Waxing Poetic: Wilfred Owen

     Wilfred Owen (1893-1928) was an English poet and soldier.  He was one of the leading poets of the First World War.  He worked as a pupil-teacher in a poor country parish until a shortage of money caused him to give up his hopes of studying at the University of London and take a teaching position in Bordeaux.  He was tutoring in the Pyrenees when war was declared and he enlisted shortly afterwards.

      In 1917, he suffered severe concussion and 'trench-fever' while fighting on the Somme and spent time recovering in a hospital near Edinburgh.  While there, he met Siegfried Sassoon who read his poems and offered him encouragement.  He was posted back to France in 1918 where he was killed on the Sombre Canal a week before the Armistice was signed.

     His realistic poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was influenced by his friendship with Siegfried Sassoon and it was in stark contrast to the perception of war at the time.  His poems influenced changing attitudes toward war.  His poetry has a deep sense of compassion as well as a grim realism.

     As illustrated by the following two poems, not all of his poetry focused on grim portrayals of the horrors of war.

Music

I have been urged by earnest violins
       And drunk their mellow sorrows to the slake
Of all my sorrows and my thirsting sins.
       My heart has beaten for a brave drum's sake.
Huge chords have wrought me mighty: I have hurled
       Thuds of gods' thunder. And with old winds pondered
Over the curse of this chaotic world,-
       With low lost winds that maundered as they wandered.

I have been gay with trivial fifes that laugh;
And songs more sweet than possible things are sweet;
And gongs, and oboes. Yet I guessed not half
Life's symphony till I had made hearts beat,
And touched Love's body into trembling cries,
And blown my love's lips into laughs and sighs.

Spells and Incantations
A vague pearl, a wan pearl You showed me once; I peered through far-gone winters Until my mind was fog-bound in that gem. Blue diamonds, cold diamonds You shook before me, so that out of them Glittered and glowed vast diamond dawns of spring. Tiger-eyed rubies, wrathful rubies You rolled. I watched their hot hearts fling Flames from each glaring summer of my life. Quiet amber, mellow amber You lifted; and behold the whole air rife With evening, and the auburn autumn cloud. But pale skin, your pearl skin Show this to me, and I shall have surprise Of every snow-lit dawn before it break. But clear eyes, your fresh eyes Open; that I may laugh, and lightly take All air of early April in one hour. But brown curls, O shadow me with curls, Full of September mist, half-gleam, half-glower, And I shall roam warm nights in lands far south.

The Blind Contessa's New Machine - Carey Wallace

     The Blind Contessa's New Machine is a lyrical little slip of a book (I read it in one day) based on the true story of the invention of the typewriter.  Who would think that subject could inspire such a magical book?
     Set in 19th Century Italy, it is the story of Carolina, a young contessa, who discovers that she is going blind.  Adventurous and independent, she is indulged by her father and most often ignored by her mother.  She spends her time by the lake on her father's land where he has built a little house for her.
     When she becomes engaged to the town's most eligible bachelor, Pietro, and the wedding approaches, she discovers that she is going blind.  When she tells her parents and Pietro they don't believe it is true.  Pietro laughs it off.  "On the day Contess Carolina Fantoni was married, only one other living person knew that she was going blind, and he was not her groom.  This was not because she had failed to warn them."  The only one who believes her is Turri, her childhood friend who is an eccentric inventor and amateur scientist and now married.
     After her marriage, her vision narrows and slowly vanishes.  She begins to live in her dreams where she can see and even fly.  Turri creates a new machine to help her reconnect with the world and communicate with him.  His support is a solace to Carolina.  Perhaps out of concern for her safety or an attempt to control her, Pietro locks her into the house.  With the help of the machine that enables her to communicate with Turri, she breaks out and begins to spend her nights with him and they become lovers.
     When she learns that Pietro is having an affair with her maid, Carolina attempts a final escape with Turri.  In the end, because of her dependance on sighted people to navigate the world, she is forced into a life that compromises her happiness.
      But a summary of the plot doesn't do the novel justice.  The author spins this story like a fairytale.  The poetic language alone is enough reason to read this novel.  It is a refreshing find.  It is also surprising that a novel about blindness can be such a visual delight.  Carolina's world is painted in rich, vibrant detail.  The words evoke a sensual world:  the pungent smell of Carolina's father's lemon trees, the taste of tiny, sugary marzapan fruits, the sound of mysterious footsteps in the night, and Carolina's little cottage adorned with luxurious velvet blankets and vibrant scarves to cover the windows.
     All in all, a lovely read!   

~ Frances

Bookish Quotes #14

"If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking."
     ~ Haruki Murakami

"Books are like mirrors: if a fool looks in, you cannot expect a genius to look out."
     ~ J. K. Rowling

Waxing Poetic: Lorine Niedecker

     "The Brontes had their moors, I have my marshes," Lorine Niedecker (1903-1970) wrote of flood-prone Black Hawk Island in Wisconsin where she lived for most of her life.  With the exception of a brief time in New York City in her youth and a move to Milwaukee toward the end of her life, Niedecker spent her days living, working, and writing along the banks of her native fishing community.  She chose to remain there, supporting herself at times as a proofreader, a cleaning woman, and a librarian, living on the edge of poverty and writing poetry when she could.

     Her life by the water couldn't have been farther from the world of avant-garde poetry in which she also moved.  Niedecker is one of the most important poets of her generation and an essential member of the Objectivist circle.  Her work attracted high praise from her peers such as William Carlos Williams, Marianne Moore, Louis Zukofsky, and she exchanged letters with them.  Like the school of Objectivism, Niedecker treated the poem as an object all to itself, a structure which, in whole, could communicate with precision.

     I had never read any of her poetry until recently.  This brief untitled poem caught my attention.  It say so little and so much at the same time.

I knew a clean man
but he was not for me.
Now I sew green aprons
over covered seats.  He

wades the muddy water fishing,
falls in, dries his last pay check
in the sun, smooths it out
in Leaves of Grass.  He's
the one for me.

Library Loot #5

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Marg and Claire that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

Frances:
Consequences by Penelope Lively
I've already finished this one.  I have only read one other novel by Penelope Lively, Spiderweb, and I didn't enjoy it that much.  I chose this one because I enjoy reading books set during WWII but I wasn't sure I wasn't sure I would like it based on my previous experience with Lively.  I loved it!  It begins with a chance meeting in 1935 that results in a love affair and marriage.  The story moves through the devastation of WWII, to the social revolution of the 1960's, and the early 2000's.  Lively chronicles the choices and consequences that comprise a family's history, offering an intimate, moving reaffirmation of the the force of connection between generations.

April in Paris by Michael Wallner
Again, I have chosen a novel set during WWII - more specifically in occupied France.  The novel recounts the impossible love affair between a German soldier and a French Resistance fighter.

The London Train by Tessa Hadley
This novel follows to people, Paul and Cora, connected by a chance meeting on the London train that will have immediate and far-reaching consequences for them both.

Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier
Another train!  From the jacket:  Raimund Gregorius teaches classical languages at a Swiss lycee, and lives a life governed by routine.  One day, a chance encounter with a Portuguese woman inspires him to question his life - and leads him to an extraordinary book that will open the possibility of changing it.  Apparently, a movie is being made based on the book starring Jeremy Irons.

The Book of Salt by Monique Truong
This novel is told by the Vietnamese cook, Bihn, employed by Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas in Paris.  Since I have been reading about Literary Paris in the 1920's, I was drawn to this book.  The jacket says:  A mesmerizing narrative voice, an insider's view of a fabled literary household, and the slow revelation of heartbreaking secrets contribute to the viceral impact of this first novel.



Rose:
The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon
The description of this novel leads me to believe that it is either a fabulous success weaving past and present together in a story of history and murder or a grim and gruesome Chicago murder mystery. I will be greatly disappointed if it is the latter.

The Book of Fathers by Miklos Vamos
I could not resist checking out this book from the library purely because the author is praised as a Hungarian version of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Kornél Esti by Dezso Kosztolanyi 
Last year I read Kosztolanyi's Skylark and loved it. This is a new English translation of his final novel. A man and his doppelganger, an alter ego from his childhood, write a book together. I hope that, like Skylark, this book manages to be both incredibly funny as well as thought-provoking.

Bookish Quotes #13

"It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it."
     ~Oscar Wilde

"No two persons ever read the same book."
     ~ Edmund Wilson

Waxing Poetic: Unlanguid Longeurs by Ada Verdun Howell

     Ada Verdun Howell (1902-1981) was an Australian author and poet.  She was born in Beaufort, Victoria on her father's sheep property.  Her sister was the artist Valma Howell.  By the time Ada was in her late thirties she went to New York where she lived a bohemian lifestyle.  It was in New York that she wrote her most famous works.
     Her professional career began with Anamorphosis in which she explores the interior universe of love and self.  The following poem is from that collection.
     We know virtually nothing about her.  The only site where we found information on her was Wikipedia.  But we loved this poem and her photograph.  If any of you know more about her or her poetry please let us know.


Unlanguid Longeurs 

All the same, my desire had taught me 
An object lesson. 
He was a sceptic, I was an enthusiast. 
He analysed, I synthesized. 
He dealt with proofs, I with questions of faith. 
He was, in short, 
An historian. 
I couldn't help being 
A pilgrim; 
But I knew now I must be 
As dispassionate pilgrim 
As possible.

The Poldark Series - Winston Graham

    

     My main motivation for taking on the Cornwall challenge this year was the idea of completing the Poldark series by Winston Graham.  I began the series in 2010 and have now read all twelve novels in the series.  Setting out to read twelve novels is no small objective and the fact that I stayed with them is a testament to their excellence.  I read a quote the other day by Paul Sweeney that applies to my feelings upon completing the last novel:  "You know you've read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend."  Except in this case it was twelve books, many friends, some enemies, and a world and a time that I've journeyed through and will sorely miss.
     My first exposure to the Poldark series was with the BBC Masterpiece Theater series that began in 1975.  The series is excellent and faithful to the novels but doesn't cover all of them.  The first seven novels are set during the 18th century until Christmas 1799, and the remaining five are concerned with the early years of the 19th century and the lives of the children of the main characters of the previous novels.  Winston Graham wrote the first four Poldark novels during the 1940's and 1950's.  Following a long break, he resumed the series in 1972.  The series encompasses the first seven books.  The first novel was written in 1945 and the last one in 2002.

     The first book takes its title from the main character, Ross Poldark, a British soldier who returns from the American War of Independence to find his father dead, his estate, Nampara, and mines in disrepair, and his fiance, Elizabeth, who believes he died in the war engaged to his cousin, Francis Poldark.  If that's not bad enough, a family of ambitious bankers, the Warleggans, is determined to acquire Ross's property by whatever means necessary.  Ross's return astonishes them all and thus begins the Poldark saga.

    The saga touches on romance, rivalry, and social conditions.  Ross is a man of honor and a gentleman by birth but holds notions of liberty, fraternity, and equality engendered by his experiences in America and fostered by the overthrow of the monarchy across the Channel in France.  His loyalties lie with the working people of Cornwall who struggle to make a living on the rugged coast as best they can whether its by mining, poaching, or smuggling. 
 









     Ross's divided loyalties are embodied in the two women he loves - the genteel Elizabeth and the fiery Delmelza.  Demelza is as different from Elizabeth as she can be.  She is the daughter of a drunken miner and when Ross first encounters her she is dressed as a boy and stealing meat pies from a country fair.  He saves her and her dog Garrick from the consequences and brings her back to work for him at Nampara.  Of course, they fall in love.  Demelza is strong, smart, determined, and funny.  Her favorite and often used curse word is "Judas!" Throughout the ups and downs of their marriage (and there are many) she is often more in love with Ross than his is with her but she is never subservient to him.  She is always his equal.  Their romance survives throughout the novel - not only the passionate relationship but despite hardship, setbacks, and betrayal, a deep and caring partnership continues.

     Winston Groom had originally intended it to be a trilogy focusing exclusively on the love triangle between Ross, his cousin Francis, and Elizabeth.  But has he began writing, Graham found himself delving into the world of 18th century Cornwall and sinking his teeth into the social issues of the period.  Extra characters kept appearing and the saga became a far longer, richer work.
     The novels and the BBC series have quite a dedicated following.  It seems that once you step into the world of Ross and Demelza it is hard to let go.  Here is a list of the novels in chronological order:  Ross Poldark, Demelza, Jeremy Poldark, Warleggan, The Black Moon, The Four Swans, The Angry Tide, Stranger From the Sea, The Miller's Dance, The Loving Cup, The Twisted Sword, and Bella Poldark.
   

- Frances

Bookish Quotes #12

"The pleasure of all reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books."
     ~ Katherine Mansfield

"What is reading, but silent conversation."
     ~ Charles Lamb

Waxing Poetic: Lessons of English by Boris Pasternak

     Boris Pasternak (1890-1960) was a Russian poet, novelist, and translator.  Pasternak is best known for Dr. Zhivago, a novel set during the last years of the House of Romanov and the earliest years of the Soviet Union.  He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958.

    Pasternak's anthology, My Sister Life, is one of the most influential poetry collections ever published in the Russian language.  Pasternak spent the summer of 1917 living in the steppe country near Saratov, where he fell in love.  This passion resulted in the collection My Sister Life, which he wrote over a period of three months but was too embarrassed to publish for four years because of its novel style.  When it was finally published in 1921, it revolutionized Russian poetry.  The following poem comes from this collection.

Lessons of English

 

When Desdemona sang a ditty-
In her last hours among the living-
It wasn't love that she lamented,
And not her star-she mourned a willow.
When Desdemona started singing,
With tears near choking off her voice,
Her evil demon for her evil day
Stored up of weeping rills a choice.

And when Ophelia sang a ballad-
In her last hours among the living-
All dryness of her soul was carried
Aloft by gusts of wind, like cinders.

The day Ophelia started singing,
By bitterness of daydreams jaded,
What trophies did she clutch, when sinking?
A bunch of buttercups and daisies.

Their shoulders stripped of passion's tatters,
They took, their hearts a-quake with fear,
The Universe's chilly baptism-
To stun their loving forms with spheres.

Bookish Quotes #11

"When I got [my] library card, that was when my life began."
     ~ Rita Mae Brown

"Anyone who says they have only one life to live must not know how to read a book."
     ~ Anonymous

Waxing Poetic: Love in the Asylum by Dylan Thomas

     Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) was a Welsh poet, short story, and script writer.  His first book of poetry was published when he was not yet 20 years old.  Although he was born just as the modern age of literary culture was beginning, Thomas wrote poetry which often used traditional forms of rhythm, rhyme, and meter.
     Thomas once confided that the poems which had most influenced him were Mother Goose rhymes which his parents taught him when he was a child. 

I should say I wanted to write poetry in the beginning because I had fallen in love with words. The first poems I knew were nursery rhymes and before I could read them for myself I had come to love the words of them. The words alone. What the words stood for was of a very secondary importance. [...] I fell in love, that is the only expression I can think of, at once, and am still at the mercy of words, though sometimes now, knowing a little of their behavior very well, I think I can influence them slightly and have even learned to beat them now and then, which they appear to enjoy. I tumbled for words at once. And, when I began to read the nursery rhymes for myself, and, later, to read other verses and ballads, I knew that I had discovered the most important things, to me, that could be ever.

     He began his literary career in London, but in 1938 he moved back to Wales where he spent most of the remainder of his life.  His home was in the small seaside village of Laugharne on the river Towy.  His house, called the Boat House, was located right on the estuary of the Towy.  He used the potting shed to write his poetry.

     His marriage to Caitlin Macnamara, who was a dancer in a London pub when he met her, was a turbulent one.  He had a serious problem with alcohol and Caitlin wrote two autobiographies after Thomas's death in which she describes the destructive effect of alcohol on both Thomas and herself and their relationship.  Some say that the following poem is based on Caitlin.

Love in the Asylum

A stranger has come
To share my room in the house not right in the head,
A girl mad as birds

Bolting the night of the door with her arm her plume.
Strait in the mazed bed
She deludes the heaven-proof house with entering clouds

Yet she deludes with walking the nightmarish room,
At large as the dead,
Or rides the imagined oceans of the male wards.

She has come possessed
Who admits the delusive light through the bouncing wall,
Possessed by the skies

She sleeps in the narrow trough yet she walks the dust
Yet raves at her will
On the madhouse boards worn thin by my walking tears.

And taken by light in her arms at long and dear last
I may without fail
Suffer the first vision that set fire to the stars.

     Thomas made many public readings of his works.  His sonorous voice with a subtle Welsh lilt became almost as famous as his works.  Here's a link to an recording of Thomas reading Love in the Asylum.