Originally posted by vinteuil
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Originally posted by vinteuil
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Originally posted by hackneyvi
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Earthy Anecdote
Everywhere the bucks went clattering
Over Oklahoma
A firecat bristled in the way.
Wherever they went,
They went clattering.
Until they swerved
In a swift, circular line
To the right,
Because of the firecat.
Or until they swerved
In a swift, circular line
To the left,
Because of the firecat.
The bucks clattered.
The firecat went leaping,
To the right, to the left
And
Bristled in the way.
Later, the firecat closed his bright eyes
And slept.
Simple though it is, and though I've read it a dozen times, it's still taken me 2 hours to memorize correctly.
This afternoon, I took down some of the anthologies from Waterstones' shelves and looked at what other people liked. 'Call the roller of big cigars ...' was among the various volumes but not 'The Virgin carrying the lantern'. I made some sense of the former but needed help to come close to completing the sense of 'The Virgin' poem. I wonder now if it hinges on 'bear' meaning 'a coarse man'? And that is the thing 'false and wrong'? She's mistaken about the holder of the lamp - but, even if that unlikely so is right, why write a poem about it?
Lovely music and the clear ambiguity in his poems can make Wallace Stevens' poems marvellous. But, personally ..?
Going to try learning The Snow Man next.
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