Welcome to another edition of My Bootlegged Book Club!! It's been a hoot dang (?) long time, I know, I know. But here I am, bootleggedly posting an excerpt from "The Constant Symbol", an essay written by the dear poet Mr. Robert Frost in July 1946, almost 67 years ago. In it, he addresses the form and function of the poem; the nature of its content once it is released into the public domain. The jab-and-dive living nature of poetry that speaks without saying, nods without claiming...
"There are many things I have found myself saying about poetry, but the chiefest of these is that it is metaphor, saying one thing and meaning another, saying one thing in terms of another, the pleasure of ulteriority. Poetry is simply made of metaphor. So also is philosophy--and science, too, for that matter, if it will take the soft impeachment from a friend. Every poem is a new metaphor inside or it is nothing. And there is a sense in which all poems are the same old metaphor always.
We may speak after sentence, resenting the judgement. How can the world know anything so intimate as what we were intending to do? The answer is the world presumes to know. The ruling passion in man is not as Viennese as is claimed. It is rather a gregarious instinct to keep together by minding each other's business... We must be preserved from becoming egregious. The beauty of socialism is that it will end the individuality that is always crying out mind your own business. Terence's answer would be all human business is my business. No more invisible means of support, no more invisible motives, no more invisible anything. The ultimate commitment is giving in to it that an outsider may see what we were up to sooner and better than we ourselves. The bard has said it in effect, Unto these forms did I commend the spirit. It may take him a year after the act to confess he only betrayed the spirit with a rhymster's cleverness and to forgive his enemies the critics for not having listened to his oaths and protestations to the contrary. Had he anything to be true to? Was he true to it? Did he use good words? You couldn't tell unless you made out what idea they were supposed to be good for. Every poem is an epitome of the great predicament; a figure of the will braving alien entanglements."
P.S. if you understood his references without having to wiki them then you may have been an English major; and even if you were, but most especially if you weren't, I tip my hat to you, you cultured beaut.
"A poem is never a put-up job.... It begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a loneliness. It is never a thought to begin with. It is at its best when it is a tantalizing vagueness."
"There are many things I have found myself saying about poetry, but the chiefest of these is that it is metaphor, saying one thing and meaning another, saying one thing in terms of another, the pleasure of ulteriority. Poetry is simply made of metaphor. So also is philosophy--and science, too, for that matter, if it will take the soft impeachment from a friend. Every poem is a new metaphor inside or it is nothing. And there is a sense in which all poems are the same old metaphor always.
Every single poem written regular is a symbol
small or great of the way the will has to pitch into commitments deeper
and deeper to a rounded conclusion and then be judged for whether any
original intention it had has been strongly spent or weakly lost; be it
in art, politics, school, church, business, love, or marriage--in a
piece of work or in a career. Strongly spent is synonymous with kept.
We may speak after sentence, resenting the judgement. How can the world know anything so intimate as what we were intending to do? The answer is the world presumes to know. The ruling passion in man is not as Viennese as is claimed. It is rather a gregarious instinct to keep together by minding each other's business... We must be preserved from becoming egregious. The beauty of socialism is that it will end the individuality that is always crying out mind your own business. Terence's answer would be all human business is my business. No more invisible means of support, no more invisible motives, no more invisible anything. The ultimate commitment is giving in to it that an outsider may see what we were up to sooner and better than we ourselves. The bard has said it in effect, Unto these forms did I commend the spirit. It may take him a year after the act to confess he only betrayed the spirit with a rhymster's cleverness and to forgive his enemies the critics for not having listened to his oaths and protestations to the contrary. Had he anything to be true to? Was he true to it? Did he use good words? You couldn't tell unless you made out what idea they were supposed to be good for. Every poem is an epitome of the great predicament; a figure of the will braving alien entanglements."
P.S. if you understood his references without having to wiki them then you may have been an English major; and even if you were, but most especially if you weren't, I tip my hat to you, you cultured beaut.
"A poem is never a put-up job.... It begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a loneliness. It is never a thought to begin with. It is at its best when it is a tantalizing vagueness."
we're neck and neck,
us and them
the separation of truth and a deadly grip
the blindfold can't win
these are the times
when decisions are set
these are the days
when revelations come a tweet too late
brutality exposed
savage hearts lost in false stories
behold
these are the hands over hands
ripping out the plague
balancing on the razor's edge
the warriors walk into the darkness
not knowing which poisoned branch to cut first
time taken from planting what's good
now spent on pulling the dead wood
weeds of the dumbed-down
polluting the uprising
but together the lights strive,
keep the love shining
go 'head get angry
they can't stop us now
they can't stop up now
go 'head try to scare
they can't stop us now
they won't stop the stare down
gets to a point where you can't keep waiting,
letting time tell you what to do
killing time on pleasing just you
gets to a moment
the now where you're living,
when everything you ever wanted to do
is waiting on you to live it through
live it through
'cause they can't stop us now
they won't keep us in the know
when the truth is shining in the silence
live it through
protected by the sincere souls
living it through
they never could
they can't stop the truth
they never could
watch out for the trick,
the turnin' back of time
future truths still cloaked in black
see history as already done
give up the victory
and surrender
to your heart
to the highest
singles waking
one by one
they can't stop us now
go on live it through
there's a band of believers
find em and align your heart too
and shout it out, me and you
they want us to live apart
and think like drones
but we're gonna stand together
and think of One
* one love, one heart, carry each other *
they can't stop us now
they can't stop us
oooooooohhh
they can't stop this
nooooo-ooohhh
can't slow it down
us and them
the separation of truth and a deadly grip
the blindfold can't win
these are the times
when decisions are set
these are the days
when revelations come a tweet too late
brutality exposed
savage hearts lost in false stories
behold
these are the hands over hands
ripping out the plague
balancing on the razor's edge
the warriors walk into the darkness
not knowing which poisoned branch to cut first
time taken from planting what's good
now spent on pulling the dead wood
weeds of the dumbed-down
polluting the uprising
but together the lights strive,
keep the love shining
go 'head get angry
they can't stop us now
they can't stop up now
go 'head try to scare
they can't stop us now
they won't stop the stare down
gets to a point where you can't keep waiting,
letting time tell you what to do
killing time on pleasing just you
gets to a moment
the now where you're living,
when everything you ever wanted to do
is waiting on you to live it through
live it through
'cause they can't stop us now
they won't keep us in the know
when the truth is shining in the silence
live it through
protected by the sincere souls
living it through
they never could
they can't stop the truth
they never could
watch out for the trick,
the turnin' back of time
future truths still cloaked in black
see history as already done
give up the victory
and surrender
to your heart
to the highest
singles waking
one by one
they can't stop us now
go on live it through
there's a band of believers
find em and align your heart too
and shout it out, me and you
they want us to live apart
and think like drones
but we're gonna stand together
and think of One
* one love, one heart, carry each other *
they can't stop us now
they can't stop us
oooooooohhh
they can't stop this
nooooo-ooohhh
can't slow it down
