late March
the gilded phalloi of the crocuses
are thrusting at the spring air
-- Ezra Pound
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About Me
- James Owens
- Ein Klage-Himmel, "a lament-heaven," from Rilke's "Orpheus. Eurydike. Hermes." Poetry's post-rupture, post-lapsus, post-death-of-Eurydice dream of recreating that primal world -- Eden, childhood, Orpheus's singing -- where word and thing were one.
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11 comments:
Les couleurs complémentaires forment une belle harmonie dans cette photo.
Anne
so beautiful, I love crocuses! so glad spring is finally here! the Pound quote made me laugh :)
the photo is so lovely, such softness there, such frailty...
but i am afraid i dislike Pound's lines :-) and besides, they don't mirror the image, i think, there is a kind of violence and so much energy in them while the photo is so gentle, the flower so delicately opening...
thinking about it, Pound might be referring to those orange crocuses when they are not yet open, like here:
http://roxanaghita.blogspot.com/2010/03/improbable-spring-4-and-probably-last.html
which somehow justifies his metaphor, but it is still an ugly image :-) at best it makes one laugh, Marion is right!
such an early and promising sign of spring with their gentle beauty ...
Anne: Merci pour ton commentaire gentil, comme toujours :-)
Marion: I'm glad you you like it, and I'm glad to make you laugh :-) How is your reading of EP coming along, btw?
Roxana: I think you are probably right about the kind of crocuses Pound had in mind....
I guess I can see your objection to the quote :-) ... but I had never thought of these lines as violent. A bit of wry humour, maybe, but also a kind of tenderness for the spring ... but, yes, violent or not, the words suggest an energy that isn't there in the photo ... so perhaps it was not the best choice!! And I inevitably get into trouble whenever I mention Pound ....
Susan: Thank you. The wind and rain today are making me wonder if that promise was true....
Pound has been shamefully neglected of late! Can't put down Grunbein's Selected. But yes, I was thinking today how great Pound is to read aloud, now just to find which pile / bookshelf I've stuck him in!
Marion: I hate to say that I don't know Grunbein at all, but coincidentally I ordered Ashes for Breakfast just yesterday. Now I'm looking forward to reading it even more!
Pound is the great enigma. So brilliant in some places, so dismal in others.... I love his own reading of Canto 1 --- I wouldn't want to read this way myself, and, if it were anyone else, I'd say that dramatic, "poetic" quaver in the voice is just silly ... yet ... somehow ....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px8mG3NJaQA&feature=related
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