Today is the birthday of English poet Robert Bridges (1844), talk show host Johnny Carson (1925), American writer Nick Tosches (1949), and novelist Laurie Halse Anderson (1961).
Auscultation!" Now there's a word we rarely see....about as often as that cold stethoscope is put on our chest and we're told to "take a deep breath...." Any poet whose poetry can make us shiver is often worth reading through their works. Rev. G. M. Hopkins S. J. is unique among them. His poems grab the reader and gets their full attention: Read this quote from "The Windhover;"
"I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird, – the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!"....and on it goes.
Words fly with the windhover and we're shakened to see it. Such are many of Hopkin's poems. Read carefully his dense yet jumping words that grab you.
Bridges parsed these Hopkins poems and helped loose them to many. He warned many of a new way to read a potent poem.
Even though Johnny Carson was born in Iowa, he spent most of his youth in Norfolk, Nebraska. The Carson house there has been turned into a monument. My brother lived in the same neighborhood and used to play with Johnny as a youth.
Auscultation!" Now there's a word we rarely see....about as often as that cold stethoscope is put on our chest and we're told to "take a deep breath...." Any poet whose poetry can make us shiver is often worth reading through their works. Rev. G. M. Hopkins S. J. is unique among them. His poems grab the reader and gets their full attention: Read this quote from "The Windhover;"
"I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird, – the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!"....and on it goes.
Words fly with the windhover and we're shakened to see it. Such are many of Hopkin's poems. Read carefully his dense yet jumping words that grab you.
Bridges parsed these Hopkins poems and helped loose them to many. He warned many of a new way to read a potent poem.
Thank you, Elmer! Hopkins and T. S. Eliot have remained among my favorites ever since my college English class many years ago. Best wishes, Tom
Even though Johnny Carson was born in Iowa, he spent most of his youth in Norfolk, Nebraska. The Carson house there has been turned into a monument. My brother lived in the same neighborhood and used to play with Johnny as a youth.