| Re: a comment on Racism 4 by Dovina |
Dovina 69.175.32.104 |
17-Jan-06/5:16 PM |
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Yes, there are many shades of potential meaning, all to be taken in the writer's time. I speculate on what Blake might have meant and see him thinking blacks and whites are of moreless equal value, an unpopular opinion in his time.
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| Re: a comment on Racism 4 by Dovina |
zodiac 209.193.14.154 |
17-Jan-06/4:17 PM |
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Leaving out "the"
We were tempted to give an example of what we're talking about but decided against it. There's enough examples of this kind of writing on the poetry newsgroups. Someone, somewhere, decided that leaving out the "the" articles in poems somehow made them sound more heartfelt and meaningful. It doesn't. All it does is make every piece written this way sound exactly like every other piece. It isn't clever, it isn't creative. It isn't even original. It's merely another sign of bad poetry.
- Bob Charles
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| Re: a comment on Racism 4 by Dovina |
zodiac 209.193.14.154 |
17-Jan-06/4:15 PM |
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A recent competition on The Gazebo was to use as many of some done-to-death words as possible in a single poem. The list included heart, soul, mortality/immortality, morn, beautiful, hallowed, awaken, lament, wholly, anguish, dwell, futile, void, abyss, ablaze, cherish, longing, and yearning.
- Bob Charles, editor of The Gazebo
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| Re: a comment on Racism 4 by Dovina |
ALChemy 24.74.101.159 |
17-Jan-06/4:11 PM |
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I must have missed it in the cut and paste process. Not intentional.
I'm glad you know what he meant because folks have been arguing about the meaning of this poem since it was written.
But maybe that's the point. Maybe racism like this poem is not a matter of definition but a matter of personal opinion drawn from the need to not feel inferior. In the end the black boy feels superior to the english boy. He imagines he is superior and that in his superior ability to absorb God's light he wins the love of the white boy. At least that is another way the poem can be read.
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| Re: a comment on Racism 4 by Dovina |
Dovina 69.175.32.104 |
17-Jan-06/3:50 PM |
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Blake has a good attitude for a time of slavery in England. I wonder why you left out the first verse:
My mother bore me in the southern wild,
And I am black, but oh! my soul is white.
White as an angel is the English child,
But I am black as if bereaved of light.
In today's culture that can be taken in a negative way that Blake must not have meant.
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| Re: Where the Hell Did I Put My Glasses? by Joe-joe |
ay deee 130.39.117.50 |
17-Jan-06/3:35 PM |
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a fantastic collection of images....
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| Re: a comment on Racism 4 by Dovina |
ALChemy 24.74.101.159 |
17-Jan-06/3:27 PM |
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That and the Rocky 4 reference.
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| Re: a comment on Racism 4 by Dovina |
ALChemy 24.74.101.159 |
17-Jan-06/3:26 PM |
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William Blake
"The Little Black Boy"
From Songs of Innocence (1789)
My mother taught me underneath a tree,
And, sitting down before the heat of day,
She took me on her lap and kissèd me,
And, pointing to the East, began to say:
'Look at the rising sun: there God does live,
And gives His light, and gives His heat away,
And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive
Comfort in morning, joy in the noonday.
'And we are put on earth a little space,
That we may learn to bear the beams of love;
And these black bodies and this sunburnt face
Are but a cloud, and like a shady grove.
'For when our souls have learn'd the heat to bear,
The cloud will vanish; we shall hear His voice,
Saying, "Come out from the grove, my love and care,
And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice."'
Thus did my mother say, and kissèd me,
And thus I say to little English boy.
When I from black and he from white cloud free,
And round the tent of God like lambs we joy,
I'll shade him from the heat till he can bear
To lean in joy upon our Father's knee;
And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair,
And be like him, and he will then love me.
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| Re: "Joseph, Joseph" by Joe-joe |
ALChemy 24.74.101.159 |
17-Jan-06/3:19 PM |
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It's a wonderful life ain't it?
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| Re: a comment on Racism 4 by Dovina |
Dovina 69.175.32.104 |
17-Jan-06/3:14 PM |
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| Re: a comment on angst of the saints by calliope |
ALChemy 24.74.101.159 |
17-Jan-06/3:01 PM |
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God, you have to use that line in one of your stories.
Priceless.
I think your gettin' real close to the "Friends" formula.
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| Re: Racism 4 by Dovina |
ALChemy 24.74.101.159 |
17-Jan-06/2:57 PM |
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| Re: a comment on angst of the saints by calliope |
Dovina 69.175.32.104 |
17-Jan-06/2:54 PM |
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"The sound of a kiss is not so loud as a cannon, but its echo lasts a great deal longer."
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| Re: Racism 4 by Dovina |
zodiac 209.193.14.154 |
17-Jan-06/2:54 PM |
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| Re: a comment on angst of the saints by calliope |
zodiac 209.193.14.154 |
17-Jan-06/2:51 PM |
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Sure, he's single. I had to marry one to get what I want.
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| Re: a comment on angst of the saints by calliope |
Dovina 69.175.32.104 |
17-Jan-06/2:49 PM |
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That's a very general question to which I have no general answer. I dare say you know how to get what you want from a woman better than he does.
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| Re: a comment on angst of the saints by calliope |
ALChemy 24.74.101.159 |
17-Jan-06/2:46 PM |
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Right now, a book I bought at a yardsale called "The Practical Imagination; Stories, poems and plays. Before that I read Clive Barker's "Abarat". It's a guilty pleasure but he at least is far more creative than his contemporaries.
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| Re: a comment on angst of the saints by calliope |
ALChemy 24.74.101.159 |
17-Jan-06/2:44 PM |
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So do you believe I know women a little better than Zodiac yet?
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| Re: Racism 4 by Dovina |
Dovina 69.175.32.104 |
17-Jan-06/2:31 PM |
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| Re: Jailbird by zodiac |
ALChemy 24.74.101.159 |
17-Jan-06/2:31 PM |
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I keep thinking that she might be one of the many souls floating around in this blue-gray purgatory of poetry and chooses not to let us know she's here.
This is my message to her:
Sure he's exceptionally smart and inciteful but like me he's a man and will eventually shoot himself in the foot. Please Mrs. Z, if you can, make as many of his decisions for him as possible.
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