tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22560219.post115362786386798769..comments2023-12-07T20:31:28.197-05:00Comments on Islands of Joy: Bearing Witness: Christian Poetry in the 20th Century (Part II)Sørina Higginshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10907200327850346539noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22560219.post-1154526665164329682006-08-02T08:51:00.000-05:002006-08-02T08:51:00.000-05:00I have a couple of Avison's books (Not Yet But Sti...I have a couple of Avison's books (<I>Not Yet But Still</I> and <I>Selected Poems</I>), and I think I've dabbled in them a bit, but I don't say I know her work at all because I can't remember reading it.Rosie Pererahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09554035581795923555noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22560219.post-1154335869730011332006-07-31T03:51:00.000-05:002006-07-31T03:51:00.000-05:00(that'd be from kejj btw, not greg!)(that'd be from kejj btw, not greg!)Kirstin Jeffrey Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15538095093709079755noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22560219.post-1154335831994535232006-07-31T03:50:00.000-05:002006-07-31T03:50:00.000-05:00Rosie, thanks for these vicarious opps to learn a ...Rosie, thanks for these vicarious opps to learn a little! Wish I could be there. Have you read any Magaret Avison? She's another 'famous poet got converted'...she'd won the Gov Gen award for her poetry before that, and people publically bemoaned that her conversion would ruin her work...and then she won the award again! Fantastic stuff -- (she's a mentor of Mx. Hancock) ---"Nobody stuffs the world in at your eyes/ The optic heart must venture: a jail-break/ And re-creation....." <BR/>Jacobs should add her to the list.Kirstin Jeffrey Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15538095093709079755noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22560219.post-1153973649327108742006-07-26T23:14:00.000-05:002006-07-26T23:14:00.000-05:00Fascinating. Thank you for the biographical inform...Fascinating. Thank you for the biographical information and the analysis...I'll definitely have to read my pocket-size Auden more closely now.AJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16135729997685992811noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22560219.post-1153721502317334302006-07-24T01:11:00.000-05:002006-07-24T01:11:00.000-05:00The earlier poems were not necessarily primitive f...The earlier poems were not necessarily primitive first impulses. They were polished, completed works in their own right, had been published in Auden's lifetime and had helped him achieve his early fame. Edward Mendelson's justification for republishing the earlier versions is this: "In preparing the text of a selection of Auden's work, an editor must make his own decisions between the claims of errant history and those of timeless goodness. Auden applied a moral standard to his earlier poems--and, some critics have charged, tried to rewrite his own history in the process--when he revised or discarded some of his most famous work, either in an effort to make it conform to his later standards of precision and clarity, or, more notoriously, to rid it of statements he had come to regard as hateful and false. All the collected and selected editions he prepared, and that are currently available on either side of the Atlantic [including the <I>Collected Poems</I>, edited by Mendelson himself], reflect his later judgements. Yet the claims of history, and of readers who want the discarded poems, are strong, and the present selection acknowledges them by reprinting the texts of the early editions and by including poems Auden rejected. A historical edition of this kind, reflecting the author's work as it first appeared in public rather than his final vision of it, should not be taken as implying that Auden's revisions or rejctions were in any way misguided; they were logical and consistent, and in almost every instance produced versions that were more coherent and complex than the originals. Probably the best way to get to know Auden's work is to read the early versions first for their greater immediate impact, and the revised versions afterwards for their greater subtlety and depth."Rosie Pererahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09554035581795923555noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22560219.post-1153693740887659242006-07-23T17:29:00.000-05:002006-07-23T17:29:00.000-05:00Wow, that's a funny idea: returning a poet to his ...Wow, that's a funny idea: returning a poet to his pre-edited state. That goes quite contrary to the concept that an artist's last version is his definitive, "authorial" one. It seems to be going back to a more primitive, the-first-impulse-is-the-best mindset, like Heminges & Condell's on a [non-existant] Shakespeare who never blotted the page nor crossed out a word.Sørina Higginshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10907200327850346539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22560219.post-1153687525352963402006-07-23T15:45:00.000-05:002006-07-23T15:45:00.000-05:00Ah, yes, I'd forgotten about the Great Dance in Pe...Ah, yes, I'd forgotten about the Great Dance in <I>Perelandra</I>. That is indeed perichoretic. I love that word, too. My login ID on half.com (now owned by eBay) is "perichoresis." :-)<BR/><BR/>I'm glad I inspired you to study Auden. I'd been wanting to for quite some time. My pastor in Seattle, Earl Palmer, often used to refer to Auden's great long Christmas oratorio poem, "For the Time Being." (I still have yet to read that; it's in his <I>Collected Poems</I>, though not <I>Selected Poems</I>. See below on the difference between these.)<BR/><BR/>Given what you're in the middle of now, you might want to check out Auden's other great long poem, "The Sea and the Mirror: A commentary on Shakespeare's <I>The Tempest</I>" (also in his <I>Selected Poems</I>).<BR/><BR/>A point to note: The <I>Collected Poems</I>, though it contains more poems, includes versions of some of Auden's pre-conversion poems which he edited after he became a Christian because he didn't like them anymore. <I>Selected Poems</I> returns them all to their original (and in Alan Jacobs' opinion, better) versions. One has to see how his thought developed to fully appreciate the poet, so I think it's a shame he wanted to mess around with what he'd written before he'd come to faith.<BR/><BR/>Incidentally, a couple of examples of Auden's pre-Christian love poems are "Lay your sleeping head my love" and "As I walked out one evening." The former absolutely glorifies the fleeting erotic moment. In the latter, Auden is already beginning to recognize that there is something he's being called to beyond that: "You shall love your crooked neighbour / With your crooked heart."<BR/><BR/>Another great post-conversion poem of his we read in class was "The Shield of Achilles" (in <I>Selected Poems</I>). Alan Jacobs thinks it is among the greatest poem of the 20th century.Rosie Pererahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09554035581795923555noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22560219.post-1153654913991418472006-07-23T06:41:00.000-05:002006-07-23T06:41:00.000-05:00Rosie, this is excellent. Thank you for your good ...Rosie, this is excellent. Thank you for your good close reading. It makes me want to study Auden -- which I never have. <BR/><BR/>I love that word "Perichoresis." The OED has "The interrelationship or interpenetration of the Persons of the Trinity; the manner in which the three Persons are regarded as conjoined or interlinked without each one's distinct identity being lost." Lovely. Like the dance at the end of <I>Perelandra</I>. <BR/><BR/>Thank you.Sørina Higginshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10907200327850346539noreply@blogger.com