Modern Sonnet 257. Time to Write Your Stories, by Andrew Barker. -for Reid Mitchell-
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- čas přidán 7. 10. 2022
- Modern Sonnet 257. Time to Write Your Stories.
- for Reid Mitchell -
"To be dead is to stop believing in the masterpieces we will begin tomorrow,”
Patrick Kavanagh.
The clock’s indifferent tock possesses us,
The fragments shored against our ruins crack,
Our bones are placed on special offer as
Our stolen rings, loves, health will not come back.
This full-ish life came forced in part by fate,
Geography and history and time
And preference, and decisions, (not all great),
But ours, and owned: to this we stand resigned.
The consolations of the passing years
Are needed; art-provoking music plays
Half heard, but (full remembered), full aware
That what’s been seen must now be paraphrased.
Though future set-lists never go to plan.
I’m proud to say, I know thee still old man.
Andrew Barker
This sonnet's position was rearranged within the collection after recording. - Zábava
Beautiful ✨
Cool!
An artful and poignant sonnet that is reminiscent of Shakespeare's Sonnet 73, except for the hope in accomplishment and the celebration of endurance even in the inexorable process of ageing. Professor Barker's " Time To Write Your Stories" becomes a paean rather than an elegy for a dear and talented friend. Great work, and I am also proud to know the eminently talented Reid Mitchell.
I just re-read sonnet 73. You're right. There's certainly some comparisons. Beautifully put.
One of your best, this one, Andy. What a great verse tribute to a very interesting guy. I only met him a few times, in your company mostly. Your perfectly integrated Shakespeare and Eliot allusions enhance the poem because you’re writing about an erudite figure who knew and loved his poetry. Your (ever-improving, haha!) voice struck me as particularly apposite here, nicely modulated, sincere, philosophical even. Another side of AB, clearly - rough waters run deep! 😉
They do. They really do.
That was brilliant The paraphrased line is stunning. There was a collection of short stories by the guy who wrote the commitments. Name escapes me. It is the thoughts of middle age men this theme could have been put in there seamlessly.
Roddy Doyle. His books are behind me on the shelf ironically enough.
The difficulty of writing a sonnet where the form conveys the music and the message transparently and without impediment, and the poet manipulates the form without awkward contrivance and sometimes even with a felicity that delights the listener and reader. Done.
There are echoes of Eliot, certainly, and the archaic “thee” suggests a quotation. I didn't recognise Henry IV because it's a play I've not read - yet another lacuna among many!
But there's a neat definition in the first line of death as a function of time. I very much like the insistence that the fragments left at the end of life are “ours, and owned”; that the best we can do is to sweep up the shards before we go and attempt to arrange them in a way that makes some sense - the archaeology of a Grecian urn, its perfect, ambiguous narrative smashed in an accident of life and pieced together, the missing bits blank unglazed and made from different clay; or a dream interrupted by a person from Porlock and scribbled down before what's left of it disappears like mist, as do all dreams and life itself.
For me, the poem's strongest line is the one that acknowledges “That what’s been seen must now be paraphrased”, reminding the reader that anything we write can only be an attempt at partial reconstruction, and “must” insists that though the attempt is imperfect, it’s imperative. Good poetry.
Many thanks.
Waterstones cant locate your book where shall i go ? What are your brief thoughts on PG Woodhouse ?
Amazon. Though the third one is not available yet. Woodhouse is not somebody I have read yet. I know that Ben Elton and Stephen Fry think him the GOAT as far as comic writing is concerned, and I'm saving him for when I'm older.
@@mycroftlectures I have started Woodhouse. A total indulgence of pleasure. The last time I enjoyed an author like this was miles na gopaleen
@@josephharley9448 Flan O'Brien himself, hey? At Swim Two Birds really made me laugh too actually.