Fascinating. I looked up Hellespont and found the Greek myth about Hero and Leander, which I'd never heard of before. Hero's swimming of the Hellespont every night to visit Leander until he drowned one night in bad weather and she jumped in and joined him adds a richness of meaning to this delicious parody that the original readers must have understood, but which I almost missed.
Jul 31Liked by Sally Thomas, Joseph Bottum, Joseph Bottum
One thing leads to another. Looking up Hellespont diverted me into an hour long review of the Battle of Gallipoli with its 113,000 dead. A far cry from the poem’s sweetness.
Jul 31Liked by Sally Thomas, Joseph Bottum, Joseph Bottum
I found the poem palatable until he paired the pancake with a plank. This seems a crass attempt at alliteration at the expense of sense. Surely a pancake would sink. Unless it was a rolled up pancake, filled with whipped cream, sugar, and a dash of lemon liquor.
Jul 31Liked by Sally Thomas, Joseph Bottum, Joseph Bottum
I was reminded it was Wednesday as I started the poem. I enjoyed it thoroughly and it lightened my mood, something I needed this morning. The end of your commentary made me think of Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds - "Picture yourself in a boat on a river, with tangerine trees and marmalade skies..."
Jul 31Liked by Sally Thomas, Joseph Bottum, Joseph Bottum
Read yesterday's Eliot and today's back to back. That was interesting :-). If yesterday's parting lovers were today's Pancake Paddler and his girl, they'd have had fun with the tragic playacting, fallen down laughing, and gone off smooching to bed.
Somehow I'm prompted to think of --- I think it's Elizabeth Bishop's recollection, in "Efforts of Affection," of hearing from Marianne Moore that she had been at some poets' do at which Eliot had also been present. They had had a photograph taken, and Moore reported that "Tom" had put his arm around her --- "very gingerly."
I appreciate your unobtrusive marginal notes explaining the meaning of words whose orthography has changed.
Wish I could get me an author photo like that!
Fascinating. I looked up Hellespont and found the Greek myth about Hero and Leander, which I'd never heard of before. Hero's swimming of the Hellespont every night to visit Leander until he drowned one night in bad weather and she jumped in and joined him adds a richness of meaning to this delicious parody that the original readers must have understood, but which I almost missed.
Byron wrote a poem on swimming the passage, imitating Leander, in typically ironic fashion. We should post it one day.
Between this one and the Wallace Stevens one, (ice) cream seems to be the order of the day!
Poets may have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese, but not cream.
Well, Sally, there's always your buddy Stephen Duck on cheese-mites: "Dear Madam, did you never gaze, / Thro' Optic-glass, on rotten Cheese?"
Yes, I was thinking of poor Stephen Duck "Tis only by way of a metaphor!"
What is cream but cheese transformed!
I think Chesterton was overlooking poor Stephen Duck. I can't imagine why.
One thing leads to another. Looking up Hellespont diverted me into an hour long review of the Battle of Gallipoli with its 113,000 dead. A far cry from the poem’s sweetness.
A very worthy prequel to the "Owl and the Pussy Cat went to sea..., by Edward Lear.
I found the poem palatable until he paired the pancake with a plank. This seems a crass attempt at alliteration at the expense of sense. Surely a pancake would sink. Unless it was a rolled up pancake, filled with whipped cream, sugar, and a dash of lemon liquor.
(I'm loving Whimsy Wednesdays, too.)
I was reminded it was Wednesday as I started the poem. I enjoyed it thoroughly and it lightened my mood, something I needed this morning. The end of your commentary made me think of Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds - "Picture yourself in a boat on a river, with tangerine trees and marmalade skies..."
I love these Whimsy Wednesdays, as I’ve come to see them. 🙂
Read yesterday's Eliot and today's back to back. That was interesting :-). If yesterday's parting lovers were today's Pancake Paddler and his girl, they'd have had fun with the tragic playacting, fallen down laughing, and gone off smooching to bed.
Somehow I'm prompted to think of --- I think it's Elizabeth Bishop's recollection, in "Efforts of Affection," of hearing from Marianne Moore that she had been at some poets' do at which Eliot had also been present. They had had a photograph taken, and Moore reported that "Tom" had put his arm around her --- "very gingerly."