One poet per post, perhaps

[marnanightingale]

It's no good asking me for my favourite poem. Or poet. I'll just wibble and prevaricate and mumble. "A few of the ones I've been thinking of recently by some of the poets I love" is more like it.


Hound Voice -- William Butler Yeats



Because we love bare hills and stunted trees
And were the last to choose the settled ground,
Its boredom of the desk or of the spade, because
So many years companioned by a hound,
Our voices carry; and though slumber-bound,
Some few half wake and half renew their choice,
Give tongue, proclaim their hidden name -- 'hound voice.'


The women that I picked spoke sweet and low
And yet gave tongue. 'Hound voices' were they all.
We picked each other from afar and knew
What hour of terror comes to test the soul,
And in that terror's name obeyed the call,
And understood, what none have understood,
Those images that waken in the blood.


Some day we shall get up before the dawn
And find our ancient hounds before the door,
And wide awake know that the hunt is on;
Stumbling upon the blood-dark track once more,
Then stumbling to the kill beside the shore;
Then cleaning out and bandaging of wounds,
And chants of victory amid the encircling hounds.



No Second Troy -- William Butler Yeats.



Why should I blame her that she filled my days
With misery, or that she would of late
Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways,
Or hurled the little streets upon the great.
Had they but courage equal to desire?
What could have made her peaceful with a mind
That nobleness made simple as a fire,
With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind
That is not natural in an age like this,
Being high and solitary and most stern?
Why, what could she have done, being what she is?
Was there another Troy for her to burn?

Comments

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

More reminders of how much I love Yeats. But how could any history-lover not love his work?

"...chants of victory amid the encircling hounds."

[icewolf010.livejournal.com]

Wibble.

What a great word. I shall abscond with it immediately...

[guede-mazaka.livejournal.com]

*purrs*

I need to use 'Hound Voice' in a fic. The imagery's just too good.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

I only found it recently; it laid me right out.

[cleverthylacine]

Like guede_mazaka I find that these poems demand to be part of my ficcage. Or something. Perhaps it's my tendency to write about beautiful women who lead the Wild Hunt and don't always mean to get mixed up in wars.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

But of course. I'm glad you like the poetry spam.

[benet.livejournal.com]

What's the icon text from? It's irresistibly calling Kit Smart to mind.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

:-) Christopher Fry, actually.

From the Lady's Not For Burning.

[gilded-kage.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for the Yeats Helen poem...I didn't know it, and it's very compelling. I don't quite get all of it, but I'll mull it over. Is he saying that nobleness made her mind simple as a fire, or that he wished it did? Why simple as a fire?

Sometime I'd be happy to meet for coffee and talk poetry. We actually live in the same town, you know.

Anyway, do you know H.D.'s poem Helen, about Helen of Troy? It's quite fabulous.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

You're in Ottawa?

Sounds like excellent fun; where and when?

[gilded-kage.livejournal.com]

I'm swamped writing a paper until October (and then going to Witching Hour!), but mid-October would be great.

I'll email.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

BTW: The poem is about Maude Gonne, co-founder of Sinn Fein and revolutionary, who he often compared to Helen of Troy; a romanticised notion of Classical patriotism and nationalism is characteristic of Yeats.

[gilded-kage.livejournal.com]

Cool! About 15 years ago, my friends did a play called "Maude Gonne says No to the Poet." It was about her relationship with Yeats. One of my closest friends played Gonne, another played Yeats.

[imyril.livejournal.com]

Thank you. You've just brightened up my shitty day with "The Second Troy" - it's been years since I thought of that poem, and I love it.

I knew reading anw's LJ would help me stumble over interesting people.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

*bows* Pleased to be of service! And I am delighted to meet you.

I'm mostly fannish in this space, but sometimes literary and occasionally essayish. Please kick off your shoes and have a coffee, the snacks are over on the sideboard.