by phillipw | Feb 11, 2024 | AL, JO, MI, PA
“The mind is its own place” ~ Paradise Lost, Book I, Lines 221-270, John Milton The mind creates its own space/time inside A rumpled space in skulls. The gravity In that dimension grows as long and wide As heaven and hell to hold depravity Of atom bombs and...
by phillipw | Jan 17, 2024 | AU, FA, PA, PR
Heroic The autumn brings the woods to life at last, The life of splendor made of God and light, The light and colors dreamed of though more vast Than men imagine even in a rite Of Orthodox and patriarchal sheen Of silk, embroidery. The...
by phillipw | Dec 31, 2023 | NE, OX, PA, TI
Noxymoron The paradox of New Year’s midnight Eves Is ever new and ever old because The endless carries on. The moment cleaves The past from present in unchanging laws And also causes pasts and presents to Cleave hard together changelessly the...
by phillipw | Apr 5, 2023 | BR, PA
The Indian Tribes Never Imagined Apollo and Artemis The dry dune grass that grows along this beach, Brevard’s broad beaches, waves in salt-wind breeze Like gods with brush wind movements as they reach To dream of sky. They dream of shores on seas, On distant...
by phillipw | Jan 2, 2023 | FO, PA
Stone-crafted Cyphers of Fact The earliest of flowers of course were doomed As flowers have always been and always will Be, destined for their petal deaths, each groomed By drought, or flood, or mold. They wait until A fire comes by and kills them, butterflies As...
by phillipw | Sep 20, 2022 | EV, PA, SU
“Proud as the evening sky” Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem While fading on the breeze of thought from one Lost memory to yet another lost, From time before our sleeping, lost or won, A notion...
by phillipw | Aug 22, 2022 | CR, PA
Occam’s Razor Answers the Question of Creation … ’Tis the Gift to be Simple and Sophisticated The ship, complex, is yet not like a whale With all its DNA. The many bits, The hull, the rudder, engine, or a sail, Together move across the sea that hits The bow...
by phillipw | Jun 14, 2022 | AR, LE, LU, PA, RI, RO, VE
Verlaine, Rimbaud, Lucien Létinois Verlaine’s emotions are too distant, far Removed and cleft from violets of verse He filled French veins with, each line a devoir Of sorrow, since his feelings were as terse As AK-47 rounds. His lines Were written out like blade...
by phillipw | Mar 21, 2022 | AR, CO, JA, ME, PA
Cherubim Etched in Gilding Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Back then world was filled with gold, gold skies. The angels’ wings were tiny, but they flew. Two cherubim in gold attract our...
by phillipw | Feb 12, 2022 | BR, CO, CR, PA
Creation Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The universe that wasn’t . . . just . . . got . . . bored. It yawned and burped out big time. From the yawn And belch...
by phillipw | Jan 14, 2022 | AR, PA, RI, VE
Bleu, Blue, and Black: A Sonnet Sequence Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem WARNING: Some of the sonnets in this sequence may be very...
by phillipw | Jan 13, 2022 | CH, JE, PA
“Tarry,” is Spring’s Command Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. Matthew 25:13 Yet if we grieve, the spring that blossoms will Not come as wishes quick or slow will leap. The grief of spring will hasten just...
by phillipw | Dec 10, 2021 | DE, FU, PA, SA, VI
Flowers and Men and Fate Palled eons hover in the space between Each falling petal, each palled eon called Eternity or death. These, each one seen As equal, spy themselves as self-same, sprawled Like vileness, black. Each falling petal floats To vacuum. ...
by phillipw | Nov 8, 2021 | CH, DO, FA, HE, IV, PA, PH, WH, WO
There Wasn’t Any Hill in Brevard County, Florida, but There Were Songbirds The oatmeal made with milk and honey . . . and With mother love . . . was eaten with the sound PATTI PAGE – Mockin’ Bird Hill（1951）with lyrics – YouTube Of “Mockingbird Hill”...
by phillipw | Nov 6, 2021 | BO, DU, GA, Ho, MU, PA, PH, SE, SI, ST, WH
Jalousie in Natural Light—Avant la Rêve For Mrs. Pat Silver and Bob Stubbs She chose a piece called “Jalousie” for flute And keyboard that was strange to both the boys, But then the both of them were teens. To suit The ceremony “Jalousie” had poise But sounded...
by phillipw | Sep 26, 2021 | AI, IN, PA, SE, SM, TO
Not “Rodrigo de Jerez and Luis de Torres are the first Europeans to observe smoking. It was on Cuba and Jerez becomes a staunch smoker, bringing the habit back with him to Spain. History of Tobacco in...
by phillipw | Sep 23, 2021 | AD, CO, DR, HE, LO, PA
Ingredients That photo of the man, his little son, And summer sunlight on their cuddling skin Has disappeared. It was the only one Jill had and most importantly no sin Could be detected in it. But it’s lost. Jill wonders if Ray...
by phillipw | Sep 7, 2021 | DI, GI, GO, Ho, JE, NO, PA, TR
Supreme L-o-n-g-s-h-o-t-(s) The Father reigns supreme in every way. It’s all a bit uncertain if the Son Came later and is lesser (this sounds gay) But still divine. And then the other One Is even more ambiguous. We know This biblically,...
by phillipw | Aug 9, 2021 | GA, GU, HE, IS, JU, LA, PA, TR, ZE
Pitifully Bulging with Restraint The ancient myths refrain from giving hot Exactness to sex swollen loves. The gate Of Troy is breached, but Homer leaves out taut Male flesh in ram and slam of lust in spate Between Queen Helen’s legs. When Zeus rapes up Inside...
by phillipw | Aug 4, 2021 | BI, LA, MU, PA, SK
Apassianato The skylark’s struggle is its fluttering Or so it looks. The skylark’s flying seems To be a form of airborne stuttering At best upon on the slightest breezy streams Of air, yet even so near halting moves And swoops predict a victory...
by phillipw | Aug 2, 2021 | AS, PA, PE, RE, SE
Singing Sacred Ones When things become invisible, they turn To something like the Holy Ghost. They might Come back like torching tongues of fire to burn Above apostles’ hair, or come at night Like floating space ships filled with promise, hope,...
by phillipw | Jul 28, 2021 | CH, JA, OR, PA, PE
Distance is Prophecy Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The distance is attached to futures or A future. In the watercolour scene The distance and the future both...
by phillipw | Jul 26, 2021 | CH, OX, PA
Changed, Remained, Unaltered A midday moon high up above a bird That sings from nowhere, everywhere, will soon Become a paleness in the blue, half slurred In slighter blue of evening’s later sky. That afternoon another songbird tied The time between the noon...
by phillipw | Jul 14, 2021 | DA, FA, LO, PA
Penumbra around the Male Heart Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The father picks it up, the doll, and grins. He thinks of her, his daughter. She will love It, he decides. His happy moment spins Around...
by phillipw | Jul 14, 2021 | DE, MO, PA, PH, SA, WH, WO
Grave Offering Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He breaks the burst of blossoms off the tree, The spray of life in blooms, and hauls it to The back part of the car. Cemetery Rows wait. He...
by phillipw | Jul 5, 2021 | AR, CH, ON, PA, PH, RE
Perspective Without perspective we can live in white Infinity, far longer than the space In Leonardo. Chinese painters’ sight Swerves larger like an Orthodox choir’s bass In search of certain formlessness. Their blanks Loom almost misty like...
by phillipw | Jun 28, 2021 | AM, CL, EI, HA, JA, KO, PA, VA
Haiku Paradox The Korean boat does Not pause. Sails cause it to pass, But where in this haze? ~ Buson Forking into mist A stream on the moor is vague And clear, both, at once. ~ Shirao An odd boat, foreign in its shape, slips past, Korean in its shape and...
by phillipw | Jun 22, 2021 | NA, PA, TU
The Cosmic Certainty is Propulsion A double nature of the universe: All parts of it endeavor to remain the same And every part aspires to be a nurse To its demise. This dual colored aim (Or aims that strive as one) is like a spring That yearns to be a spring forever...
by phillipw | May 11, 2021 | AN, CI, GR, Ho, MA, PA
Might Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem In real man Greece the reason for the male Grown up in masculinity to be The one to be allowed to vote and rail Against opponents in a vote was...
by phillipw | May 2, 2021 | DE, PA
Lovers of the Past Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The lovers of the past have disappeared, Not just the famous ones from centuries gone, But also those from history so smeared With myth...
by phillipw | Apr 30, 2021 | OX, PA, ST, WE
Disclosure of Might in Slackness “The tree manifests the bodily power of the wind; The wave exhibits the spiritual nature of the moon.” The tree is strong but not quite strong enough. Its lack of strength unveils the power of wind. This tree thus weak reveals that...
by phillipw | Apr 21, 2021 | HE, LO, PA, RE
Galumphing Patriotism The worst of patriotic people’s verse Is halting lineage of “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.” Two lanterns would disperse (Or one) the orders that were set to guide The rider. Lucklessly, no one offered Such guidance to the poet. He...
by phillipw | Mar 28, 2021 | AD, CO, DO, DR, EL, FA, MA, PA, PR, RE, SE
There to Efface Himself in Ecstasy Religious? There to efface himself in Ecstasy he flailed about. Yes, he tried Cocaine at first and, lolling in that sin, He won election victory as he fried His brain that way. Of course he used plain Ole dope as well but somehow...
by phillipw | Mar 28, 2021 | AR, PA, RI, VE
Lacking Almost All Common Sense when Combined…and After that Too Late “Where the white cliffs were ghostlike in the dawn, And after dawn were deathlike.” ~Lancelot, Edwin Arlington Robinson If only Arthur and poor Paul had read Those words by Robinson, they...
by phillipw | Mar 27, 2021 | PA, TH
Wakes and Contrails Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Away, Far, far behind, is all that they can say. ~ Arthur Hugh Clough, “Where Lies...
by phillipw | Mar 26, 2021 | AU, FA, NO, OC, OX, PA, SE
Perfect Paradoxes, October’s Oxymorons The point of fall is melancholy joy. The oranges, yellows, and the reds are breaths Of autumn but in parallel destroy. Their bright solemnity a trillion deaths Entails. The oranges are calmly rife With gorgeouness of gloom. ...
by phillipw | Mar 26, 2021 | AR, GA, MO, PA, RI, VE
Irradiated Irises Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem His eyes were deep clairvoyant blue, and blue Of lighter kind, both present in his face At once for Paul to fall in love with. True To...
by phillipw | Mar 24, 2021 | DE, HE, LO, PA, RO, SE
Carving Out the Measure of Devotion Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem You hardly know the truth of passion till You put it in the context of its doom. It seems as hot as sun spots or the spill Of lava...
by phillipw | Feb 27, 2021 | GU, LO, PA, RO
Le crème The mouth would speak. The poem disappears. The heart desires to love. Sweat fades away, Though. Passion lasts for moments, not for years. He sits alone, Parisian café Amour around him where he used to sit With more than newsprint words. ...
by phillipw | Jan 15, 2021 | AE, BE, ES, PA, PE
Exquisite Conflation Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The peony, extravagant in red Vermilion pigment dug from underground, Is so extreme it is as if it bled, This flower, from hell and...
by phillipw | Jan 12, 2021 | AE, BE, ES, GE, PA, SE
Peony and Fulfillment Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem No man has ever done a thing as lush As this. The stamens and the pistil of The peony rave out. The yellows gush Among the petals like the...
by phillipw | Jan 5, 2021 | AU, BU, EP, KO, MO, MY, PA, RE, SA
“Autumn Revelations”; “Monistic Meditation”; and, “Comprehension”: a Trio of Sonnets Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Samaras wirble down. One hits the pond. The silence and the ripples...
by phillipw | Jan 3, 2021 | MI, NO, PA, PL
Viral Riddance Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Who says that emptiness is wrong? Not those Who hate humanity, the women, men, And screaming brats. Di Chirico may pose The eeriness of...
by phillipw | Dec 29, 2020 | CA, CO, IL, ME, PA, PS
Devotion Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A fictive leaf of ink, or paint, or gilt On vellum is perfection brushed there small But large in love of utterness. The...
by phillipw | Dec 16, 2020 | AL, BA, GA, Ho, LO, PA, RO
The Prophet Addresses Bagoas Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Your heart will be volcano-like with force And lava. You will be the lightning bolt That he has always wanted, you the horse And he your...
by phillipw | Dec 14, 2020 | LO, PA, RO, SE, SY
The Specifications of a Dream You know the list. It specifies the smell Of hope and fragrance of your long lost love, The scent of it in bed and thrusting swell Of pillowed lust. The list contains the shove Of fleshy colored passion and the taste, The scarlet taste,...
by phillipw | Dec 9, 2020 | CH, GO, GR, OR, PA, RE
They Never Slumber nor Sleep The reason icons break but still remain At crooked angles over slopes and cracks In eon landscapes is to entertain Their sacred irises. Greek mountains tracks Show off to icons ancient splits pronounced By earthquakes forty thousand times...
by phillipw | Nov 27, 2020 | AR, GA, HE, Ho, LO, MA, PA, RI, ST, UN, VE
Wedded Love vs. Armpit Stench Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Romances sans Paroles (by Verlaine) has a “consistently high standard … and reflects his troubled emotional state over the rupture...
by phillipw | Nov 23, 2020 | AR, GA, Ho, PA, RI, SA, SE, VE
LONG YEARS Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “You can be free only with me, and I swear to you I will behave in the future. I am sorry for my part in the wrong. My mind is clear at last. ...
by phillipw | Nov 15, 2020 | AR, GA, Ho, LO, PA, RI, RO, SE, SN, VE
Éclats de Neige Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “éclats de neige”~ Arthur Rimbaud, Illuminations Paul often thought a boy has splinters in His eyes, his irises, his pupils, light...
by phillipw | Nov 11, 2020 | AR, CH, DE, MO, PA, ST, WE
Painting as False Prophet in Acrylic Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The image in the bedroom looks out through The window, artwork gazing out As if a seer. It does not see blue Of...
by phillipw | Nov 9, 2020 | DE, KI, PA, SE, UN
Hissing “skin redolent with unspoken kisses” ~ Jaime Mathis, It Rises and Falls “Never let a fool kiss you and never let a kiss fool you.” A kiss, if spoken or unspoken, smells Of nothing. Kisses touching skin or lips, Those kisses licking...
by phillipw | Oct 29, 2020 | AN, FE, HE, JO, LA, PA, PR, TH, WH, WI, WO
Presence Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The past is never past, is more than ghost Or Undead creature. Passed away the past Is not. It lives within. Its whispered boast Inhabits mental...
by phillipw | Oct 24, 2020 | AN, EP, Ho, PA
Prime Poet “Again Sarpedon’s bright spear missed, the blade passing over Patroclus’ left shoulder, leaving the man unscathed. But Patroclus hurled his bronze, in turn, and the spear sped from his hand and not in vain, striking Sarpedon where the ribs...
by phillipw | Sep 9, 2020 | CU, GR, MO, PA, PI
When Voices are Replaced by Squared Up Bars A watercolor, or some paintings made Of oils, or photographs in black and white Are all like Cubist art but with truth’s blade, Not brush. The forms, the shadows, and the light In images of island Greece, are grand...
by phillipw | Jul 23, 2020 | AN, DO, ED, FA, PA, WA, WI
Edward Wilson’s Uncompromising Painting in the Face of Doom … It is as if the realm of ghosts and shades Were painted in a watercolour of Pale blues and soft frost blacks, or like charades Performed behind auroras from above Antarctic twilights. ...
by phillipw | Jul 23, 2020 | AC, AU, NO, PA
Metaphysical Meteorology The dead surround us like a Northern Lights Display above blue waters, seas as blue As Patroclus’s eyes in tented nights Beside Achilles making love as new And strong as sapphire blades, above the green Of greenest waters, greener than the...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AC, GA, Ho, MA, PA
Beside the Thousand Ships There once were times when men could hold large pride In having sons who had as lovers men That gods could hate and love — and take their side In gut-strewn battle. Fathers nodded when Their sons retired to tents and to the love Of those...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AE, ES, PA, PL, TH
Widescreen, 3D, Surround Sound, Buttered Popcorn and Icy Coca-Cola® “It follows from the fact that poets do not have knowledge of that about which they speak, but aim to seem as though they do, and some listeners do not realize that poets lack knowledge.” ~...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AC, AN, HE, PA, TR
Two Men in Love in Death Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Hector dies, and when at last in Book XXIV his corpse is recovered, it is laid out and Andromache holds Hector’s head in her lap,...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AC, BO, BR, CA, CR, GA, HA, HE, KA, MA, NE, PA, PR, SA
Troy in New Orleans, Manhattan, or London Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem So I found “Helen” sitting in a streetcar; the Dionysian revels of her court were transferred to a Metropolitan roof garden...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AC, AG, DE, IM, PA, SC, TH
To the King of Greece The past attempts to speak. It tries to talk With words and other ruined things like stones That lie in heaps or carved acanthus stalk Of leaves in marble. Sometimes vellum tones Come up from opened scrolls. Occasionally Our history gives...
by phillipw | Jul 19, 2020 | AD, AE, AL, AR, BO, LO, PA, PH, RO, SE
The Venerable, Ancient Need Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “And Socrates the philosopher, who despised everything, was, for all that, subdued by the beauty of Alcibiades; as also was the venerable...
by phillipw | Jul 19, 2020 | AC, AL, HE, PA
The Silliness of Men “He ran naked to the supposed site of Achilles’ tomb at Troy, while his male lover, Hephaestion, crowned the tomb of Achilles’ beloved Patroclus.” ~ Robin Lane Fox, The Classical World: an Epic History from Homer to Hadrian Forget about the...
by phillipw | Jul 13, 2020 | AR, IN, MU, NO, PA, PO, TI, TS
Piéria Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “the Muses’ ancient home between the roots of Olympus and the sea; to where ‘Pēneus rolls his fountains Against the morning star’.” ~ F. L....
by phillipw | Jul 7, 2020 | CU, EU, LO, PA, VI
Gay Love as Paradox Love, who is wisdom’s pupil gay ~ Euripides Euripides goes on to say that love Leads on to virtue, often. Note that one Word,: “often,” though, for love is not above Dementing men with rot-like passion. Stun Them, that is what love does,...
by phillipw | Jul 5, 2020 | BO, PA, SC
Before the Internet in the Ancient World “Hellenistic culture was of necessity a culture of the book . . . : the age of the reader had arrived, and a poet was often a man speaking to a man, not to men.” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 13 The audience grew smaller...
by phillipw | Jun 17, 2020 | AL, BA, PA
Instinct and Alexander the Hateful Achilles, after many years of war, And after losing Patroklus to death, Reacted vilely, more like smelly whore Than man of Greek-sky principles. Blue death And anguish overwhelming him like sea Wave, catastrophic, made by monsters,...
by phillipw | Jun 13, 2020 | PA, SA, ST, XE
Centuries and Utterness Separate Them Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse Salonika, where Paul and Xerxes stood, Affords a long Aegean view across To Mount Olympus. One took on his hood Of holiness and one took on a loss Staggering in...
by phillipw | May 31, 2020 | CH, FR, GE, PA, Ta
Talleyrand by François Gérard: a Crippled Sonnet ……………~ commonswikimedia.org He isn’t looking quite askance at us From oils and frame. The gilt surrounding trim, The mouldings, desk, rectangle-rimmed canvas) Are as close as...
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, JO, LU, MU, PA, SA, WE
The Music Historian “Johann Sebastian Bach: the Story of the Development of a Great Personality (1909), [was] rated by The Times as his most important book” ~ Wikipedia Nobility and grandeur at the height Of music, that is what the boy was taught By Wesley. ...
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 | 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 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...