I love this poem too, especially its claim that "peace comes dropping slow." Checks out in my experience, especially when one has been long-harried on busy streets.
You might want to arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, but you can’t get there from here. Another one of many places that might have gone, had they been there.
Wonder if he knew David Thoreau, or read his Walden Pond, it is a poem surely worthy of it.
I do love this poem, and what a wonderful exposition of it, Sally. I must say that I have been remiss in commenting here -- little things of life keep getting in my way -- but please do know that I read regularly and enjoy the commentary as well as the poems. Thank you to both you and Jody for having this excellent site!
I'm pretty sure I don't qualify as highbrow. Upper-middlebrow, maybe, where poetry is concerned. Anyway I certainly don't disdain the poem, I like it, but it's not a big favorite, either. It's always seemed to me a bit...overripe, maybe? There are others from the same period that I like better. I memorized "Who Goes With Fergus?," which still gives me an intense thrill.
I'm also cursed with remembering a little of an irreverent parody which I heard long ago. Once you've seen Mona Lisa with a mustache, it's hard to keep the image out of your head.
I guess I can see what you mean but you see I memorized it when I was about eight so I just read it like an eight year old, so I’m just less picky than I might naturally be
Well, not me. I love it. (Maybe I'm not highbrow, though!).
If you get a chance, do watch/listen to Dana Gioia's close reading of the poem, which I linked in my introduction --- it's really marvelous and insightful.
I love this poem too, especially its claim that "peace comes dropping slow." Checks out in my experience, especially when one has been long-harried on busy streets.
You might want to arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, but you can’t get there from here. Another one of many places that might have gone, had they been there.
Wonder if he knew David Thoreau, or read his Walden Pond, it is a poem surely worthy of it.
I do love this poem, and what a wonderful exposition of it, Sally. I must say that I have been remiss in commenting here -- little things of life keep getting in my way -- but please do know that I read regularly and enjoy the commentary as well as the poems. Thank you to both you and Jody for having this excellent site!
My Father had me memorize it as a child. I know it pretty well. I discovered to my surprise recently that highbrow people regard it with disdain.
I'm pretty sure I don't qualify as highbrow. Upper-middlebrow, maybe, where poetry is concerned. Anyway I certainly don't disdain the poem, I like it, but it's not a big favorite, either. It's always seemed to me a bit...overripe, maybe? There are others from the same period that I like better. I memorized "Who Goes With Fergus?," which still gives me an intense thrill.
I'm also cursed with remembering a little of an irreverent parody which I heard long ago. Once you've seen Mona Lisa with a mustache, it's hard to keep the image out of your head.
I guess I can see what you mean but you see I memorized it when I was about eight so I just read it like an eight year old, so I’m just less picky than I might naturally be
Well, not me. I love it. (Maybe I'm not highbrow, though!).
If you get a chance, do watch/listen to Dana Gioia's close reading of the poem, which I linked in my introduction --- it's really marvelous and insightful.