by phillipw | Sep 16, 2022 | HU
The Religion of a Hummingbird, Shimmering Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem If I had wings, I’d flap them fifty beats Per millisecond. I would drink the juice Of see-through fuschias by the golden...
by phillipw | May 30, 2022 | AR, HE, HU, PH, PR
Bright Young Men Know Better The sun god sits in golden light upon A golden throne and sends out golden beams. The robe he wears is purple prinked at dawn With rose gold frets, Greek frets. His presence streams From in his palace in the farthest east, An east beyond...
by phillipw | Sep 29, 2021 | BU, DE, HU, JA, MI, SA
If macho stars are doing sex with men, That must be covered up. Mere Vaseline Across the lens won’t do. It’s cock and hen That’s right for Hollywood. Shut down the scene If Marlon Brando kisses Dean and/or The other way around. Rock Hudson’s Day Is just for show. ...
by phillipw | Sep 7, 2021 | DE, HU, MO, MU
Butterflies Sing with the Tongues of Zen and Angels Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Let’s say that butterflies could sing. What songs Would come from them? Perhaps their first Would be selected from the...
by phillipw | Sep 6, 2021 | BU, DR, HU, RO, SE
The Flowers Dream of Hummingbirds Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When butterflies fan wings while on a stone, They do not dream, or if they do, they fail To dream of us, our sadness when alone Or, more,...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2021 | HU, MA, PR
Jeff and Richard Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When males are born, they have the chance to be Men, toiling on a farm in sweat and muck, Or fishing in the roiling waves the sea Throws...
by phillipw | Apr 20, 2021 | BI, HU, OS, PH, Uncategorized, WH, WI
Hyperthymesia, , William Louis Hunter V, SRA Reading Lab, and Oscar Wilde Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Bill is in the white cardigan. I’m in the dark sweater in the center. My boyhood...
by phillipw | Jan 20, 2021 | HE, HU, IS, MA, MI, RO, SE, ST, TR
Iseut of the White Hands “[…] then he was such that all who saw him said that if he was not a brave knight he really must hate his fine body. And indeed he was so handsome that Iseut herself, who was called Iseut of the White Hands, fell madly in love with...
by phillipw | Dec 26, 2020 | FA, HU, MO, PO, WO
Woman You slip away in poems that you wrote, In songs composed, in paintings painted by Your lust and fingers. You turn out the vote For candidate and then learn just how sly He was, or muster funding for the cause— And win—but then the circumstances...
by phillipw | Oct 8, 2020 | BL, BR, DE, GA, Ho, HU, JE, LE, MO, UN
The Song for the Statue of Liberty Sing out your foreign song. Sing out your truth. Sing out the way that you are different from The rest. Chant out from in your Succoth booth Or from your monastery. Let songs come From pink brown Harlem lips. Involve the...
by phillipw | Jul 8, 2020 | AN, CO, HU, PO, RH, SC
I Have Looked upon the Face of Jolliness The ancient Greeks in poetry were lewd As limericks, playful, silly as a stand Up joker on a comic’s platform, rude And crude, yep, far more rude than Russell Brand. Emitted from these ancient rhythmic throats Were poems...
by phillipw | May 27, 2020 | CH, ET, HU, PA, PI
Pifferari at Eton “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter.” The young mind loves to wander. Even though It lives at Eton, it will fly to Rome, The Rome of Christmastime. His fancies flow: The boy would wonder at this spire, that dome, And...
by phillipw | May 27, 2020 | BO, CH, EA, EN, FI, GA, HU, LI, PA, RO
Earl Grey in Old Imari Porcelain He could have stayed behind his desk. He could Have signed stock-trading bonds. He could have stayed Not writing symphonies. Each night he would Have travelled home to comfort. Hubert strayed. He could have travelled home each...
by phillipw | May 27, 2020 | CH, HU, MU, PA, TI
7/8 II suggest you read this sonnet in tandem with “Prime,” one of the sonnets in the sonnet sequence about Parry in the general Encyclopedia Sonnetica.] “Jerusalem” and “I was glad” have made Us think of him as if he were no more Than...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | BL, CH, HU, MU, PA, SA, WE
Inklings “We hear of his composing chants and hymn-tunes when he was about eight”. Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1928), 55 Some chants and melodies for hymns at eight Gave childhood hints, yet first among the strong To forge him...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | BR, CH, ED, HI, Ho, HU, MU, PA
Holy Innocence We wonder if the organist who spelled Out basic counterpoint and how to write Down harmony knew that this later swelled To eight-part glory in a music bright As heaven’s capital with streets of gold And gem foundations. Highnam’s Edward...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, MU, PA, SA, TW, WE
Early Sprinkling by Samuel Sebastian Wesley From Twyford deeper waters start to flow. At least that is the place where Wesley poured The priming of the well. The master’s glow Went down into the learner’s core. The chord Struck then could not be banished by the will...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | BA, CH, HU, JO, MU, PA
At the Solitary Age of Twelve— Seven and Twelve Being Holy Numbers The first of seven early music books Reveals a boy methodical as Bach. He studies Bach’s first 48. He looks In detail, analyzing. “Let us talk,” He seems to say, “Just you and I alone. You...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, MU, PA
Harmony in Horticulture So chants and hymn tunes seem to be his first Attempts and one, an LM tune, was for The Church of England hymnal. This young burst Of writing, this foundation made the soar To heights his possibility. From these, These simple seeds, his...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, ET, HU, MU, PA
Revising Early Compositions at the Age of Seventeen, Eton In 1865 at seventeen The Eton schoolboy cast his eyes back through His early compositions. With their sheen Of amateurishness he held the view That they should be revised or put away. Imagine being so advanced...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, ET, HU, MU, PA
Forced Freedom Emily Daymond surveys the Eton schoolboy’s self-assessment of his music while a teenager reacting partly to his composition teacher giving him only fugue and canon assignments. At Eton Hubert’s music was addressed By him in daily entries in...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, MU, PA
Intellectualized Emotion The young Parry put into his jottings that his favourite among them all was “my grand fugue in G major with three (own) subjects.” “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp.” ~ Robert Browning He kept on writing at the tough one though,...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, MU, OR, PA, SC
Greatness Rises On February 22 the grand Fugue rose from all the instrument the first Time. Strength, complexity and subjects fanned Out through the air. The young man’s music burst Out from mere theory and ink when played By Dr Elvey. Augmentation...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, MU, PA, SC
A Canon “Written in School” —in a Geometry Lesson? His later comment on his childhood work Remarks on one of these, a canon, that It was “Written in School.” Did he shirk His classroom duties, hiding where he sat Behind the others doing problems from A lesson...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, MU, PA
“and goes on thus contentedly to the end” He learned to change a canon’s form when need Required a shift. He might repeat a tune Two measures later underneath the seed He planted. Still, if that did not commune When he went on in combination, he Would then commit the...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, CL, ET, HU, LU, MU, PA
Heart Trouble Where does music come from? Does it come from Heart wounds? No. Music is at first derived From minds. It offers mathematics’ thrum For ears. At Eton teenage Parry thrived On music and on sport in spite of heart Disease becoming palpable. ...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | AN, AU, BA, CH, HU, IN, JO, LU, MU, PS
Psalm 130 From out of depths of sorrow came the sounds Of Parry’s anthem (first of all) “In my Distress.” The music came from deep chest wounds Und Bach and Luther. Anguish reaches sky And heaven only when the music climbs From sources such as...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, ET, Ho, HU, MU, PA, PE
The Pergola of Composition “There is also a setting of Horace’s Ode ‘Persicos odi puer apparatus,’ for A.T.B.B. ‘written in school [Eton College] , February 22, 1865’ ”. ~ Emily Daymond, 77 As strange as ancient Persia might have seemed To sixteen-year-old Parry...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, MA, MU, PA, SC, SH, WI
With a Pretty Ding, Dong, Bell “This has a very pretty madrigalian ‘Ding, dong, bell’ ending.” ~ Emily Daymond, 77 At 15 Hubert tried his hand at straight Poetic madrigal, a Shakespeare song, In “Tell Me, Where is Fancy Bred?” The gate Of fancy is our eyes and where...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | BA, CH, HU, MU, PA
O Head Full of Blood and Wounds Before his fourteenth year the boy wrote down A melody like Bach’s “O Haupt voll Blut Und Wunden,” but the sixth note did not frown. Instead it mounted up. It took a route More positive. Prophetic nearly, one Might say, when looking...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, MU, PA, SC
Prime [I suggest you read this poem in tandem with the sonnet called “7/8” in the general Encyclopedia Sonnetica.] The first real piece by Parry, or the one He called his first, reveals through notes his clear And sweet imagination. He has...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, ET, HU, MU, PA, SC
Strength through Dedication At Eton Parry moved to start the task Of bettering his pieces written there, An early sign which shows that he would ask Himself to work perfection through his care And dent of work, a tough composer from The start—and strained to win at...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, MU, PA
“Thoughts of . . . Summer half, 1865” A piece just eight bars long is pregnant with Vague meaning and with secrecy. A man (Not quite) is burdened with Victorian myth Of sex as tight as whalebone girdles can Impose on him. On top of that he’s just a boy At school...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, PA, SH
“When Stars are in the Quiet Sky” ‘The desire of the moth for the star’ ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley On thirteen August, 1865, This song came out of Hubert Parry, whole. It seems he did not really need to strive. Perhaps his writing then was like a stroll Along a path in...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, ED, HU, PA, SC, SP
Edmund Spenser’s Complicated Sonnet Causes a Simple Composition ‘Songs are not neglected. There are two; one, “When stars are in the quiet skies” (written August 13, 1865, and another, “Fair is my love,” (“written for Primrose, Eton, ’64-5 copied ad fin., July 3,...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, ET, HU, PA, SC
First Magnificat, 1864 His first Magnificat is likely to Have been the one he heard performed while He was still at Eton as a boy. True To truth he hated it—thought it was vile— When he looked back on it. He called it bad. He called it “bad.” In 1865 He looked...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | AR, CH, HU, MO, PR
A Common Prayer for Honesty Psalm 52:1 ‘an anthem in five parts, “Why boasteth thou thyself,” the second section adding a solo quartet, making a good nine-part work (1865).’ ~ Emily Daymond This criticism of himself becomes The context of his later anthem, “Why...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, LO, RO, SE, SH, ST, TW, WI
Parts Song “Take, oh Take Those Lips Away” “(sung at the Eton College Concert)” ~ Emily Daymond Take, oh take those lips away, That so sweetly were forsworn, And those eyes: the breake of day, Lights that do mislead the Morn; But my kisses bring...
by phillipw | May 25, 2020 | CH, HU, PA
A Sonata in F Minor for Pianoforte Duet “written while laid up in a damage with football, in ten days” ~ the teenage Hubert Parry The schoolboy sport-team member with that heart Condition just refused to let his weak Young ticker hold him back. He struggled. In...
by phillipw | May 25, 2020 | CH, HU, PA
Poems Enshrined in His Affections ‘showing that even from such early days these poems had been enshrined in his affections’ ~ Emily Daymond The years have helped us to forget that there Were times when boys did not have e-games, vids, And Google, never mind that...
by phillipw | May 25, 2020 | HU, PA
As a Boy He Even Had the Start of His Phrase for the Male Quartet in ‘Blest Pair of Virgins’ The younger music sometimes opened to A later depth three decades later, or Perhaps a few years on. One movement grew In seriousness to be presented for The Gloucester...
by phillipw | May 25, 2020 | ET, HU, OX, PA
While Still at Eton He Became the Youngest Ever to Take a Bachelor of Music at Oxford University His Eton life was one variety Upon another. Many genres came From him. He almost had a piety About his football, playing every game (Or nearly), ending senior keeper of...
by phillipw | May 25, 2020 | ET, HU, MU, PA
A Lively Hope– A sonnet sequence on the childhood, Eton College years, and music of Sir Hubert Parry [FOR AN ILLUSTRATED VERSION OF THIS SONNET SEQUENCE GO TO https://classicalpoets.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/A-Lively-Hope.pdf where it was first...
by phillipw | May 17, 2020 | DI, EM, HU, PO
A Buzzing Probe in Deep-throat Nectar Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Early poetry finds its stories and then finds ways of remembering them.” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 8 “Helen Hunt Jackson...
by phillipw | May 3, 2020 | AN, AS, HU
Ashokan Amnesia “While the memory of Ashoka having set up stone pillars persisted, what his epigraphs recorded was entirely forgotten. The pillar at Niglihawa, while recognized as Ashokan, is said to have been engraved with “the record of the...
by phillipw | May 3, 2020 | AP, HU, OR, PI, PO, TO
The Tortoise Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Other poems by Apollinaire relate to Orpheus, for example, ‘The Tortoise,’ whose shell—a gift from Apollo—provided the frame of his lyre.” ~...
by phillipw | Feb 9, 2020 | HU
Derived from Feudal Darkness Medieval canon lawyers were the first To moot an individual’s pale chance To have some rights in law, that tiny burst Of radicality. From there to France And chopping off the head of king and queen Was like a pilgrimage to truth...
by phillipw | Dec 14, 2019 | HU
Pure Eve and the Serpent Not one of us is wholly human. So They say. They mean that we are part divine Or that we have angelic bits, or low Down stuff in us; we’re worse than stinking swine, Yack, yack, yack, blah, blah. Blindly this ignores The obvious truth. Of...
by phillipw | Nov 8, 2019 | HU
Victor’s Meditation A hunchback rises there above the bells But nothing in this scene is like the hour Of stylized beauty in the Book of Kells Bent over in a cell. He aches the power Of hopeless love more cruel than the rack And flogging. Ugliness is...