Patience and the Prodigal have hit upon a novel idea and we propose to test its merit. What we intend is to revisit the obscure and much forgotten verse and poetry of some of the great poets of all time and with the juxtaposition of words, phrases and lines, represent these more or less ignored stanzas in a new light.
William Wordsworth, for instance is generally credited with composing roughly 1000 separate poems, yet how many are well known. Perhaps aficionados of Wordsworth might know a dozen or twenty of his more celebrated poems such as ‘The Green Linnet’, ‘The Daffodils’, ‘Composed upon Westminster Bridge’ or ‘The Solitary Reaper. What about the rest? Surely these must be infused with the creative genius of Wordsworth. This we intend to explore, if only for the Craic.

Monday, 25 March 2013

The Artist and the Art.



Now that the snows must melt and herbs revive
and rainbow shows aloft its hidden gold,
palette, brush and paint must come alive
in new magnificence vying with the old.

Seeking the bold achievement where he will
with truths holy lamp, source of bright and deep,
spreading dark and light with brush and quill
colours in silence with unfettered sweep.

Spared by fire and blood and turning sands
from death, the memory of the brave and wise,
nor injured more by touch of meddling hands
yet glorious art the power of time defies.

And all forbidden seeds must shed their pods
or enslave whole nations on their native soil
weakness of the great, folly of the gods
must be avoided; purest pigment, holy oil.

A spot of golden sunshine fixed in space
or softly stealing into modest shade,
The drooping mind of absence can erase
names once heard and prayers no longer prayed.


And gallery's sumptuous doors spread wide at morn,
with heart and mind the charmed spectator spies
under soft cerulean sky an ear of corn,
by night bare floors see portraits of the skies.

( from a memorials of a tour in Italy ) 




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3 comments:

  1. Turquoise25 March 2013 at 18:37

    To back-reference this poem, should readers be looking at any one particular section of W.'s massive work (re: Italy)? (I got myself lost --
    thanks for any guidance!)

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  2. patience and the prodigal27 March 2013 at 02:39

    Thank you for the interest Turquoise. In the main the reworking is based
    on Wordsworth's "The Pillar of Trajan" with one or two other snippets. Hope this is of benefit.
    Yours gratefully,

    P+P

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  3. patience and the prodigal27 March 2013 at 02:40

    Thank you --

    That was quite a mixing and melding -- up, down, and back again! -- and I did find the snippets. Now and then I laughed because "Trajan" reminded me of "Trojan" ("Don't look a gift horse in the mouth") which reminded me of my Latin teacher (just like Julie Andrews in "I Have Confidence" - Sound of Music) bursting into the classroom and beginning our first class with a vivacious, "Ambulat!" She continued to teach us in exactly that way for the next three years . . .

    The outcome of your efforts was lovely -- and "cerulean" is such a beautiful word (I suspect Mr. Wordsworth thought so, too). I liked "bare floors" at the end -- looking upward from the simple, the earthy, to the heavens.

    Turquoise

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