oblivion wrote:Sigh, whimper: I just ordered the book but will have to wait one to three weeks for it to arrive. Can we wait that long?

Yes, that actually works well for me. I will be away hiking for 2 weeks in May. We can aim to start reading/discussing the end of May.

Okay, it looks like two of us will be reading this book. If anyone would like to join in, we will begin discussing at the end of May.

Saffron wrote: Yes, that actually works well for me. I will be away hiking for 2 weeks in May. We can aim to start reading/discussing the end of May.

That sounds fine, Saffron.

Count me in.
It will be good to discuss a book on BookTalk! And besides, I stopped reading 20th century poets at Frost so I have lots to learn.

There seem to be different views about writers talking about writing. Some wish to just see the writing itself. But I find this inside look to be fascinating, delivering vicarious pleasure. It seems relatively easy for writers to describe, and even show, how they put a piece together, and poets can most conveniently show this since their works are short.

This is a little short of a commitment to read the book with you. It's a world-enough-and-time issue and a little bit with the money. The book does sound really good, though.

And by the way, Saffron mentioned to me that around our local area, April 30 will be "Poem in Your Pocket Day," marking the end of National Poetry Month. I'll tell you which one I'll carry. It's one I once had memorized, and maybe I'll brush it up. It's an early Yeats, who I like probably a little better than the later Yeats. "The Two Trees" consists of two, 20-line stanzas, each having almost the same structure. It's from his Pre-Raphaelite phase, has a faux-Medieval quality to it. It's good for oral reading and extremely visual, too.


THE TWO TREES

by: William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

BELOVED, gaze in thine own heart,
The holy tree is growing there;
From joy the holy branches start,
And all the trembling flowers they bear.
The changing colours of its fruit
Have dowered the stars with merry light;
The surety of its hidden root
Has planted quiet in the night;
The shaking of its leafy head
Has given the waves their melody,
And made my lips and music wed,
Murmuring a wizard song for thee.
There the Loves a circle go,
The flaming circle of our days,
Gyring, spiring to and fro
In those great ignorant leafy ways;
Remembering all that shaken hair
And how the wingèd sandals dart,
Thine eyes grow full of tender care:
Beloved, gaze in thine own heart.

Gaze no more in the bitter glass
The demons, with their subtle guile,
Lift up before us when they pass,
Or only gaze a little while;
For there a fatal image grows
That the stormy night receives,
Roots half hidden under snows,
Broken boughs and blackened leaves.
For all things turn to barrenness
In the dim glass the demons hold,
The glass of outer weariness,
Made when God slept in times of old.
There, through the broken branches, go
The ravens of unresting thought;
Flying, crying, to and fro,
Cruel claw and hungry throat,
Or else they stand and sniff the wind,
And shake their ragged wings; alas!
Thy tender eyes grow all unkind:
Gaze no more in the bitter glass.

"The Two Trees" is reprinted from The Rose. W.B. Yeats. 1893.

GaryG48 wrote:Count me in.
It will be good to discuss a book on BookTalk! And besides, I stopped reading 20th century poets at Frost so I have lots to learn.

Poetry in Person arrived three days ago. I have read the intro and the first three interviews with poets.
I am reading very slowly so stuff sinks in.
This is a really good way to meet poets for the first time. Of the 23 poets interviewed, I have only heard of two. That does not mean they are obscure, just I am deficient. I am anticipating a good discussion beginning the end of May.

Gary and anyone else interested: I need to get a copy of Poetry in Person and then I will set up a thread for us. Hopefully, I will pick up the book today.

I began reading it today, Saffron. I'm ready.

Great,

I have a ton of notes that are really just half-formed ideas (well, okay, half-baked ideas ) and am excited about starting this discussion.

Do you think we can begin a discussion the beginning of next week and get it up and going?
Also, I just finished a magnificent book, "The Quickening Maze" by Adam Foulds. Beautiful, poetic, and literally haunting. The blurb on the back cover reads: "Epping Forest, 1840. Struggling with alcohol, critical neglect and his powerful imagintion, the poet John Clare is incarcerated in High Beach Asylum. At the same time, the young Alfred Tennyson moves nearby and becomes entangled in the ill-fated schemes of the charismatic asylum owner, Dr. Matthew Allen. Beyond the walls lies nature, Clara's paradise. For him, a locked door is a kind of death and Clare longs for home, redemption and escape. Based on real events, brilliantly re-imagined, the closed world of High Beach and Clare's vertiginous fall into madness are brought vividly to life." The book was (rightly so, in my opinion) shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2009.