I also quite love the recognition of differing individual capacities:
"All do not all things well;
Some measures comely tread,
Some knotted riddles tell,
Some poems smoothly read. "
Though the poet is kind enough not to point at the clumsy dancers, awkward riddle tellers, and stuttering poets. Instead, it seems, everyone can do something well to pass away the time pleasantly enough.
Lovely poem and fun. Fun bc these are real people having real fun - some of them don't dance all that well, some of the jokes don't land and have have to be explained. Nice juxtaposition with the Enchanted Garden art, where it's clearly a snowy landscape outside the blooming garden's walls.
Yes --- I was thinking (as I remarked earlier to Jody in this thread) how this is probably really a solstice poem, but how it speaks so much to the time right now, when the Christmas lights are gone and the season is just cold and dark and seemingly unending, just precisely when you do want a carnival spirit. Of course, this is England under the Stuarts, so there's no actual Carnival, but the human impulse toward and need for it don't go away.
They did indeed --- they weren't puritans --- but they didn't do Carnival as part of the liturgical year. They just lived it a lot without calling it that.
I suppose we should have run this on the solstice (Dec. 21), Sally, with its "Now winter nights enlarge / The number of their hours." But as a general winter offering, I like this a lot: "The summer hath his joys, / And winter his delights." But I especially wanted to mention the stained-glass effect of the Stillman painting, which I didn't know. Very striking.
Yes, I think it's a solstice poem, too, but now is when the winter really seems to settle in, so I figure it still works.
I didn't know that painting, either --- just happened on it, surfing through "Winter in Art" on Wikimedia Commons. It is really lovely and seemed peculiarly appropriate for the poem.
So many felicitous phrases. He paints a picture of a milieus in which intelligent witty conversation, poetry, and flirtation abound. I have never seen such. Probably you have to be a courtier to find folks like that. Envious. But at the same time, I see it as vanity that can distract from the main business of life, which is to prepare for heaven.
Truly beautiful how the long cold hours of winter night are beat back with "yellow waxen lights" and "honey love."
Since it's a madrigal, I had to go listen to it sung. I like this version best of all the ones I found:
https://youtu.be/DXg7YtyfhjI?si=sCgo7Jv_HWVQAI1d
I also quite love the recognition of differing individual capacities:
"All do not all things well;
Some measures comely tread,
Some knotted riddles tell,
Some poems smoothly read. "
Though the poet is kind enough not to point at the clumsy dancers, awkward riddle tellers, and stuttering poets. Instead, it seems, everyone can do something well to pass away the time pleasantly enough.
The penultimate pentameters add a really charming lift!
I know --- that's my favorite thing here. Like a burst of laughter and song, a breakout of movement.
Yes, beautifully put!
Lovely poem and fun. Fun bc these are real people having real fun - some of them don't dance all that well, some of the jokes don't land and have have to be explained. Nice juxtaposition with the Enchanted Garden art, where it's clearly a snowy landscape outside the blooming garden's walls.
Yes --- I was thinking (as I remarked earlier to Jody in this thread) how this is probably really a solstice poem, but how it speaks so much to the time right now, when the Christmas lights are gone and the season is just cold and dark and seemingly unending, just precisely when you do want a carnival spirit. Of course, this is England under the Stuarts, so there's no actual Carnival, but the human impulse toward and need for it don't go away.
You may be thinking more of Cromwell and the Commonwealth, the Stuarts, for the most part enjoyed all the earthly delights.
They did indeed --- they weren't puritans --- but they didn't do Carnival as part of the liturgical year. They just lived it a lot without calling it that.
And yes, I hadn't known this artwork before, but when I saw it, I thought, "That's IT."
Lovely indeed. How unlike Shakespeare's wintry hardship, yet the joy in companionship is their common theme.
I suppose we should have run this on the solstice (Dec. 21), Sally, with its "Now winter nights enlarge / The number of their hours." But as a general winter offering, I like this a lot: "The summer hath his joys, / And winter his delights." But I especially wanted to mention the stained-glass effect of the Stillman painting, which I didn't know. Very striking.
Yes, I think it's a solstice poem, too, but now is when the winter really seems to settle in, so I figure it still works.
I didn't know that painting, either --- just happened on it, surfing through "Winter in Art" on Wikimedia Commons. It is really lovely and seemed peculiarly appropriate for the poem.
So many felicitous phrases. He paints a picture of a milieus in which intelligent witty conversation, poetry, and flirtation abound. I have never seen such. Probably you have to be a courtier to find folks like that. Envious. But at the same time, I see it as vanity that can distract from the main business of life, which is to prepare for heaven.
Such a lovely poem! It lifts the spirits in these dark days.