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Poem of the Day: Marlowe's Shepherd and Co., Day 6: "Invitation"

By Beechwood 45789 (Sat Jun 28, 2008 at 09:55:04 AM EST) (all tags)

"Talk to me; prove the day like Proust;
Let what comes next rise to inspection."

Invitation
by W. D. Snodgrass

Come live with me and be my last
Resource, location and resort,
My workday's focus and steadfast
Distraction to a weekend's sport.

Come end up with me, close my list;
Blank my black book, block every e-mail
From ex-loves whose mouths won't be missed;
Let nothing else alive look female.

Come couch with me mit Freud und Lust
As every evening's last connection;
Talk to me; prove the day like Proust;
Let what comes next rise to inspection.

Come, let old aftermaths get lost,
Let failures and betrayals mend,
Cancel repayments; clear the cost;
Once more unto the breach, dear friend.

Come lay us down to sleep at least,
Sharing this pillow's picture show;
Who's been my braintrust and best beast?
Who else knows what I need to know?

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Poem of the Day: Marlowe's Shepherd and Co., Day 6: "Invitation" | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

Google tells me its very recent by Scrymarch (2.00 / 0) #1 Sat Jun 28, 2008 at 11:00:09 AM EST

2006. I like this

Come end up with me, close my list;
Blank my black book, block every e-mail
From ex-loves whose mouths won't be missed;

But the very next verse ... this irritates me so much though I don't know if it's a 20th / 21st century / lack of my education thing

yada Freud yada Proust crappy rhyme yada

The reference just seems really lazy, it is subtractive, it's the opposite of a hyperlink when people do this self-conscious name dropping.
_{The Political Science Department of the University of Woolloomooloo}

Really. by Beechwood 45789 (2.00 / 0) #4 Sun Jun 29, 2008 at 08:00:52 AM EST

I thought the Freud thing was just sort of a gag: lay somebody on a couch for psychoanalysis or for doing the naughty. And the Proust thing worked for me because it actually does describe what Proust seems to do, rather than be a cast off, well-known, but not particularly descriptive, reference ("you're tasty as Proust's cookie" or "you sure do write a lot, like that Proust guy").

Still, to each their own.

[ Parent ]

: Yeah by Scrymarch (2.00 / 0) #5 Mon Jun 30, 2008 at 08:44:26 AM EST

I might have got a bit carried away in the parent. But it does bug me, and I'd like to think not just because I haven't gathered up the time and energy to attempt the six volume extravaganza In Search of Lost Time. (Time is indeed short; you have to cut a few cultural and intellectual traditions loose if you're a dilettante like myself). I think I would have let the Freud slide as a joke if he hadn't fallen straight into Proust.
But I was willing to let that Geoffrey Hill go, and that French riddle. I guess I'm fickle. I contain platitudes.
_{The Political Science Department of the University of Woolloomooloo}
[ Parent ]

This poem sucks. by ammoniacal (2.00 / 0) #2 Sat Jun 28, 2008 at 02:23:35 PM EST

For obvious reasons.

This coomenat has be n soidnsord by hurricanbe ice malt liqur

: Indeed. by Beechwood 45789 (2.00 / 0) #3 Sun Jun 29, 2008 at 07:54:24 AM EST

And the guy's named Snodgrass! Made of Fail!

[ Parent ]

Poem of the Day: Marlowe's Shepherd and Co., Day 6: "Invitation" | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback