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The Rattle Bag: The N-O Poems

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realiz

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The Rattle Bag: The N-O Poems

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Are you going to start at this point or wait until you get a copy of the book? This looks very interesting. I found the first one on the list, so here it is if you want to start. I'll think I'll order a copy and try to follow along, though I'm away for the next ten days so I might miss the first few if you're moving along.

"The Names of the Hare," anonymous Middle English lyric
The Names of the Hare


Translation from the Middle English by Seamus Heaney

The man the hare has met
will never be the better of it
except he lay down on the land
what he carries in his hand—
be it staff or be it bow—
and bless him with his elbow
and come out with this litany
with devotion and sincerity
to speak the praises of the hare.
Then the man will better fare.

'The hare, call him scotart,
big-fellow, bouchart,
the O'Hare, the jumper,
the rascal, the racer.

Beat-the-pad, white-face,
funk-the-ditch, shit-ass.

The wimount, the messer,
the skidaddler, the nibbler,
the ill-met, the slabber.

The quick-scut, the dew-flirt,
the grass-biter, the goibert,
the home-late, the do-the-dirt.

The starer, the wood-cat,
the purblind, the furze cat,
the skulker, the bleary-eyed,
the wall-eyed, the glance-aside
and also the hedge-springer.

The stubble-stag, the long lugs,
the stook-deer, the frisky legs,
the wild one, the skipper,
the hug-the-ground, the lurker,
the race-the-wind, the skiver,
the shag-the-hare, the hedge-squatter,
the dew-hammer, the dew-hoppper,
the sit-tight, the grass-bounder,
the jig-foot, the earth-sitter,
the light-foot, the fern-sitter,
the kail-stag, the herb-cropper.

The creep-along, the sitter-still,
the pintail, the ring-the-hill,
the sudden start,
the shake-the-heart,
the belly-white,
the lambs-in-flight.

The gobshite, the gum-sucker,
the scare-the-man, the faith-breaker,
the snuff-the-ground, the baldy skull,
(his chief name is scoundrel.)

The stag sprouting a suede horn,
the creature living in the corn,
the creature bearing all men's scorn,
the creature no one dares to name.'

When you have got all this said
then the hare's strength has been laid.
Then you might go faring forth—
east and west and south and north,
wherever you incline to go—
but only if you're skilful too.
And now, Sir Hare, good-day to you.
God guide you to a how-d'ye-do
with me: come to me dead
in either onion broth or bread.


Source of the text - The Rattle Bag, edited by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes. London: Faber and Faber, 1982, pp. 305-306.
Posted by bourguignomicon at 7:58 AM
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DWill

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Re: The Rattle Bag: An Anthology of Poetry

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Wow, "The Names of the Hare" that realiz posted is a stunning poem, and shows the promise of this anthology. Somebody said that enjoying a catalog of items, as in the Iliad, is the mark of a poetic soul. I don't know if I have one, but I enjoyed all the amazingly inventive names of the hare. The litany seems to be an almost religious appreciation for the hare that will provide the man his meal.

Do Hughes and Heaney tell us on what basis they are selecting these poems? I like the idea of a personal selection by two guys who know poetry as well as anyone, vs. the Harmon approach that leaves the selection up to the faceless anthologizers of the past!

It would appear to be at least as eclectic a collection as The Top 500, judging just by the first two. I like a good old "memento mori" like Nashe's poem. Why do we no longer look at life and death that way? "After His Death" seems to be some paradoxical statement of how the villain became the hero of the new regime through decree. Very modern.
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The Rattle Bag: The N & O poems

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This is a bit out of order, but I am doing the best I can to catch by retro formating the treads for The Rattle Bag.

N-O

"The Names of the Hare," Anon
"Napoleon," Walter de la Mare
"'A narrow Fellow in the Grass,'" Emily Dickinson
"Nature's Lineaments," Robert Graves
"'nobody loses all the time,'" e. e. cummings
"The North Ship," Philip Larkin
"The Nose," Iain Crichton Smith
"'Now entertain conjecture of a time,'" William Shakespeare
"Nutting," William Wordsworth
"The Octopus," Ogden Nash
"Ode to a Nightingale," John Keats
"Of Poor B. B.," Bertolt Brecht
"The Old Familiar Faces," Charles Lamb
"'An old man stirs the fire to a blaze,'" W. B. Yeats
"Old Men," Ogden Nash
"Omens," Anon
"On a Tree Fallen Across the Road," Robert Frost
"On Buying a Horse," Anon
"On My First Sonne," Ben Jonson
"On the Beach at Fontana," James Joyce
"On the Cards and Dice," Sir Walter Ralegh
"On the Congo," Harry Edmund Martinson
"On Wenlock Edge," A. E. Housman
"'One Christmas-time,'" William Wordsworth
"'Our revels now are ended,'" William Shakespeare
"Out in the Dark," Edward Thomas
"'Out, Out—'" Robert Frost
"The Owl," Edward Thomas
"The Oxen," Thomas Hardy
"The Ox-Tamer," Walt Whitman
"Ozymandias," Percy Bysshe Shelley
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Re: The Rattle Bag: The N-O Poems

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Out in the Dark

Out in the dark over the snow
The fallow fawns invisible go
With the fallow doe;
And the winds blow
Fast as the stars are slow.

Stealthily the dark haunts round
And, when the lamp goes, without sound
At a swifter bound
Than the swiftest hound,
Arrives, and else is drowned;

And star and I and wind and deer
Are in the dark together, - near,
Yet far, and fear
Drums on my ear
In that sage company drear.

How weak and little in the light,
All the universe of sight,
Love and delight,
Before the might,
If you love it not, of night.

Edward Thomas
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Re: The Rattle Bag: The N-O Poems

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giselle wrote:
Out in the Dark

Edward Thomas
Well I'm not sure of what it means, but I love the feel of the poem.
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Re: The Rattle Bag: The N-O Poems

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Saffron: I think it was the 'feel' of "Out in the Dark" that attracted me as well, perhaps even the 'atmosphere'. I also like the rhyming pattern. I'm not clear on meaning either, but my basic interpretation is around fear of the invisible due in this case to darkness/night. The imagery of being out there with the deer, beautiful, peaceful, non-threatening animals, is contrasted with fearfulness of what cannot be seen. I think he adds an interesting thought in the last line "If you love it not, of night" that it's the person's feelings about the night that make the difference, not so much the night itself.
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Re: The Rattle Bag: The N-O Poems

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Glad to see The Rattle Bag going again. I like this one, too. Especially the line: And star and I and wind and deer. Nothing to fear but the dark.
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Re: The Rattle Bag: The N-O Poems

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I like the way it works when sometimes with a poem it's just one word that, once you understand it, helps unlock the poem. For me it was "else" in l. 10, which I realized was really to be read as all else.
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Re: The Rattle Bag: The N-O Poems

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realiz wrote:Glad to see The Rattle Bag going again. I like this one, too. Especially the line: And star and I and wind and deer. Nothing to fear but the dark.
It maybe the time of year that brings us all back. I always feel more introspective in the dark part of the year.
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Re: The Rattle Bag: The N-O Poems

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DWill wrote:I like the way it works when sometimes with a poem it's just one word that, once you understand it, helps unlock the poem. For me it was "else" in l. 10, which I realized was really to be read as all else.
Good catch, DWill. That little 3 letter word really clarifies the meaning. In a poem of 20 short lines every word makes a difference, a shift of meaning and of feeling. When I first read the poem I thought the line "sage company drear" referred to the deer (since they are tangible company) but on rereading I think it refers to the night/dark (perhaps this is obvious to everyone else!) but certainly the poem makes more sense that way.

As to the poems conclusion, I think if one lives at the earth's farther latitudes, its best to love the night. Here's the corrected text:

Out in the Dark

Out in the dark over the snow
The fallow fawns invisible go
With the fallow doe;
And the winds blow
Fast as the stars are slow.

Stealthily the dark haunts round
And, when the lamp goes, without sound
At a swifter bound
Than the swiftest hound,
Arrives, and all else is drowned;

And star and I and wind and deer
Are in the dark together, - near,
Yet far, and fear
Drums on my ear
In that sage company drear.

How weak and little in the light,
All the universe of sight,
Love and delight,
Before the might,
If you love it not, of night.

Edward Thomas
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