so often is). My degree was in 19th C Brit Poetry and I have some shocking gaps in anything post WWI. Thank you SO much for giving me the reason to investigate. New poetry FTW!
I don't know the Roethke, so I now have something to look up myself. Yeah, Bishop is just endlessly re-readable. I first read her I guess in the 1980s -- maybe when they first published her Collected Poems and that's how I read about her -- and it's fascinating how she's slowly but surely come to loom over the poetry written in her decades.
Retaining bile and self-recrimination: yes, I spend a lot of time there myself.
6 comments:
Very much loving the linked haiku. Reminds me in a way of a villanelle, quite polished and crystalline in the Asian manner. Villanelle is fiendishly difficult to accomplish in English (I can think of TWO that truly work), so I am imagining your feat was not so simple as it appears, either. Very clever, Sir, but not in an oh-I-am-so-clever-look-at-me kind of way. Euge! (My daughter is taking Latin, and I am along for the ride).
Why thank you (though I wouldn't mind too much if the links made people look at me). Which are the two villanelles in English that you like? I'm going to guess Bishop's One Art is on the list?
And I salute the Latin studies: I've made a couple of informal attempts but they haven't quite taken, I have to admit. I did work through an entire "Teach Yourself Latin" book while riding the exercise bike at the Y years ago. My problem is that I've always retained concrete things better than abstract things (grammatical rules, studied on their own, being an abstract thing). I should try again with more emphasis on reading things and less on worrying about getting everything exactly right. Same with classical Greek. And several other languages. Which brings me to the other problem, lack of time.
Bishop's One Art I am appalled to say I do not know, but I am now keen to investigate. Do Not Go Gentle is my villanelle paradigm, and I somewhat grudgingly always cite I Sleep to Dream, although it seems tinged with Look at me! I wrote me a villanelle! (Sorry Roethke).
The thing about being 15 is you still have time. She's taking Latin and Spanish 3 right now, is planning to continue Latin through AP (IV), Spanish through VI on independent study, and take Greek junior and senior years. She's been so excited about Latin (she loves her teacher, so there're our private school dollars at work) that she has been teaching me stuff as she goes. I wish it was sticking (my old brain is less retentive of anything beyond bile and self-recrimination).
OK. I forget how magnificent Bishop is. WAAAAAY better than I Sleep to Dream: Roethke is knocked off the list (as he so often is). My degree was in 19th C Brit Poetry and I have some shocking gaps in anything post WWI. Thank you SO much for giving me the reason to investigate. New poetry FTW!
Of course I mean I Sleep to Wake, but it's very early and I do not function early.
I don't know the Roethke, so I now have something to look up myself. Yeah, Bishop is just endlessly re-readable. I first read her I guess in the 1980s -- maybe when they first published her Collected Poems and that's how I read about her -- and it's fascinating how she's slowly but surely come to loom over the poetry written in her decades.
Retaining bile and self-recrimination: yes, I spend a lot of time there myself.
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