<OT> Marvell & MacLeish
I can see why that's your favorite poem, Blue...There is something wonderfully mysterious & nostalgic about it. I have read it before, but never so carefully as just now. I know Marvell was a favorite of MacLeish's, but the poem clearly just uses Marvell as a point of departure for further places unknown...
Interesting, though, what particular poems (if any) inspired this one? Perhaps To His Coy Mistress, with its references to the Ganges, the Humber, Empires, aeons of time? Perhaps also Bermudas? Perhaps even this stanza in The Garden?
Meanwhile the Mind, from pleasures less,
Withdraws into its happiness;
The Mind, that Ocean where each kind
Does straight its own resemblance find;
Yet it creates, transcending these,
Far other Worlds, and other Seas;
Annilhilating all that's made
To a green Thought in a green Shade.
Rhythmically, too, the MacLeish is reminiscent of Marvell, and some of the vocabulary and phrasing as well. Yet it is unique, and I appreciate your getting me to pay real attention to it.
It's always a pleasure to share poetry with someone who appreciates it. I don't have that many opportunities to do so these days.
Good night.
Joan |
