Monday, September 23, 2013

shedding coils, mortal, surly, otherwise

I wanted to be dramatic by saying, "shed these mortal coils" slip that in conversationally and then I couldn't remember if the mortal coils were surly or what. So I looked up surly mortal coils to make sure I know what I'm talking about. And there is the poem High Flight.

Oh man, that gets me, pow, right in the left ventricle where it's going thud thud thud. I bet people think that poem is trite. But not me. 

So now I know, the bonds of Earth are surly, and mortal coils are just regular, probably no attitude worth noting, no temperament, just heavy clinginess. But the author wrote a previous poem, says Wikipedia, font of all modern received wisdom, about somebody who died, Sonnet to Rupert Brooke.

I learned he ripped off part of the Flight poem and that takes off some of the shine and opens my mind to the possibility of other ripoffs conscious or otherwise, at least other influences. I myself am very easily influenced, very impressionable. See if you notice some similarities here.

"We laid him in a cool and shadowed grove
One evening in the dreamy scent of thyme
Where leaves were green, and whispered high above —
A grave as humble as it was sublime;
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves 
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
 All mimsy were the borogoves,
 And the mome raths outgrabe.
There, dreaming in the fading deeps of light —
The hands that thrilled to touch a woman's hair;
Brown eyes, that loved the Day, and looked on Night,
A soul that found at last its answered Prayer...
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!Beware the Jubjub bird, and shunThe frumious Bandersnatch!"
There daylight, as a dust, slips through the trees.
And drifting, gilds the fern around his grave —
Where even now, perhaps, the evening breeze
He took his vorpal sword in hand:Long time the manxome foe he sought --So rested he by the Tumtum tree,And stood awhile in thought.
Steals shyly past the tomb of him who gave
New sight to blinded eyes; who sometimes wept —
A short time dearly loved; and after, — slept."
And, as in uffish thought he stood,The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,And burbled as it came!



6 comments:

deborah said...

Wrong. Different accents.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Remember when I said yesterday that CrossFit was kind of stupid in its way?

Farmer's walk and all that?

Click on this and you'll see today's photo-of-the-day which is just what the doctor ordered.

deborah said...

Sorry, Chip, I see you said similarities. Yes, I agree :)

Icepick said...

Mitchell, bring back the old avatar!

Also, I happened to be near a CrossFit gym yesterday. When I saw the people coming out, they looked very fit indeed, but it was too dark to see if they had any vomit stains.

Icepick said...

Mostly I want to be fit enough to pick up a chair, or hoist a cold brew in a glass mug. Everything past that is just ... trying too hard.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Maybe after a while, Icepick.

I'm kind of digging this one.

And don't forget, Kemal Ataturk had an entire menagerie called Abdul.