The three poems by dead poets I have chosen to read for last night’s Dead Poets Society challenge by kim881 in Poetics, Uncategorized over at the dVerse Poets Pub are all from poets I studied at school and have continued to love all my life – great teachers have a lot to answer for…
Andrew Marvell’s ‘To His Coy Mistress‘ is surely one of the most famous poems of attempted seduction ever written. I live within a day-out’s journey from Marvell’s birthplace, Hull where the muddy tide of Humber is about as wide as the Ganges and I wonder whether sailor’s tales informed Marvell’s poem. The last time I visited Hull, I met two young lovers sitting on the plinth of Andrew Marvell’s lifesize statue and acquainted them with the poem…
WB Yeats was also a favourite at school and later, when I moved to Sligo in the west of Ireland and Yeats’ home town, I was commissioned to paint a mural of the poet and his work and you can see a much younger me from 1995 being interviewed on television whilst up a ladder painting the mural. Searching for a poem suitable for this challenge, I came across The Mask, an unusual (for Yeats) Question and Response format with an ABABA rhyme scheme
Lastly, I chose ‘A Grin‘ from Ted Hughes’ wonderful collection of poems ‘Crow’ although this is not one of the poems referencing the scurrilous Crow. If I had to keep one volume of poetry it would be this…
Having read these three dead poets, I’m afraid I could not write a poem based on just one of them and so my offering below channels all three, Yeats for the form, Ted Hughes for the title and theme and Marvell for the intimations of mortality and perhaps the poetic shot at immortality…
A Grin
‘Centre stage on the birthing bed
Did you grin for your role through the pain?’
‘I thought how easily I could end up dead
And grinned to think you’d never touch me again
Don’t fucking touch me! I shouted!
‘Did you grin at the banality of death by car crash
You who imagined yourself great and with longevity?’
‘I thought of my wife who always thought me rash
And my secretary always seasoning work with levity
Urging me to slow down – but I had to dash…’
‘I watched your grin, my eyes open, yours closed
And wondered, coming together, if we really were?’
‘You were so deep the thought never arose
That we were two, a separate him and her
I never thought at all as into me you flowed…’
‘Whatever before death caused your rictus grin
Will be replaced in time by the skull’s secret smile’
‘What tales within my skull locked in
Now deliquescing, bodily integrity defiled
In the game of Life, none of us can win.’
‘Your poetic attempt at seduction
Already lived three hundred and fifty years
Is poetry the way – immortality to win?’
‘I never won that girl nor any like her
But it makes me grin – the onward admiration…’
© Andrew Wilson, 2023
P.S. I realise now that we were supposed to write based on one of Kim’s chosen three poems but when I saw the challenge last night, my Covid head was stuffed with cotton wool and it is only this morning that I was feeling better sufficiently to write something and by then, the idea that we choose our own three poems had settled in… Sorry Kim! And so below is a response to one of your poem choices Dylan Thomas’ ‘Once It Was the Colour of Saying’.
Once It Was the Colour of Saying
Once a year at least, I listen to
Under Milkwood by Dylan Thomas
and steep myself in the poetry of his play
the play of his poetry
as he carries us around the small Welsh town
of his imagination
borne into the night
and through the waking day
revisiting the cast of characters
until we love their foibled ways and wish
like the Reverend Eli Jenkins
in his poem within a poem
“To stroll among our trees and stray
In Goosegog Lane, on Donkey Down,
And hear the Dewi sing all day,
And never, never leave the town.”
© Andrew Wilson, 2023
I also approached the prompt that way, only to be reminded by Kim that she needed us to read the poems given and respond.
Nice reply to Dylan Thomas
Much💛love
Yes indeed it wasn’t quite clear but c’est la vie – we each got two poems out of it!
Your poem brought back lovely memories of the first time I saw Under Milkwood performed live at The Mermaid Theatre in London, with the actors sitting on high stools and scenery projected onto a screen behind them. One of the actors was the late Richard Davies, who played one of the teachers in Please Sir all those years ago, and also played Mr Pritchard in the Burton/Taylor version of UMW. I agree about the ‘the poetry of his play / the play of his poetry’.
Thank you Kim – I only know the Burton recording and I if I read the script now – I hear that in my head…
Well written Frewin, I enjoyed it!
Thanks Rob – it was fun too…
Andrew ~ this is poetic genius. I am floored.
BTW, I almost made that very same mistake ~ at first, I thought we were supposed to pick 3 poems of our own, but then I realized that the prompt offered us 3 poets/ poems itself!
Anyway ~ glorious verses, Andrew! I love both your poems 🙂
~David
Don’t be giving me a swelled head now David – you’re very kind
Much love Andrew
This is absolutely swoon-worthy! You rocked the prompt! ❤️❤️
I take no higher aim in the life poetic, than to make you swoon Sanaa… Thank you 💘
Andrew, this is outstanding work!! Both your poems are absolutely marvellous. It was such a pleasure reading not only one, but two incredible poems.
Hope, you feel better soon – Covid-wise… but I have to say, to write such a poem when you do not feel good at all – I cannot even imagine how one can do that! Masterful poetry.
Thank you so much Miriam – were you familiar with the Ted Hughes poem?
No, I wasn’t. I read it though, after your beautiful response poem. 🙂
I for one is glad you misunderstood the prompt. Otherwise we would not have been given the gift of A grin. Superbly penned. So much so I’m hard pressed to choose just one favourite line, but in the end “tales within my skull locked in” spoke loudest to me.
I would never have dared to channel aspects of three such great poets if I hadn’t been empowered by the challenge even if it was a mistake – thank you for visiting…
Both poems made me grin, Andrew, grin with delight at how marvelously you evoked the poets you embodied with such panache.
From someone whose bedtime reading is Dante – that is high praise Dora – thank you…
Two poems to delight in, loved them both Andrew. There’s something about the way you carried me around a response via Milkwood.
I did my annual listen following this and honestly, I am amazed that Dylan left any words for the rest of us poets to use – to say it is a radio play but really it is like a poetic saga…
Thanks for visiting Paul!
well done, Andrew on both poems.
Thank you Sara…