tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post2013555138459925980..comments2024-03-27T16:48:21.039-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: Longfellow's Evangeline - is this poetry?Amateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-46976361312713347752008-10-13T09:12:00.000-05:002008-10-13T09:12:00.000-05:00Paul, thanks, I hadn't gotten to "The Rationale of...Paul, thanks, I hadn't gotten to "The Rationale of Verse" yet. Poe really lays into Longfellow and other "Frog-Pond" professors. This is after his weird plagiarism spat with Longfellow, though, so I don't quite trust Poe on the subject.<BR/><BR/>As for Poe's hexameter, though - great stuff. Also, sort of terrible, but then ths is Poe we're talking about.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-68549878094175871932008-10-12T18:01:00.000-05:002008-10-12T18:01:00.000-05:00There is Poe's attempt (from The Rationale of Vers...There is Poe's attempt (from <A HREF="http://eapoe.org/works/essays/ratlvrsd.htm" REL="nofollow"><I>The Rationale of Verse</I></A>) at a "truly Greek hexameter":<BR/><BR/>Do tell! when may we hope to make men of sense out of the Pundits<BR/><BR/>Born and brought up with their snouts deep down in the mud of the Frog-pond? <BR/><BR/>Why ask? who ever yet saw money made out of a fat old —<BR/><BR/>Jew, or downright upright nutmegs out of a pine-knot?Paul M. Rodriguezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00925737399903171837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-73408465901349208042008-10-09T09:08:00.000-05:002008-10-09T09:08:00.000-05:00Well, I know that the Decemberists (the band, not ...Well, I know that the Decemberists (the band, not the Russians) have clearly read "Bee Season" because they have a song all about Myla Goldberg. I think all those indie bands are McSweeney's fiends so they're probably being inspired by Michael Chabon, Daniel Handler (in his non-Lemony incarnation), Sarah Vowell and so forth. Actually, that reminds me -- you probably knew this -- but apparently Handler is a great friend of Stephin Merritt, so at least the neo-Romantic Magnetic Fields are very very influenced by a certain ironic strain of current literature. And now that Kelly and I are putting out records under the Love Garden name, I can tell you that Ad Astra Per Aspera is quite taken with Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty and the Bronte sisters.the designated knitterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13587192044297208064noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-4656493338787429432008-10-08T23:07:00.000-05:002008-10-08T23:07:00.000-05:00One reason Evangeline is in verse is that poetry h...One reason <EM>Evangeline</EM> is in verse is that poetry had a higher status than prose. Still does, I guess, but not to the same degree. Hawthorne actually supplied Longfellow with the idea for the poem - it's in Hawthorne's American Notebooks somewhere.<BR/><BR/>The decline of the New England Fireside Poets is a real puzzle - until you read them! Ha ha! No, I'm kidding, it's actually a pretty interesting question - it provides a lot of information about changes in literary taste, if nothing else. Same with the WD Howells books you (zhiv) have been reading.<BR/><BR/>That's funny stuff, those old Romantic attachments to <EM>Evangeline</EM> by aged songwriters (and good for them and why not). They would still have been assigned the poem in school. What books are the current young Romantics writing about?Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-10989598564902989042008-10-08T10:40:00.000-05:002008-10-08T10:40:00.000-05:00It's still popular. At least, to fans of Martin S...It's still popular. At least, to fans of Martin Scorsese and Robbie Robertson and Emmylou Harris. Which I am. Ah, yes, I suddenly remember that RR is Canadian. And a lightbulb goes on over my cartoony little head. That explains it. <BR/><BR/>"Evangeline of the maritime was slowly going insane..."the designated knitterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13587192044297208064noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-46609340739423888812008-10-07T22:20:00.000-05:002008-10-07T22:20:00.000-05:00Your reading list is great. I've been interested ...Your reading list is great. I've been interested in Boston lately and started reading The Dante Club, which seems a bit cheesy--not the best, most thoughtful word for it, but I haven't gotten too far in the story--but it's backed up by substantial knowledge of the period and it's fun to see Lowell, OW Holmes, Fields, and Longfellow walking around and in their element. So I was just reading an early scene set at Longfellow's house and didn't get too far in thinking about him, but the respect that he commanded was very real, and it's a bit strange to have seen it significantly eclipsed in our day. Great stuff, nice comment about the poetry--I suppose the meter is a vessel for his poetic "spirit," but he was fighting against the current of prose and realism. I lot of people were walking around thinking they were poets (Annie Fields was one), but Longfellow was more than successful enough not to abandon the general format.<BR/><BR/>Carlyle/Tennyson/Browning : Emerson/Longfellow/(Whitman?) Hard to even come up with the terms for comparison, and a challenge for Longfellow to match up.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com