What did Ulysses tell us of Joyce,
or “no country for old men” of Yeats?
Joyce drowned us in epics of voice
where a hundred rereadings barely sates
our appetite for wellsprings of allegory.
Yeats may entice us with couplets of rhyme
that sing of love like kennings of glory,
and grow strong with the passage of time;
yet his madrigals of soft a cappella
draw lovers to dance in the rain,
and like a celestial umbrella
they ward off most suffering and pain.
Ireland’s Iliad was, perhaps, penned by Joyce,
but for lovers, Yeats is first choice.
Author notes
Whew. I don't think I'll do that again for a while. At least not until I'm feeling much better.
In a list
A contest entry
- nomenclature by DogFish.
800 points, ended November 7, 6 entries
Gold trophy winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest - CELEBRATE 17 NOVEMBER- FOR AWARD-WINNING POEMS OF THE PAST YEAR by Vera Rich.
700 points, ended November 25, 94 entries
• next poem in this contest, • Add to finalists list, or remove from contest - Prewrites Only -- With a Twist! by Heroesrox.
400 points, ends December 1, 94 entries
• next poem in this contest, • Add to finalists list, or remove from contest - Show me what I missed by Dark Whispers.
400 points, ends December 3, 29 entries
• next poem in this contest, • Add to finalists list, or remove from contest
What did you think?
Comments
1 - 22 of 22
-
I may be prejudice but the Irish are the finest poets to me...
of course i was born in Belfast...
Yeats gained so much by being brief and powerful...
if given the time Joyce will transport.....
all the love and sadnessin the world is in the Irish poets eyes,
God bless Ireland...
and bless you too....
for having the good sence to see.
Brilliant,
Liam
-
-
Personally ...
I feel that the Irish got such a dirty deal from the English, that it's simply horrific to think about. As for poets, I have many favorites, Irish, English, French, American, all kinds. What happened to Ireland was the fault of the English system, and mostly it was run by Scots and Irishmen (quoting Brendan Behan). Nobody is blameless. However, I do love the Irish people, and the English and the French people in particular. Then again, my heritage is half Scot and half French. Hard to get more odd than that.
Thanks for stopping by, and especially just for being you.
-
-
Just wonderful...a wellspring of inspiration!
-
A Quatorzain - sounds pharmaceutical... (there's a nice poster of Ireland's literary giants, I saw on in an English Lit office...)
so... Ulysses was allegory... and Ireland's Iliad... (well, there's still plenty of time to remedy that... lol )
Quatorzain - a fourteen line non-sonnet poem (courtesy of Google)
ah, a word list contest (and why do I suspect that 'celestial' was one of them... I'll have to look)...
your 'whew' reminds me that this site can be quite draining, creatively and emotionally...
-
-
No, actually ...
celestial wasn't one of the words in the word bank.
And yes, the site can be quite draining.
Thanks for stopping by.
-
-
Yet another thought-provoking and immacutately-written piece
I personally prefer Yeats, and think Joyce (I know I may get lynched for this) was just trying to hard. Beautiful sounds and relevant statements: Well done
-
-
I tend to agree ...
although I still believe that Joyce and Yeats are Ireland's most pre-eminent writers -- which is not to denigrate Oscar Wilde -- but if you go by popularity, a lot more people read Joyce than read Oscar Wilde. I gather there's a movie out now about Yeats, which should be interesting. I'll be interested to see how it stacks up against Haunted Summer.
-
-
I think the most I have ever read of Joyce was when in Ireland there were plaque's on pub doors saying James Joyce gave this establishment his seal of approval lol whereas Yeats well he just wrote as he wandered and to be there is to see the things and understand it. Perhaps Joyce spent too much time researching the drink lol
C
-
-
Lol ...
well, he WAS Irish.
Thanks for stopping by. -
-
lol No doubt about that, I am reading a book at the moment called The Imagination of Geography, there is a chapter in there about Joyce and his long pieces and his allusions to the Roman and Greek deities, renamed of course lol but how poets refer back to classics of even Homer but rework them in their own metaphors and geography of their homelands.It's a very interesting read.
-
-
Yes ...
all you have to do is read Tolkien to see that, but it certainly appears to be a universal attribute with a great many of them.
-
-
-
-
excellent
I prefer Yeats myself over Joyce, but only because I haven't read any Joyce. lol
Nicely done as usual. Everything works, but of course you knew that anyway. You make it look easy.
-
-
If you get through Ulysses ...
War And Peace will seem like a snap. But, you will have something to brag about till the end of time. Whomever you are speaking to will automatically assume that you are a literary heavyweight.
-
-
This is a mightily impressive penning, Scribe. I've long admired Yeats' work and Joyce...well, if one can manage to wade through it, one might experience an epiphany or three. You've honored the giants quite nicely with this remarkable feast of language, my Friend. And with a word bank to boot, in sonnet form. Just lovely, Jim. Good luck in the contest, Sweetie.
-
-
-
I was trying to find something ...
to take my mind off the pain for a while, and it actually worked. First time I've been able to manage a sonnet in some time now. I normally don't care for word bank contests, but it helped with the pain for about a half an hour -- although it gave me a headache, so I guess, like everything else in life, it was a trade-off.
-
-
I have my volume of Yeats which I enjoy to no end, but Joyce remains known only from commentary on his work. At some point I shall have to gird up my loins of 21st Century compulsion and undertake his great masterwork of early 20th Century modernism.
The poem is a concise commentary of the work of each writer. The poet in this work considers Yeats more accessible than Joyce to most readers. He does not say that one is greater than the other, but we have a sense that their audiences may be somewhat different though not necessarily exclusive.
Though delivered as a quartozain vs. a somewhat more structured sonnet, the poem has a lyrical quality that is often missing even from soundly conventional sonnets. I think this comes from the romantic imagery used to describe the work of each author. In the end we have an essay contrasting the work of two literary giants which we enjoy for the poetry before we realize we have just been educated.
-
-
My friend, Denis ...
said that it took him six bottles of Irish whiskey to make it through Ulysses.
I guess it's an acquired taste.
Thanks for the kind words. -
-
Well, I do enjoy a glass or three of Jameson now and again...
-
-
Ah.
then you're good to go.
-
-
-
-
Quite beautiful
Surely an example of the rhyme enhancing the piece.
Really liked it.
-
-
I hate word bank contests ...
as it is normally so blatantly obvious that the poets have twisted and scrounged to work in enough odd ball words to meet the contest requirements that the poems seem risible if not outright ridiculous. However, I thought it would be interesting to try this one just to see what would happen.
Now I know. It gave me a headache, which I still have 8 hours later.
-
Adding your comment:
1 - 22 of 22
