tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post6136483703883254144..comments2023-06-21T18:53:11.897+10:00Comments on Pykk: chimneys smoke in the cross light Umbagollahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-26605205089543483602015-12-10T03:36:29.573+11:002015-12-10T03:36:29.573+11:00Now that I've brought the subject up I wish I ...Now that I've brought the subject up I wish I could think of some good examples. The stillness in the first line of <i>Dover Beach</i> is the way I've usually seen the sea made solid: "The sea is calm tonight," but you know that if this is noteworthy "tonight" then the sea is not always calm. If the sea in Arnold is a counterpart to the land, then what is the land? After that feint at earthly solidarity in the first few lines he spends the rest of the poem trying to dissolve the cliffs and the sand into the "ebb and flow" and unstable "gleams" of the water and the light. What is the earth's reaction? It doesn't fight for its concreteness. It is infected with light and water and it does nothing. <br /><br />(I am late for work: I go.)Umbagollahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-23127296440905329852015-12-10T03:07:59.819+11:002015-12-10T03:07:59.819+11:00"Mermaids in the Basement ..." jarring a..."Mermaids in the Basement ..." jarring and unpeaceful woman: she not only concreted the sea, she gave it <i>stairs</i>. Umbagollahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-13011793290764594062015-12-08T09:51:36.896+11:002015-12-08T09:51:36.896+11:00Dickenson refers to the sea as a house in that &qu...Dickenson refers to the sea as a house in that "started early" poem, with a basement and upper floors and all. But most of the time, yeah, the sea is a metaphor for change or chaos. I have a nagging thought about the sea in Homer, that is was more like a road, and the storms were separate things, encounters with the gods. The sea not a stranger to the sailors, etc. But it's been some time since I read Homer and I wasn't looking at that angle.scott g.f.baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05726743149139510832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-34406944335785728562015-12-07T16:32:21.087+11:002015-12-07T16:32:21.087+11:00there's the solidity of it being the ultimate,...there's the solidity of it being the ultimate, the mother of us all, for one... but using it as an allegory for a compact mass of atoms, i can't think of anything off hand-unless some more or less modern writer has referred to it in that way. in prose it's used a lot of course, but subliminally, as i said above, as the foundation, the fount of being(in which the first basic amino acids arose), the common basis of our existence; i suppose it's the counterpart of earth, the duality of which was expressed in the ancient mythologies: gaia/poseidon and others. interesting question; what do you think? the activities that occur upon the sea assume it's importance inherently: so it could represent the id, the reptilian brain, one of the fundamentals of what we think we are as an animal... i looked through some of my poetry volumes but only found references along the lines that i've suggested, nothing more concrete... hmmmmMudpuddlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17194891656971454279noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-68584618243584945282015-12-07T05:34:34.546+11:002015-12-07T05:34:34.546+11:00Is there anybody who uses the sea to represent the...Is there anybody who uses the sea to represent the idea of solidness, or is it always about movement, travel, departure, adventure, death, and other ideas like that?Umbagollahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-3254446349444304942015-12-02T04:41:16.004+11:002015-12-02T04:41:16.004+11:00yesyesMudpuddlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17194891656971454279noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-43246330714520492642015-12-01T07:27:26.691+11:002015-12-01T07:27:26.691+11:00I like that connection to Arnold. Are you thinking...I like that connection to Arnold. Are you thinking of <i>Dover Beach</i>: "melancholy, long, withdrawing roar"? Prefaced by solid dissolving: " ... the light | Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, | Glimmering ..."Umbagollahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-47605709866223606322015-12-01T05:57:10.516+11:002015-12-01T05:57:10.516+11:00forgot: homer and the ever present but endless &q...forgot: homer and the ever present but endless "wine dark sea"...Mudpuddlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17194891656971454279noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-31756948540183999572015-12-01T05:55:54.220+11:002015-12-01T05:55:54.220+11:00toying with vanishing, as Pound does, is inherent ...toying with vanishing, as Pound does, is inherent in chinese verse as well, the long wine red shadow of twilight painting the slowly flapping flag(or the tile in the courtyard); the jade world holding in it's grasp the essence of being and/or godliness, forever gliding out of comprehension but there in intuition. don't know joan london either. visions of fading always take me back to matthew arnold and the long receding roar of the surf at dusk(in memory). pointing to the moment in dreams, as it were... nice progression there...Mudpuddlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17194891656971454279noreply@blogger.com