8 Comments

This poem has such fun sounds. What a delight. And I especially loved the little nod to MacBeth's witches in "And bubbling and troubling and doubling,"

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For the laureateship the No-one Elses available included Coleridge and Wordsworth - both with their best work already written. W was rejected for past radicalism which he'd already long grown out of and he was very miffed. With some justification.

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Maybe I'm just grumpy today but I found it annoying and didn't finish it. I do recall the "famous victory" poem from long ago. It's still good.

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Aug 14Liked by Sally Thomas, Joseph Bottum

Ah that was fun! An excellent performance of the piece as well.

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Aug 14Liked by Sally Thomas, Joseph Bottum

The poem is a lot of fun to read aloud.

I wonder if the longer lines at the bottom reflect an intent to shape the poem to imitate the widening of the water as its descends the cataract. A print from 1832 suggests that the waters spread out as they fall, though that may be an effect of perspective: https://www.antiquemapsandprints.com/categories/prints-and-maps-by-subject/landscapes-seascapes/product/cumbria-lodore-cataract-waterfall-cumberland-allom-1832-old-print/P-6-043983~P-6-043983

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Yes this is an established idea about the lines lengthening. I know the falls, was there this Spring indeed. They do widen as they come down. The view painted by Constable is now blocked by a monster spa hotel sadly.

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Yeah, I was tempted to that point too. It's a nice idea that the line-length is matched to the varying width of the falls, but I couldn't find any evidence in a brief trawl through online resources.

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Aug 14Liked by Sally Thomas, Joseph Bottum

What a virile language is English.

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