Category Archives: Misc

How like a winter hath my absence been (Sonnet 97) by William Shakespeare.

17 Wednesday Apr 2013

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Winter

Winter

“How like a winter hath my absence been

From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!

What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!

What old December’s bareness every where!

And yet this time remov’d was summer’s time;

The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,

Bearing the wanton burden of the prime,

Like widow’d wombs after their lords’ decease:

Yet this abundant issue seem’d to me

But hope of orphans and unfather’d fruit;

For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,

And, thou away, the very birds are mute:

Or, if they sing, ’tis with so dull a cheer,

That leaves look pale, dreading the winter’s near”

Sonnet 97 is one of the 154 sonnets written by William Shakespeare, which deal with themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality. Sonnets 1 – 126 are all addressed to the “Fair Youth”, an unnamed young man to whom Shakespeare uses both romantic and loving language in his sequence of sonnets, suggesting to some readers perhaps a sexual relationship or to others just platonic love.

In his first line of the sonnet, Shakespeare writes of how he and his lover not being together feels like wintertime. Denny Bradbury, in her poet “My Gift to You”, uses a similar analogy when she talks to her lover of love being like the seasons and how, like Shakespeare feels when he describes his desperate condition that feels like winter to him – no light because winter is dark and no warmth because winter is cold “ ..What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!”:

“The discontent of winter
Lies heavy on your brow;
The eyes once full of summer sun

Shine solemn, wistful now.
You yearn for warmth and sunlight,
You long for birds to soar;
You look for buds to open
As they wake from frosty hoar.
Oh! Love is summer, it is spring –
But love is winter; too.
Be happy in the tide of life:
My love, my gift to you.”  ~ ‘My Gift To You’

Shakespeare’s sonnet talks of how he is as hopeless as an orphan because the pleasures of life are only there when his lover is with him:

“…But hope of orphans and unfather’d fruit;
For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,…”

Denny Bradbury, in her poem “Hold Me Gently”, from her new collection of poetry’ De:versify’, follows a similar theme when she speaks of being entirely alone without the heat of her lover’s love:

“Hold me gently,
Rock me deep
Into the fathomless pool of a deep, deep sleep.
There let me be till the sun reappears
And the heat of your love in the day
Dries my tears.

Tears come unbidden –
They swell up and spill
Down my cheeks to fall softly in space.
Random drops of my fears
And my loneliness
For none to see… as I am alone
Without you beside me.”

The tone of Shakespeare’s sonnet is one of sadness – he describes how the absence of the person he loves makes his surroundings look as dreary as winter and he yearns for his lover’s presence. The fact that everything is empty without that person means that the season of summer looks like winter to him. The imagery that prevails throughout his sonnet is that of winter. Denny Bradbury also describes how the absence of a love can cause the season of summer to feel cold in her poem “Summer Cold”:

“Summer cold reflects your thoughts:
Dark and dank and all of nought –
Save that the sun will never shine
While he refuses to be thine.
Dreary days and colder night,
Clouds hiding all the glorious light
That you know is there above…”

People by Jean Toomer

09 Tuesday Apr 2013

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People

People

“To those fixed on white,
White is white,
To those fixed on black,
It is the same,
And red is red,
Yellow, yellow-
Surely there are such sights
In the many colored world,
Or in the mind.
The strange thing is that
These people never see themselves
Or you, or me.

Are they not in their minds?
Are we not in the world?
This is a curious blindness
For those that are color blind.
What queer beliefs
That men who believe in sights
Disbelieve in seers.

O people, if you but used
Your other eyes
You would see beings”

Jean Toomer (December 26th 1894 – March 30th 1967) was an American poet and novelist and an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s that was known at the time as the “New Negro Movement”, – a flowering of Negro literature – named after the 1925 anthology by the African American writer, philosopher, educator and patron of the arts, Alain Leroy Locke.

Born in Washington, of both African-American and white heritage , Toomer attended both all-white and all-black schools and resisted racial classification from an early age, preferring instead to just call himself an American. After investigating various different areas of study, he became more and more interested in literature, working with many great writers, artists and reformers of the time in Harlem.  Toomer not only influenced the cultural revolution through his poetry, he also preached Unitism, a set of doctrines founded by George Ivanovich Gurdjieff which taught unity and mastry of one’s self through yoga which especially appealed to Toomer due to his previous efforts to not let the rigid racal restrictions of society hold him back.

Denny Bradbury, in her second collection of poetry, entitled ‘De:versify” also takes a look at the varying restrictions that exist in society through politics, class and general ignorance in part IV of her poems, called “Human Inspiration.” In her poem “Realisation” she writes:

“…. How soon will politicians fight
Each other in their rage?
How soon will we, as caring types,
Forget the distant poor
And concentrate once more on things
That batter down our door?”…

Just as Toomer ends his poem “People” by declaiming:

“O people, if you but used
Your other eyes
You would see beings”

Denny concludes her poem “Realisation” with the harsh reality that:

“Mass destruction on a scale
Can only be our winter’s tale
Of ignornace and blind-eye-turning,
While desperate folk die in yearning –
Twisting, agonising,
Hopeless, helpless, gut-wrenching longing.”

Toomer’s poem “People” looks at how people tend to focus on appearance:

“”To those fixed on white,
White is white,
To those fixed on black,
It is the same,
And red is red,
Yellow, yellow-..”

These lines speak out to describe the social attitude of people towards the differences in race and the last lines of his poem hint at a change in perpective that is needed in order for people to learn to see others for who they really are, rather than as who they appear to be.

Denny Bradbury, in her poem “Man at Bus Stop” also highlights how often we as human beings do not really take true notice of the other people around us:

“Man tying his shoelace:
Precision is all.
Oblivious to others,
He ties bow so small.
Pulling his sock up,
He pats into shape.
Dressed all in denim –
From ankle to nape –
Woman right by him,
Sits staring in space.
She’s also too busy
To notice his face –
A face full of tensiom
That must have regard
For the tiny minutiae
That forms his facade…”

Both poets, using different formats and messages, illustrate the way human beings often only see what they want to see, with their ‘blindness’ making them oblivious to what is around them.

The Sea by James Reeves

31 Sunday Mar 2013

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The Sea

The Sea

“The sea is a hungry dog,
Giant and grey.
He rolls on the beach all day.
With his clashing teeth and shaggy jaws
Hour upon hour he gnaws
The rumbling, tumbling stones,
And ‘Bones, bones, bones, bones! ‘
The giant sea-dog moans,
Licking his greasy paws.

And when the night wind roars And the moon rocks in the stormy cloud,
He bounds to his feet and snuffs and sniffs,
Shaking his wet sides over the cliffs,
And howls and hollos long and loud.

But on quiet days in May or June,
When even the grasses on the dune
Play no more their reedy tune,
With his head between his paws
He lies on the sandy shores,
So quiet, so quiet, he scarcely snores.”

A British writer, John Morris Reeves (1st July 1909 – 1st May 1978) was principally known for his poetry, plays and contributions to children’s literature and the literature of collected traditional songs.  In his poem, “The Sea”, he describes the sea at three different times of the year – like the sea itself, the rhythm of the poem is irregular as the waves that hit the shore.

Denny Bradbury, in her poem “Sea Changes” from her new collection of poetry, ‘De:versify’, also talks in the final stanza of how the sea is ever-changing and never still:

“My cares are gone,
And I can face the world again
With pleasure.
Sea’s never still;
It comes and goes
And soothes with equal measure.”

In his first stanza, Reed compares the winter sea to a hungry dog, one that is permanently in need of food and fierce in its desire to be sated:

“With his clashing teeth and shaggy jaws
Hour upon hour he gnaws
The rumbling, tumbling stones,
And ‘Bones, bones, bones, bones! ‘”

Denny Bradbury paints a similar picture in her poem “Broken in Time”, where she describes the relentless nature of the sea:

“Sea reclaims its own
Pulling earth to drown
Sea reclaims its own
Shore has nowhere to turn…

…Relentless is the sea
Waves bring their own delight
Pounding, rounding
Pulling, thrilling
Crashing in their might.”

Reed goes on to describe the sea as a more playful canine creature in the second stanza, with
the boundless energy showing through:

“..He bounds to his feet and snuffs and sniffs,
Shaking his wet sides over the cliffs,
And howls and hollos long and loud.”

In his final, third stanza, he uses the imagery of the sea in the late Spring and early Summer as much more of a calm dog that lets mankind play on its shores without being disturbed:

“…But on quiet days in May or June,
When even the grasses on the dune
Play no more their reedy tune,
With his head between his paws
He lies on the sandy shores,
So quiet, so quiet, he scarcely snores.”

Denny, in her poem “Wave” also talks of the changing nature of the sea and how it can be both ferocious and calming in its natural state:

“What is a sea thought?

Whence does it come?

Crashing about me,
Bursting through foam.

Riding the crest,
White horses charge on,
Surrounding my being,
Too soon gone.

My mind, it is still now –
Calm deep as the sea.
Watery spirit has
Quieted me.

From here I go on-
Sea thoughts and storm:
Swirling or calming,
Always perform.”

To Autumn by John Keats

26 Tuesday Mar 2013

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Autumn

“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies”

Often considered to be one of the greatest poems in the English language, the title and the first few lines of the poem show that Keats’ poem is actually addressed to the season of Autumn itself, as if Autumn were a person.  Denny Bradbury, in her poems “Kingcup and Friends “ and “Winter Soul” from her new collection’De~versify’, does a similar thing, referring to the season of winter and numerous flowers as though they are people who have the answers themselves:

“Kingcup, forget-me-not,dead-nettle white:
Struggling, reaching, searching for the light.
Clover, daisy, dead-nettle pink.
Look at us,
Hear us,
Let us make you think.”..   ~ ‘Kingcup and Friends’

“Crisp, clear air of deepest winter,
Sky streaked so with pastel hue
Dig into my soul with icy finger,
Make my heart with leaden blue…” ~ ‘Winter Soul’.

Each of Keats’ three eleven line stanzas consist almost entirely of descriptions of Autumn: “close bosom-friend of the maturing sun”; “sitting careless on the granary floor” ; “thou hast thy music too” with the first and third stanzas describing some of Autumn’s perceptible features  whilst the second stanza takes the idea of Autumn being a person one step further, describing  how Autumn can be found sitting in the barn, sleeping out in the fields and watching patiently as cider oozes out of a cider press. Is Keats actually addressing Autumn as a person or is he in fact addressing the readers themselves?

As Denny Bradbury does in her poem “Wisdom of Trees” with the final stanza being:

“Yet trees will reach their searching branches
Up into the wind and rain –
They live and die as nature dances.
Net year they grow and live again…”

So too does “To Autumn” both evoke a sensual awareness and pleasure at the beauty that exists in the natural world  whilst at the same time expressing a sadness that that beauty is not lasting – “the soft-dying day”.

Just as Denny Bradbury‘s poems reflect the need for balance between nature and people and a sometime-forgotten spirituality,  it is characteristic of Keats’ poetry as a whole to also blend an optimistic romanticism with the reality of a world that any enchantment provided by myth is in contrast to the way life really is.

As I Walked Out One Evening – W.H.Auden

18 Monday Mar 2013

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Evening

Evening

“As I walked out one evening,
Walking down Bristol Street,
The crowds upon the pavement Were fields of harvest wheat.
And down by the brimming river
I heard a lover sing
Under an arch of the railway:
‘Love has no ending.

‘I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street,

‘I’ll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky.

‘The years shall run like rabbits,
For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
And the first love of the world.’

But all the clocks in the city
Began to whirr and chime:
‘O let not Time deceive you,
You cannot conquer Time.

‘In the burrows of the Nightmare
Where Justice naked is,
Time watches from the shadow
And coughs when you would kiss.

‘In headaches and in worry
Vaguely life leaks away,
And Time will have his fancy
To-morrow or to-day.

‘Into many a green valley
Drifts the appalling snow;
Time breaks the threaded dances
And the diver’s brilliant bow.

‘O plunge your hands in water,
Plunge them in up to the wrist;
Stare, stare in the basin
And wonder what you’ve missed.

‘The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
The desert sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the tea-cup opens
A lane to the land of the dead.

‘Where the beggars raffle the banknotes
And the Giant is enchanting to Jack,
And the Lily-white Boy is a Roarer,
And Jill goes down on her back.

‘O look, look in the mirror?
O look in your distress:
Life remains a blessing
Although you cannot bless.

‘O stand, stand at the window
As the tears scald and start;
You shall love your crooked neighbour
With your crooked heart.’

It was late, late in the evening,
The lovers they were gone;
The clocks had ceased their chiming,
And the deep river ran on”.

Wystan Hugh Auden (February 1907- September 1973) was an Anglo-American poet, who was born in England and was later an American citizen. He is regarded by many critics as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century and his work is noted for its stylistic and technical achievements, the way he tackles moral and political issues and the way it is varied in tone, content and form. The central themes to his poems are love, politics and citizenship, religion and morals and the relationship between individual human beings and the impersonal world of nature, just as Denny Bradbury does in her poem ‘Summer Cold’ from her new collection ‘De:versify’:

“Summer cold reflects your thoughts:
Dark and dank and all of nought-
Save that the sun will never shine
While he refuses to be thine.
Dreary days and colder nights,
Clouds hiding all the glorious light
That you know is there above….”

In Auden’s poem, he relates the nature of time to the human condition, with there being three different speakers throughout the poem: the lovers, the clocks of time and the narrator himself. Each speaker has a different attitude towards time – the voice of the lovers sees time as something that can be conquered and ignored when necessary; the clocks show time to be a ruling force that exists to keep people in line and the narrator talks of how time – and love – is a constant flow that brings about both change and opportunity and that it is something that nobody can control:

…’Love has no ending.

‘I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street,

‘I’ll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky.

‘The years shall run like rabbits,
For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
And the first love of the world.’….
Denny Bradbury refers to this theme of an everlasting love in her eight line poem, ‘Forever and More’:
“Say love is forever,
And we shall not part.
Say love is our destiny,
Our meeting of hearts.
When trouble leaps in,
We shall be like glue-
You joined to me, and me
Bound to you.”

And also draws on the theme of time combined with love in her poem ‘My Gift to You’:

“…Oh! Love is summer, it is spring –
But love is winter too.
Be happy in the tide of life:
My love, my gift to you.”

Like Auden, Denny looks at the way love relates to the passing of time and in Auden’s poem he is ultimately showing that despite the three different views of time and the nature of time, it is not something that one can escape from – as the lovers hoped – or as controlling as the clocks would show it to be but rather it is a constant and consistent force, full of possibilities, that shows that everything is always in transition.