2019年7月29日 星期一

"A Vision of the Mermaids" The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89)

    
"All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him." - 'Pied Beauty'
Gerard Manley Hopkins was born #OTD 1844. Very little of Hopkins's work was published during his lifetime; the first anthology of his poetry appeared posthumously in 1918 under the editorship of his friend, long-standing correspondent, and literary executor, Robert Bridges. This delayed appearance, combined with his experiments in poetic form, led to his initial association with the modernist poetics exemplified in the work of T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. Since the 1970s, however, the Victorian character of his work has been more widely explored and recognized.


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This authoritative edition brings together all of Hopkins's poetry and a generous selection of his prose writings to explore the essence of…





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Gerard Manley Hopkins

GerardManleyHopkins.jpg
ChurchLatin Church
Orders
OrdinationSeptember 1877
Personal details
Born28 July 1844
StratfordEssex, England
Died8 June 1889 (aged 44)
Dublin, Ireland
BuriedGlasnevin CemeteryDublin, Ireland
NationalityBritish
DenominationRoman Catholic
Occupation
  • Poet
  • Jesuit priest
  • academic
EducationHighgate School
Alma materHeythrop College, London
Balliol College, Oxford
Gerard Manley Hopkins SJ (28 July 1844 – 8 June 1889) was an English poet and Jesuitpriest, whose posthumous fame established him among the leading Victorian poets. His manipulation of prosody – particularly his concept of sprung rhythm and use of imagery – established him as an innovative writer of verse. Two of his major themes were nature and religion. Only after his death did Robert Bridges begin to publish a few of Hopkins's mature poems in anthologies, hoping to prepare the way for wider acceptance of his style. By 1930 his work was recognized as being among the most original literary accomplishments of his century. It had a marked influence on such leading 20th-century poets as T. S. EliotDylan ThomasW. H. AudenStephen Spender and C. Day Lewis.

Selected poems[edit]

Well-known works by Hopkins include:

External links[edit]

At poetsgraves.co.uk

The Caged Skylark
God's Grandeur
Hurrahing in Harvest
In the Valley of the Elwy
The May Magnificat
Moonrise
SpringAt bartleby.com
"As Kingfishers Catch Fire"
"Carrion Comfort"
"Felix Randal"
"Inversnaid"
"Spring and Fall: To a Young Child"
"That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the comfort of the Resurrection"
"The Sea and the Skylark"At The Fresh Reads
"No Worst, There Is None"
[https://www.thefreshreads.com/gods-grandeur/ "God's Grandeur"Via poemhunter.com
"The Habit of Perfection"

Recordings[edit]


***

"A Vision of the Mermaids" by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Rowing, I reach'd a rock - the sea was low -
Which the tides cover in their overflow,
Marking the spot, when they have gurgled o'er,
With a thin floating veil of water hoar.
A mile astern lay the blue shores away;
And it was at the setting of the day.
Plum-purple was the west; but spikes of light
Spear'd open lustrous gashes, crimson-white;
(Where the eye fix'd, fled the encrimsoning spot,
And, gathering, floated where the gaze was not;)
And through their parting lids there came and went
Keen glimpses of the inner firmament:
Fair beds they seem'd of water-lily flakes
Clustering entrancingly in beryl lakes:
Anon, across their swimming splendour strook,
An intense line of throbbing blood-light shook
A quivering pennon; then, for eye too keen,
Ebb'd back beneath its snowy lids, unseen.
Now all things rosy turn'd: the west had grown
To an orb'd rose, which, by hot pantings blown
Apart, betwixt ten thousand petall'd lips
By interchange gasp'd splendour and eclipse.
The zenith melted to a rose of air;
The waves were rosy-lipp'd; the crimson glare
Shower'd the cliffs and every fret and spire
With garnet wreathes and blooms of rosy-budded fire.
Then, looking on the waters, I was ware
Of something drifting through delighted air,
- An isle of roses, - and another near; -
And more, on each hand, thicken, and appear
In shoals of bloom; as in unpeopled skies,
Save by two stars, more crowding lights arise,
And planets bud where'er we turn our mazèd eyes.
I gazed unhinder'd: Mermaids six or seven,
Ris'n from the deeps to gaze on sun and heaven,
Cluster'd in troops and halo'd by the light,
Those Cyclads made that thicken'd on my sight.
This was their manner: one translucent crest
Of tremulous film, more subtle than the vest
Of dewy gorse blurr'd with the gossamer fine,
From crown to tail-fin floating, fringed the spine,
Droop'd o'er the brows like Hector's casque, and sway'd
In silken undulations, spurr'd and ray'd
With spikèd quills all of intensest hue;
And was as tho' some sapphire molten-blue
Were vein'd and streak'd with dusk-deep lazuli,
Or tender pinks with bloody Tyrian dye.
From their white waists a silver skirt was spread
To mantle o'er the tail, such as is shed
Around the Water-Nymphs in fretted falls,
At red Pompeii on medallion'd walls.
A tinted fin on either shoulder hung:
Their pansy-dark or bronzen locks were strung
With coral, shells, thick-pearlèd cords, whate'er
The abysmal Ocean hoards of strange and rare.
Some trail'd the Nautilus: or on the swell
Tugg'd the boss'd, smooth-lipp'd, giant Strombus-shell.
Some carried the sea-fan; some round the head
With lace of rosy weed were chapleted;
One bound o'er dripping gold a turquoise-gemm'd
Circle of astral flowerets - diadem'd
Like an Assyrian prince, with buds unsheath'd
From flesh-flowers of the rock; but more were wreath'd
With the dainty-delicate fretted fringe of fingers
Of that jacinthine thing, that, where it lingers
Broiders the nets with fans of amethyst
And silver films, beneath with pearly mist,
The Glaucus cleped; others small braids encluster'd
Of glassy-clear Aeolis, metal-lustred
With growths of myriad feelers, crystalline
To show the crimson streams that inward shine,
Which, lightening o'er the body rosy-pale,
Like shiver'd rubies' dance or sheen of sapphire frail.
Then saw I sudden from the waters break
Far off a Nereid company, and shake
From wings swan-fledged a wheel of watery light
Flickering with sunny spokes, and left and right
Plunge orb'd in rainbow arcs, and trample and tread
The satin-purfled smooth to foam, and spread
Slim-pointed sea-gull plumes, and droop behind
One scarlet feather trailing to the wind;
Then, like a flock of sea-fowl mounting higher,
Thro' crimson-golden floods pass swallow'd into fire.
Soon - as when Summer of his sister Spring
Crushes and tears the rare enjewelling,
And boasting "I have fairer things than these"
Plashes amidst the billowy apple-trees
His lusty hands, in gusts of scented wind
Swirling out bloom till all the air is blind
With rosy foam and pelting blossom and mists
Of driving vermeil-rain; and, as he lists,
The dainty onyx-coronals deflowers,
A glorious wanton; - all the wrecks in showers
Crowd down upon a stream, and, jostling thick
With bubbles bugle-eyed, struggle and stick
On tangled shoals that bar the brook - a crowd
Of filmy globes and rosy floating cloud:
So those Mermaidens crowded to my rock,
And thicken'd, like that drifted bloom, the flock
Sun-flush'd, until it seem'd their father Sea
Had gotten him a wreath of sweet Spring-broidery.
Careless of me they sported: some would plash
The languent smooth with dimpling drops, and flash
Their filmy tails adown whose length there show'd
An azure ridge; or clouds of violet glow'd
On prankèd scale; or threads of carmine, shot
Thro' with silver, gloom'd to a blood-vivid clot.
Some, diving merrily, downward drove, and gleam'd
With arm and fin; the argent bubbles stream'd
Airwards, disturb'd; and the scarce troubled sea
Gurgled, where they had sunk, melodiously.
Others with fingers white would comb among
The drenchèd hair of slabby weeds that swung
Swimming, and languish'd green upon the deep
Down that dank rock o'er which their lush long tresses weep.
But most in a half-circle watch'd the sun;
And a sweet sadness dwelt on everyone;
I knew not why, - but know that sadness dwells
On Mermaids - whether that they ring the knells
Of seamen whelm'd in chasms of the mid-main,
As poets sing; or that it is a pain
To know the dusk depths of the ponderous sea,
The miles profound of solid green, and be
With loath'd cold fishes, far from man - or what; -
I know the sadness but the cause know not.
Then they, thus ranged, ‘gan make full plaintively
A piteous Siren sweetness on the sea,
Withouten instrument, or conch, or bell,
Or stretch'd cords tunable on turtle's shell;
Only with utterance of sweet breath they sung
An antique chaunt and in an unknown tongue.
Now melting upward through the sloping scale
Swell'd the sweet strain to a melodious wail;
Now ringing clarion-clear to whence it rose
Slumber'd at last in one sweet, deep, heart-breaking close.
But when the sun had lapsed to Ocean, lo
A stealthy wind crept round seeking to blow,
Linger'd, then raised the washing waves and drench'd
The floating blooms and with tide flowing quench'd
The rosy isles: so that I stole away
And gain'd thro' growing dusk the stirless bay;
White loom'd my rock, the water gurgling o'er,
Whence oft I watch but see those Mermaids now no more.
*


**** The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89)
童元方著《一樣花開燧石之火》台北爾雅叢書,1996,頁219-227
有一翻譯 版本  分段有錯

windhover =kestrel隼


Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89).  Poems.  1918.
12. The Windhover
To Christ our Lord
I CAUGHT this morning morning’s minion, king-
  dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
  Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,        5
  As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
  Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!
Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
  Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion        10
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!
  No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
  Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.
See Notes.

- John Keats, 'When I have fears that I may cease to be'



"When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain,
Before high piled Books in character
Hold like rich garners the full ripen’d grain –
When I behold upon the night’s starr’d face
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And feel that I may never live to trace
Their shadows with the magic hand of Chance:
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more
Never have relish in thee fair power
Of unreflecting Love: then on the Shore
Of the wide world I stand alone and think
Till Love and Fame to Nothingness do sink. –"
- John Keats, 'When I have fears that I may cease to be'

2019年7月28日 星期日

after Henry Darger by John Ashbery

--from "Girls on the Run" by John Ashbery
after Henry Darger
I
A great plane flew across the sun,
and the girls ran along the ground.
The sun shone on Mr. McPlaster's face, it was green like an elephant's.
Let's get out of here, Judy said.
They're getting closer, I can't stand it.
But you know, our fashions are in fashion
only briefly, then they go out
and stay that way for a long time. Then they come back in
for a while. Then, in maybe a million years, they go out of fashion
and stay there.
Laure and Tidbit agreed,
with the proviso that after that everyone would become fashion
again for a few hours. Write it now, Tidbit said,
before they get back. And, quivering, I took the pen.
Drink the beautiful tea
before you slop sewage over the horizon, the Principal directed.
OK, it's calm now, but it wasn't two minutes ago. What do you want me to
do, said Henry,
I am no longer your serf,
and if I was I wouldn't do your bidding. That is enough, sir.
You think you can lord it over every last dish of oatmeal
on this planet, Henry said. But wait till my ambition
comes a cropper, whatever that means, or bursts into feathered bloom
and burns on the shore. Then the kiddies dancing sidewise
declared it a treat, and the ice-cream gnomes slurped their last that day.
Inside, in the twilit nest of evening,
something was coming undone. Dimples could feel it,
surging over her shoulder like a wave of energy. And then—
it was gone. No one had witnessed it but herself.
And so Dimples took off for the city, which was near and wholesome.
There, with her sister Larissa, she planned the big blue boat
that future generations will live in, and thank us for. It twitched
at its steely moorings, and seemed to say: Live, like life, with me.
Let the birds wash over them, Laure said, for what use are earmuffs
in a snowstorm, except to call attention to distant tots
who have strayed. And now the big Mother warms them,
accepts them, for the nervous predicates they are. Far from the beach-
fiend's
howling, their adventure nurses itself back
to something like health. On the fifth day it takes a little blancmange
and stands up, only to fall back into a hammock.
I told you it was coming, cried Dimples, but look out,
Another big one is on the way!
And they all ran, and got out, and that was that for that day.

2019年7月8日 星期一

"Ozymandias" "The Mask of Anarchy" [Excerpt] by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Poet Percy Bysshe Shelley drowned in the Gulf of La Spezia, Kingdom of Sardinia (now Italy) on this day in 1822 (aged 29).
"The Mask of Anarchy" [Excerpt] by Percy Bysshe Shelley
LXXIX
"Stand ye calm and resolute,
Like a forest close and mute,
With folded arms and looks which are
Weapons of unvanquished war,
LXXX
"And let Panic, who outspeeds
The career of armèd steeds
Pass, a disregarded shade
Through your phalanx undismayed.
LXXXI
"Let the laws of your own land,
Good or ill, between ye stand
Hand to hand, and foot to foot,
Arbiters of the dispute,
LXXXII
"The old laws of England—they
Whose reverend heads with age are gray,
Children of a wiser day;
And whose solemn voice must be
Thine own echo—Liberty!
LXXXIII
"On those who first should violate
Such sacred heralds in their state
Rest the blood that must ensue,
And it will not rest on you.
LXXXIV
"And if then the tyrants dare
Let them ride among you there,
Slash, and stab, and maim, and hew,—
What they like, that let them do.
LXXXV
"With folded arms and steady eyes,
And little fear, and less surprise,
Look upon them as they slay
Till their rage has died away.
LXXXVI
"Then they will return with shame
To the place from which they came,
And the blood thus shed will speak
In hot blushes on their cheek.
LXXXVII
"Every woman in the land
Will point at them as they stand—
They will hardly dare to greet
Their acquaintance on the street.
LXXXVIII
"And the bold, true warriors
Who have hugged Danger in wars
Will turn to those who would be free,
Ashamed of such base company.
LXXXIX
"And that slaughter to the Nation
Shall steam up like inspiration,
Eloquent, oracular;
A volcano heard afar.
XC
"And these words shall then become
Like Oppression's thundered doom
Ringing through each heart and brain,
Heard again—again—again—
XCI
"Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number—
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you—
Ye are many—they are few."
*
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) was perhaps the most intellectually adventurous of the great Romantic poets. A classicist, a headlong visionary, a social radical, and a poet of serene artistry with a lyric touch second to none, Shelley personified the richly various—and contradictory—energies of his time. This compact yet comprehensive collection showcases all the extraordinary facets of Shelley’s art. From his most famous lyrical poems (“Ozymandias,” “The Cloud”) to his political and philosophical works (”The Mask of Anarchy,” “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty”) to excerpts from his remarkable dramatic and narrative verses (“Alastor,” “Prometheus Unbound”), Shelley’s words gave voice to English romanticism’s deepest aspirations. READ more here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/…/shelley-poems-by-perc…/


Scientific American


"If Donald Trump is incapable of understanding the lessons of climate science, he will go down in history as President Ozymandias."


BLOGS.SCIENTIFICAMERICAN.COM

President Ozymandias
If he so desired, President Trump could go down in history as the man who transcended ego and ignorance by acting to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Fat chance.
















霸業轉成空的西方比喻
 .南方朔
  不 同 的 國 家 , 對 各 種 感 受 , 都 會 有 不 同 的 表 達 方 式 。

  就 以 繁 華 難 久 、 霸 業 成 空 這 種 感 受 而 言 , 在 我 們 的 文 學 敘 述 裡 , 就 可 以 用 諸 如 「 浪 花 淘 盡 英 雄 」 、 「 王 謝 堂 前 燕 」 、 「 古 墓 夕 陽 」 、 「 故 壘 黃 昏 」 之 類 的 比 喻 , 來 表 達 時 間 流 逝 、 古 今 對 比 的 蒼 茫 意 象 。 由 於 古 代 的 王 朝 起 伏 、 興 衰 更 替 , 使 得 我 們 的 各 類 懷 古 之 作 裡 , 充 滿 了 這 方 面 的 描 述 。

  而 在 西 方 , 當 然 也 有 這 一 類 的 比 喻 , 其 中 最 好 的 , 大 概 就 要 數 「 奧 希 曼 底 亞 斯 之 砂 」 ( Ozymandias-sands) 這 個 比 喻 了 。

  所 謂 「 奧 希 曼 底 亞 斯 」 , 指 的 是 傳 說 中 的 古 代 埃 及 王 。 而 與 他 有 關 的 比 喻 , 則 出 自 浪 漫 詩 人 雪 萊 ( Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792- 1822) 所 寫 的 那 首 名 詩 〈 奧 希 曼 底 亞 斯 〉 , 詩 曰 :

  我 遇 見 一 名 旅 客 他 來 自 古 國

  宣 稱 : 有 兩 條 巨 大 殘 留 的 石 腿

  矗 立 在 沙 漠 , … … 附 近 的 沙 中 半 埋 著

  一 張 破 碎 的 石 雕 面 孔 , 它 的 皺 眉

  癟 唇 、 嚴 峻 威 嚴 中 的 輕 蔑 冷 漠

  顯 示 出 它 的 雕 刻 師 能 深 體 那 些 感 情

  讓 它 留 存 , 在 無 生 命 的 石 像 中

  經 由 模 仿 的 手 , 使 其 得 以 表 達 的 心 。

  而 在 底 座 , 則 仍 有 這 樣 的 銘 記 :

  「 我 是 奧 希 曼 底 亞 斯 , 萬 王 之 王

  看 我 的 功 業 , 何 等 偉 大 , 誰 堪 比 擬 ! 」

  在 它 四 周 已 一 無 所 有 , 而 圍 繞 這 凋 殘

  的 巨 大 荒 墟 , 無 邊 無 際

  唯 見 一 片 荒 涼 的 平 沙 伸 向 天 邊 。

  雪 萊 的 這 首 名 詩 , 寫 得 最 好 的 , 乃 是 他 描 寫 石 雕 臉 孔 表 情 的 那 兩 行 了 。 自 稱 「 萬 王 之 王 」 的 奧 希 曼 底 亞 斯 , 自 認 功 業 蓋 世 , 因 而 在 他 那 冷 峻 威 嚴 的 平 板 臉 孔 上 , 帶 著 一 種 皺 眉 噘 唇 , 蔑 視 眾 生 的 表 情 , 那 種 「 萬 王 之 王 」 的 洋 洋 自 得 , 盡 在 這 兩 行 詩 句 中 。

  但 再 大 的 權 柄 , 再 強 的 帝 國 , 又 如 何 ? 他 的 輝 煌 都 城 早 已 在 時 間 更 迭 裡 成 了 沙 漠 , 只 剩 下 兩 條 腿 的 雕 像 殘 骸 , 和 那 半 埋 在 沙 裡 的 碎 裂 面 孔 。 中 國 多 大 江 大 河 , 因 而 人 們 遂 喜 歡 在 江 河 流 逝 中 去 找 滄 桑 的 比 喻 , 中 東 則 地 理 多 變 , 因 而 掩 蓋 一 切 的 黃 沙 , 遂 成 了 滄 桑 比 喻 的 來 源 。 奧 希 曼 底 亞 斯 雕 像 在 沙 漠 中 凋 殘 , 最 後 與 黃 沙 同 朽 , 用 它 來 形 容 霸 業 難 久 、 繁 華 易 空 , 不 是 很 貼 切 嗎 ?

  我 會 談 起 奧 希 曼 底 亞 斯 , 原 因 是 最 近 讀 到 美 國 《 國 會 季 刊 》 發 行 人 墨 瑞 ( Robert W. Merry) 的 新 著 《 帝 國 之 砂 》 , 這 是 一 本 批 評 布 希 外 交 政 策 的 著 作 。 他 認 為 布 希 要 用 侵 略 戰 爭 打 出 一 個 美 國 帝 國 , 乃 是 一 種 錯 誤 , 最 後 必 將 讓 這 個 帝 國 凋 亡 在 黃 沙 中 。 他 會 用 《 帝 國 之 砂 》 為 書 名 , 靈 感 即 得 自 雪 萊 這 首 〈 奧 希 曼 底 亞 斯 〉 , 這 首 詩 的 影 響 之 大 , 由 此 可 知 。 這 不 也 提 示 了 一 個 道 理 , 值 得 所 有 有 權 力 的 人 , 該 有 一 份 謙 卑 嗎 ?



more
"Ozymandias" (/ˌɒziˈmændiəs/ oz-ee-MAN-dee-əs)[1] is the title of two poems published in 1818.
English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) wrote a sonnet, first published in the 11 January 1818 issue of The Examiner[2] in London. It was included the following year in Shelley's collection Rosalind and Helen, A Modern Eclogue; with Other Poems (1819)[3] and in a posthumous compilation of his poems published in 1826.[4] "Ozymandias" is Shelley's most famous work and is frequently anthologised...


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias

"Paris by Night" by Tristan Corbière

On this day in 1951, Paris celebrated its 2,000th birthday. The city was founded sometime around 250 A.D. by a Gallic tribe known as the Parisii.
"Paris by Night" by Tristan Corbière
It’s not a city, it’s a world
— It’s the sea: — dead calm — The Spring tide has felt bound,
With a distant rumbling, to withdraw its sway.
Its waves will return, rolling themselves in their sound —
— Can you hear the crabs of night scratching away…
— It’s the dried-up Styx: Rag ’n bone Diogenes,
Lantern in hand, wanders down it; he never squirms
But it’s the black gutter where depraved poets please
To cast their lines, their hollow skulls the cans for worms.
— It’s the wheat-field: Hideous harpies swirl and swoop
On what’s impure, gleaning shreds of lint caked in pus.
The alley cat, on the watch for rats, flees the troop
Of Shit-creek’s sons, harvesters of night’s detritus.
— It’s death: Here lieth the police — And love, upstairs,
Taking a siesta, sucks a heavy arm’s meat
Where an old love-bite’s left its blotch — Love is for pairs —
The hour is solitary — Listen: … dreams drag their feet…
— It’s life: Listen: the spring water is up for air,
Singing its everlasting song, that seems to slide
Over a sea-god’s slimy head, and his stretched bare
Green limbs on the bed of the Morgue… Eyes open wide!
*
Perhaps no other European city has so captured the poetic imagination as has Paris. Poems of Paris covers a wide range of time, from the Renaissance to the present, and includes not only the pantheon of classic French poets, from Ronsard to Baudelaire to Mallarmé, but also tributes by visitors to the city and famous expatriates from all over the world, including Pablo Neruda, Samuel Beckett, Rainer Maria Rilke, Vladimir Nabokov, Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Charles Bukowski, and many more. All the famous sights of Paris are touched on here, from Notre-Dame to the Eiffel Tower, as are such classic Parisian themes as food, drink, and love, and famous events from the Revolution to the Resistance. READ more here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/…/poems-of-paris-by-edi…/

2019年7月4日 星期四

"To Think of Time"; "That Music Always Round Me" by Walt Whitman

On this day in 1855, Walt Whitman’s first edition of the self-published LEAVES OF GRASS was printed, containing a dozen poems.
-- from "To Think of Time"
To think of time—of all that retrospection,
To think of to-day, and the ages continued henceforward.
Have you guess'd you yourself would not continue?
Have you dreaded these earth-beetles?
Have you fear'd the future would be nothing to you?
Is to-day nothing? is the beginningless past nothing?
If the future is nothing they are just as surely nothing.
*
To think that the sun rose in the east—that men and women
were flexible, real, alive—that every thing was alive,
To think that you and I did not see, feel, think, nor bear our part,
To think that we are now here and bear our part.
WHITMAN: POEMS contains forty-two of the American master’s poems, including "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," "Song of Myself," "I Hear America Singing," "Halcyon Days," and an index of first lines. READ more here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/…/whitman-poems-by-walt…/




***


"That Music Always Round Me" by Walt Whitman
That music always round me, unceasing, unbeginning, yet long
untaught I did not hear,
But now the chorus I hear and am elated,
A tenor, strong, ascending with power and health, with glad notes
of daybreak I hear,
A soprano at intervals sailing buoyantly over the tops of immense
waves,
A transparent base shuddering lusciously under and through the
universe,
The triumphant tutti, the funeral wailings with sweet flutes and
violins, all of these I fill myself with,
I hear not the volumes of sound merely, I am moved by the
exquisite meanings,
I listen to the different voices winding in and out, striving,
contending with fiery vehemence to excel each other in
emotion;
I do not think the performers know themselves—but now I think I
begin to know them.




Tutti - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tutti

Tutti is an Italian word literally meaning all or together and is used as a musical term, for the whole orchestra as opposed to the soloist. It is applied similarly to choral music, where the whole section or choir is called to sing.

THE HUMAN FACTOR (1978) by Graham Greene


“One can't reason away regret-it's a bit like falling in love, falling into regret.”
―from THE HUMAN FACTOR (1978) by Graham Greene
Graham Greene’s passion for moral complexity and his stylistic aplomb were perfectly suited to the cat-and mouse game of the spy novel, a genre he practically invented and to which he periodically returned while fashioning one of the twentieth century’s longest, most triumphant literary careers. Written late in his life, The Human Factor displays his gift for suspense at its most refined level, and his understanding of the physical and spiritual vulnerability of the individual at its deepest. READ more here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/…/the-human-factor-by-g…/