Thank you Greg. A long time since I read those poems. The excerpts encourage me to re-read. As for the mention of current day "tyrants," I knew that road was not leading us to Rome or Xanadu. It was of course leading us to current day NYC, Moscow, Mar A Lago & indirectly to Tallahassee; where another wannabe despot lies in wait for his opportunity. May he too end up as failed, miserable & unhappy as the rest.....ROSEBUD..
Thanks, Bonnie. The Tallahassee Tyrant has not not, I think, enjoyed much happiness in his sad life. His self-loathing is written all over his dumb face.
Tallahassee Tyrant, Mar-A-Lago Mobster(linked to Moscow). I didn’t think anyone could get as physically loathsome as chump, but the Tallahassee Tyrant is getting close. In fact, repubs have more than a few whose visage makes my skin crawl (Stone, Cruz, Hawley, Gingrich, McCarthy - both, Reagan, Rove, W, McConnell, Green, Murdoch, Kochs, Delay, Hastert, Chavitz, Abbott, Patrick, Paxton, I could go on, and on, and on. Dems could add a few to the list.
Greg as many of your readers have noted your writings are teaching us about history that we didn’t know or only had a tiny understanding of. Today is another example! Sans-culottes is a phrase I didn’t understand. I looked it up. Culottes were short pants that the upper class wore, pheasants wore long pants. Did you know the pheasants who wanted a more democratic government also donned red caps?? They were called liberty caps! DFG steals from history again! Lol really enjoyed today’s lesson. PS must listen to side B of Abbey Road!
Thanks, Christine. I'd forgotten why exactly they were called that and had to look it up myself. The full trousers of the peasantry are still worn today; not so much the knee britches of the elite. Trump steals and perverts, steals and perverts...
I love this so much! I've read Kubla Khan countless times, but you offered insights that I had never recognized. If you like biography (of Coleridge and Shelley) and such I would recommend Richard Holmes. And especially his shorter book Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer. Thanks so a bunch for your work! Have a peaceful week.
Thanks, McLain! There is a well known biography of Coleridge, I think by Ellison, and I had a lovely hardbound copy I scored years ago at some book event. I finally gave it away when I realized I would never, ever be able to read it. I'd much rather read about the biographer!
A great reading of lively poetic masterpiece, Greg, that sets an alert reader's imagination soaring far into his of her own space, fueled by Coleridge's rich language and versifying power. In your reading you give it timely relevance--which is what good critics do. I enjoyed what you've written, and with such spirit.
Now that I've read your commentary, It almost strikes me that we needed the likes of Donald Trump blighting our existence to make the poem relevant. I enjoy your Sunday entries. Solid literary discussions are all to infrequent these days.
In a week filled with small photos and a ton of adversarial words, virtually all full of shit in a tidal wave of redundancy, this is by far the best thing I have read. Thanks. Saving insight and rationality requires using insight, knowledge and rationality.
And as for culottes, they were the bane of my later teenage years. I was trying to do some conquering of my own.
Sunday Pages has fanned a small spark of passion for literature in this octogenarian that I wasn’t sure was ever there. Between my Bible thumping parents and mediocre teachers, without exception, I thought for decades that literature was boring. (Or maybe my Bible thumping parents created an environment in which it was impossible to appreciate what the teachers were trying to offer.) I haven’t yet got my butt to the library to look for Byron, Shelley or Coleridge, and I don’t think I could still appreciate them on my own. But I look forward eagerly to these Sunday Pages and savor every word you have to say about the pieces you quote. My world is expanding, one tiny glimpse at a time!
One of many great things about poetry is that it's short. You can read it, a few times, in one sitting. Perfect for today's low-attention-span age. (I'm the one with attention span problems, btw).
Oh my, Greg, you always manage to get me! I sometimes will read a Sunday-post headline and think, "I'm not going to be interested in that," and then I read, and it draws me in every time! Now, Kubla Khan, which I managed to get through all of my eclectic schooling and have never read. Interesting, and yes, trippy!
Tidbit from Wiki: "The historical French term "sans-culottes" which was once the rejection of aristocrats' breeches, is now used colloquially to mean the same as an English colloquialism "going commando" or not wearing under-pants." How we just move language around, willy-nilly.
Finally, there must be some sort of personality profile that can be gleaned from the question: When I say "Xanadu," what's the first thought you have? I'm not sure what it would measure, but put me down for Olivia Newton-John, OF COURSE! LOL
You still working at getting it, though, or you wouldn't be here...that's good.
I was not very good at seeing the depth of many poems, but my background was rather shallow for any really good interpretation. It got better with education but never to Greg's level. But, I enjoyed writing poetry; it was very much an emotional exercise when I was young. Later on I liked writing lyrics much more.
I hope I have not probed too much. But this reminded of something I haven't thought about since it happened...although I do have full notes from this conversation. Raybe it is relevant.
I met a man about 20 years ago, someone I saw around this small town. Big cowboy type of person, long and lean, somewhat weather beaten. I knew who he was by name, he knew who I was, too. Sitting on a bench down on Main Street, out of the blue, he started telling me a story of his life, of how he grew up in the '30s and was this big guy in a one room school who never really understood much of what they were teaching. When he was old enough, he quit and went to work.
When WWII came, he enlisted and wound up in Europe, fighting from the very start. His unit was eventually given a break, and he went to the rear areas with them. But just as he never fit in to school, he didn't socialize well with his fellow soldiers, just always out of place.
So, one day he started walking to the front...and he spent the rest of the war there, going from unit to unit but always near the front. He wasn't a killer like the Peter Faulk character in the movie Anzio (based on a real person btw). He just found something he liked, felt useful all the time, and risked his life for his country to do what he wanted and what he did best.
He was in his 70s when we had this conversation, and what he liked best was riding his horse on the open range. He was a man of simple expression and simple needs, he had a good memory and nice narrative ability and took the world as it was. I'm glad there is room in this world for that.
Bill. Thanks for sharing. I attended a one room school house. It also had a horse barn and TWO outhouses. Today it exists as a community center with one outhouse and no horse barn.
Your story reminds me of Jack Burns in Edward Abbey's novel, The Brave Cowboy.
At 83 i still cant diagram a sentence but I do recognize most verbs.
As for Algebra, today Elon Musk is naming his kids after mathematical formulas and calls twitter, X.......
Diagram a sentence is the one thing I can still do. Ha
Elon Musk is good evidence that intelligence is often wasted, and worse than that, used for the most “look at me” purposes. What an arse, that’s what “look at me” gets you.
Greg, as always, a magical mystery tour de force through words of yesteryear that resonate today. Tyrants, wannabe or actual, never seem to grasp, in the long sweep of history only time, at the level of us mere mortals, is permanent, Einstein notwithstanding. Many tyrant’s names are well-known. Yet there’s a panoply of ones who aren’t; those of vanished kingdoms, which happened to be the title of a book by Norman Davies. It’s definitely a slog, but if I were teaching Tyrant 101 it would be on the required reading list. The ending of the movie “Barry Lyndon” had it exactly right: “It was in the reign of George III that the aforesaid personages lived and quarreled; good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor; they are all equal now.”
Fast thick pants sounds like something you'd wear in wintertime, also.
...or Trump would wear at the golf course...
Diapers do take up space after all.
Thank you Greg. A long time since I read those poems. The excerpts encourage me to re-read. As for the mention of current day "tyrants," I knew that road was not leading us to Rome or Xanadu. It was of course leading us to current day NYC, Moscow, Mar A Lago & indirectly to Tallahassee; where another wannabe despot lies in wait for his opportunity. May he too end up as failed, miserable & unhappy as the rest.....ROSEBUD..
Thanks, Bonnie. The Tallahassee Tyrant has not not, I think, enjoyed much happiness in his sad life. His self-loathing is written all over his dumb face.
Tallahassee Tyrant, Mar-A-Lago Mobster(linked to Moscow). I didn’t think anyone could get as physically loathsome as chump, but the Tallahassee Tyrant is getting close. In fact, repubs have more than a few whose visage makes my skin crawl (Stone, Cruz, Hawley, Gingrich, McCarthy - both, Reagan, Rove, W, McConnell, Green, Murdoch, Kochs, Delay, Hastert, Chavitz, Abbott, Patrick, Paxton, I could go on, and on, and on. Dems could add a few to the list.
Ahhhhh, Xanadu. Magic. Thank you, Greg.
Thanks!
Greg as many of your readers have noted your writings are teaching us about history that we didn’t know or only had a tiny understanding of. Today is another example! Sans-culottes is a phrase I didn’t understand. I looked it up. Culottes were short pants that the upper class wore, pheasants wore long pants. Did you know the pheasants who wanted a more democratic government also donned red caps?? They were called liberty caps! DFG steals from history again! Lol really enjoyed today’s lesson. PS must listen to side B of Abbey Road!
Thanks, Christine. I'd forgotten why exactly they were called that and had to look it up myself. The full trousers of the peasantry are still worn today; not so much the knee britches of the elite. Trump steals and perverts, steals and perverts...
OMG, you are so good. (!)
Loved your fresh and current interpretation of this one.
Thanks, SIlvia!
Your Sunday columns are often the highlight of my day.
Thanks, Mary. Same here! : )
I love this so much! I've read Kubla Khan countless times, but you offered insights that I had never recognized. If you like biography (of Coleridge and Shelley) and such I would recommend Richard Holmes. And especially his shorter book Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer. Thanks so a bunch for your work! Have a peaceful week.
Thanks, McLain! There is a well known biography of Coleridge, I think by Ellison, and I had a lovely hardbound copy I scored years ago at some book event. I finally gave it away when I realized I would never, ever be able to read it. I'd much rather read about the biographer!
Peaceful, yes, please, and to you too!
Amazing Sunday morning post Greg! You’ve left me once again with a smile on my face and numerous questions, thanks, Sla’inte!!
Thanks, Patrick!
No culottes just long pants for this uneducated peasant. Thanks Greg but like Algebra. I dont get it.
I'm just a curious cat, cal. What is it do you not get? About algebra or Greg's piece? Or both?
1/2 = x/10
Or something...
Really!
A great reading of lively poetic masterpiece, Greg, that sets an alert reader's imagination soaring far into his of her own space, fueled by Coleridge's rich language and versifying power. In your reading you give it timely relevance--which is what good critics do. I enjoyed what you've written, and with such spirit.
Thanks, Paul. I like the poem, mostly because the end moves me and I don't really know why. I can guess at why, but I don't know.
Now that I've read your commentary, It almost strikes me that we needed the likes of Donald Trump blighting our existence to make the poem relevant. I enjoy your Sunday entries. Solid literary discussions are all to infrequent these days.
In a week filled with small photos and a ton of adversarial words, virtually all full of shit in a tidal wave of redundancy, this is by far the best thing I have read. Thanks. Saving insight and rationality requires using insight, knowledge and rationality.
And as for culottes, they were the bane of my later teenage years. I was trying to do some conquering of my own.
Thanks so much, Billy. I take that as a high compliment.
No culottes; Bermuda shorts.
“...a tidal wave of redundancy.” You can say that again.
Sunday Pages has fanned a small spark of passion for literature in this octogenarian that I wasn’t sure was ever there. Between my Bible thumping parents and mediocre teachers, without exception, I thought for decades that literature was boring. (Or maybe my Bible thumping parents created an environment in which it was impossible to appreciate what the teachers were trying to offer.) I haven’t yet got my butt to the library to look for Byron, Shelley or Coleridge, and I don’t think I could still appreciate them on my own. But I look forward eagerly to these Sunday Pages and savor every word you have to say about the pieces you quote. My world is expanding, one tiny glimpse at a time!
Thanks so much, Earl. I'm glad to hear that.
One of many great things about poetry is that it's short. You can read it, a few times, in one sitting. Perfect for today's low-attention-span age. (I'm the one with attention span problems, btw).
Oh my, Greg, you always manage to get me! I sometimes will read a Sunday-post headline and think, "I'm not going to be interested in that," and then I read, and it draws me in every time! Now, Kubla Khan, which I managed to get through all of my eclectic schooling and have never read. Interesting, and yes, trippy!
Tidbit from Wiki: "The historical French term "sans-culottes" which was once the rejection of aristocrats' breeches, is now used colloquially to mean the same as an English colloquialism "going commando" or not wearing under-pants." How we just move language around, willy-nilly.
Finally, there must be some sort of personality profile that can be gleaned from the question: When I say "Xanadu," what's the first thought you have? I'm not sure what it would measure, but put me down for Olivia Newton-John, OF COURSE! LOL
A great week to all!
Thanks, Steve. I appreciate that! And as you know, always appreciate your thoughtful comments.
Yes! I should do a poll! Good idea!
(I did not see that movie until my wife made me watch it during quarantine.)
Failed algebra twice.
Not very good at figuring out poems
You still working at getting it, though, or you wouldn't be here...that's good.
I was not very good at seeing the depth of many poems, but my background was rather shallow for any really good interpretation. It got better with education but never to Greg's level. But, I enjoyed writing poetry; it was very much an emotional exercise when I was young. Later on I liked writing lyrics much more.
I hope I have not probed too much. But this reminded of something I haven't thought about since it happened...although I do have full notes from this conversation. Raybe it is relevant.
I met a man about 20 years ago, someone I saw around this small town. Big cowboy type of person, long and lean, somewhat weather beaten. I knew who he was by name, he knew who I was, too. Sitting on a bench down on Main Street, out of the blue, he started telling me a story of his life, of how he grew up in the '30s and was this big guy in a one room school who never really understood much of what they were teaching. When he was old enough, he quit and went to work.
When WWII came, he enlisted and wound up in Europe, fighting from the very start. His unit was eventually given a break, and he went to the rear areas with them. But just as he never fit in to school, he didn't socialize well with his fellow soldiers, just always out of place.
So, one day he started walking to the front...and he spent the rest of the war there, going from unit to unit but always near the front. He wasn't a killer like the Peter Faulk character in the movie Anzio (based on a real person btw). He just found something he liked, felt useful all the time, and risked his life for his country to do what he wanted and what he did best.
He was in his 70s when we had this conversation, and what he liked best was riding his horse on the open range. He was a man of simple expression and simple needs, he had a good memory and nice narrative ability and took the world as it was. I'm glad there is room in this world for that.
Thanks for sharing that, Billy. Lovely.
Bill. Thanks for sharing. I attended a one room school house. It also had a horse barn and TWO outhouses. Today it exists as a community center with one outhouse and no horse barn.
Your story reminds me of Jack Burns in Edward Abbey's novel, The Brave Cowboy.
At 83 i still cant diagram a sentence but I do recognize most verbs.
As for Algebra, today Elon Musk is naming his kids after mathematical formulas and calls twitter, X.......
Diagram a sentence is the one thing I can still do. Ha
Elon Musk is good evidence that intelligence is often wasted, and worse than that, used for the most “look at me” purposes. What an arse, that’s what “look at me” gets you.
Takes your mind off of the shooting deaths og Black people, shopping on a Saturday, in Jacksonville. Florida, for a minute. Thanks.
What happens beyond the dome...
Greg, as always, a magical mystery tour de force through words of yesteryear that resonate today. Tyrants, wannabe or actual, never seem to grasp, in the long sweep of history only time, at the level of us mere mortals, is permanent, Einstein notwithstanding. Many tyrant’s names are well-known. Yet there’s a panoply of ones who aren’t; those of vanished kingdoms, which happened to be the title of a book by Norman Davies. It’s definitely a slog, but if I were teaching Tyrant 101 it would be on the required reading list. The ending of the movie “Barry Lyndon” had it exactly right: “It was in the reign of George III that the aforesaid personages lived and quarreled; good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor; they are all equal now.”
Perfect quote, Doc John. Thank you!
As James Joyce said “They lived and laughed and loved and left.” I would add that they howled into the void