Comments for of mere being http://ofmerebeing.com ...fire-fangled feathers dangle down... Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:41:52 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ Comment on The Poem by Wallace Stevens by What We Talk About When We Talk About God (a.k.a., Gary Hall Weekend) » Lane Hensley http://ofmerebeing.com/the-poem/#comment-4023 Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:41:52 +0000 http://ofmerebeing.wordpress.com/the-poem/#comment-4023 [...] Places” by Robert Frost; “Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour” and “Of Mere Being” by Wallace Stevens; “Filling Station” by Elizabeth Bishop; and “A Journal [...]

]]> Comment on The Poem by Wallace Stevens by Ken http://ofmerebeing.com/the-poem/#comment-3900 Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:56:55 +0000 http://ofmerebeing.wordpress.com/the-poem/#comment-3900 To those comments and commentators above on lines 7 and 8:

I enjoyed your thoughts! I have evolved toward a somewhat different reading of those lines, one that changes the interpretation of the entire poem:

“You know then that it is not The Reason
That makes us happy or unhappy….”

The poem is no longer about “it” or the bird’s state of being. We hear and see “it’s” aesthetic, but the poem has us abandon thought or reasoning to get there. It’s not about the unknown state inside a fantasy bird. It’s a thinking person’s experience of true beauty that, then, is mere being.

]]> Comment on The Poem by Wallace Stevens by will http://ofmerebeing.com/the-poem/#comment-3686 Mon, 24 Oct 2011 21:54:50 +0000 http://ofmerebeing.wordpress.com/the-poem/#comment-3686 Wallace was sublime…try reading the work backwards…second lines to third and vice a versa…it’s epic

]]> Comment on The Poem by Wallace Stevens by harrybonewilliams http://ofmerebeing.com/the-poem/#comment-3678 Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:37:29 +0000 http://ofmerebeing.wordpress.com/the-poem/#comment-3678 Almost all of Stevens’ poems (and particularly this one) are Jedi mind tricks.

]]> Comment on The Poem by Wallace Stevens by Clefstick http://ofmerebeing.com/the-poem/#comment-3677 Thu, 20 Oct 2011 02:17:39 +0000 http://ofmerebeing.wordpress.com/the-poem/#comment-3677 Epicharis, maybe if the the other is the reader or the listener to the poem sharing only that art as a known means to become a confidant.

]]> Comment on The Poem by Wallace Stevens by Epicharis http://ofmerebeing.com/the-poem/#comment-3674 Wed, 19 Oct 2011 18:55:25 +0000 http://ofmerebeing.wordpress.com/the-poem/#comment-3674 What if the poem is a recognition of the presence of another, or the ‘other’, without preconception?

]]> Comment on The Poem by Wallace Stevens by Bob Moore http://ofmerebeing.com/the-poem/#comment-3612 Fri, 12 Aug 2011 20:24:08 +0000 http://ofmerebeing.wordpress.com/the-poem/#comment-3612 I’m not sure why, but this poem reminds me of his poem “Poems of Our Climate”. I imagine that the palm at the end of the mind, is a hand attempting to grasp (to know) what a bird experiences as a living creature, but the bird could be any living creature (with humans as an exception). A bird as an example seems to be in tune with its surroundings, and appears (to us anyway) to celebrate it daily with song as a ritual. There is a distance between this experience and our own experience (represented by the mind). I think this is why Stevens places the palm at the end of the mind, to represent that distance. I realize as was mentioned earier that the word “distance” is a revision from an earlier poem. I still like it. I agree with Dave C. that the key to the poem is lines 7 and 8. It, the bird (or its song) is not the reason that makes us happy or unhappy. What makes us happy or unhappy is our inability to celebrate the day each day as a bird does. The honus is on us to change (if we could) but referencing Steven’s “Poems of Our Climate”, ‘the imperfect is our paradise’. We can’t seem to sense what a bird senses everyday, and it is noone’s fault but our own. I also agree with Dave C. about the greatness of the poem. A wonderful comment on the human condition.

]]> Comment on Keeping Things Whole by DKO http://ofmerebeing.com/2007/04/09/keeping-things-whole/#comment-3599 Mon, 18 Jul 2011 15:32:10 +0000 http://ofmerebeing.wordpress.com/2007/04/09/keeping-things-whole/#comment-3599 Thank you

]]> Comment on Keeping Things Whole by River King http://ofmerebeing.com/2007/04/09/keeping-things-whole/#comment-3597 Mon, 18 Jul 2011 07:18:40 +0000 http://ofmerebeing.wordpress.com/2007/04/09/keeping-things-whole/#comment-3597 This is so beautiful
the pictures are touching
and the poem is so subtle

]]> Comment on The Poem by Wallace Stevens by Maria Lamburn http://ofmerebeing.com/the-poem/#comment-3585 Thu, 16 Jun 2011 13:28:20 +0000 http://ofmerebeing.wordpress.com/the-poem/#comment-3585 This fantastic poem inspired the composition Murmur – title track of debut cd Murmur by Madalena (Bable Label BDV2027) On the album the cor anglais plays the melody (originally set to this poem by Maria Lamburn, 1979), and an additional narrative (also by ML) in the middle section manifests a vision of transient earthliness, offsetting the invisible presence of Stevens’ other-worldliness.

]]> Comment on The Poem by Wallace Stevens by Wilhelmina http://ofmerebeing.com/the-poem/#comment-3584 Sun, 12 Jun 2011 10:27:57 +0000 http://ofmerebeing.wordpress.com/the-poem/#comment-3584 Harry please e-mail me. Need to discuss something with you. Kind regards. Wilhelmina.

]]> Comment on The Poem by Wallace Stevens by Wilhelmina http://ofmerebeing.com/the-poem/#comment-3583 Thu, 09 Jun 2011 12:48:00 +0000 http://ofmerebeing.wordpress.com/the-poem/#comment-3583 Harry B. Williams please contact me I want to discuss something with you.

]]> Comment on The Poem by Wallace Stevens by Harry B. Williams http://ofmerebeing.com/the-poem/#comment-3550 Thu, 03 Feb 2011 16:40:50 +0000 http://ofmerebeing.wordpress.com/the-poem/#comment-3550 Hereafter, whereafter, what u after?
The priest who claimed Stevens had a deathbed conversion ot Catholicism needed to be asked the question “what u after?”

]]> Comment on The Poem by Wallace Stevens by clefstick http://ofmerebeing.com/the-poem/#comment-3549 Tue, 01 Feb 2011 21:45:57 +0000 http://ofmerebeing.wordpress.com/the-poem/#comment-3549 John Gray (e.g. “Straw Dogs”) refers passionately to this poem. He is writing about a way of negotiating a stance toward death that does not propose or presuppose an Hereafter.

]]> Comment on The Poem by Wallace Stevens by Of Mere Being | Gwydion Suilebhan http://ofmerebeing.com/the-poem/#comment-3532 Fri, 10 Dec 2010 14:16:34 +0000 http://ofmerebeing.wordpress.com/the-poem/#comment-3532 [...] Read the full poem [...]

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