Welcome to the 132nd Virtual Poetry Circle!
Remember, this is just for fun and is not meant to be stressful.
Keep in mind what Molly Peacock’s books suggested. Look at a line, a stanza, sentences, and images; describe what you like or don’t like; and offer an opinion. If you missed my review of her book, check it out here.
Also, sign up for the 2012 Fearless Poetry Reading Challenge because its simple; you only need to read 1 book of poetry. Please visit the stops on the National Poetry Month Blog Tour from April 2011 and beginning again in April 2012.
Today’s poems is from Eavan Boland:
Atlantis -- A Lost Sonnet How on earth did it happen, I used to wonder that a whole city—arches, pillars, colonnades, not to mention vehicles and animals—had all one fine day gone under? I mean, I said to myself, the world was small then. Surely a great city must have been missed? I miss our old city — white pepper, white pudding, you and I meeting under fanlights and low skies to go home in it. Maybe what really happened is this: the old fable-makers searched hard for a word to convey that what is gone is gone forever and never found it. And so, in the best traditions of where we come from, they gave their sorrow a name and drowned it.
What do you think?
I like the “fanlights and low skies.” That really gives me (especially as a tall person) the feeling that you’re almost crouching, because you know a blow is about to fall. Also, it’s apt for this time of year. Where I live, there’s almost always a cloud ceiling, and it hangs low, low, low in January.
I love the last stanza, the heaviness of it that changes the lightness at the beginning of the poem.
I love the turn of phrase that drops this poem on its ear. Its fantastic how easily it changes the poems meaning.
I *love* Eavan Boland! So much is fantastic about this poem — I love the mythical note of the poem — Atlantis — and it reminds me of the work of one of my favorite poets, H.D., who did a lot of Imagist stuff about Greek mythology and mythology.
What was the real gut kick for me, tho, was her last two lines: “they gave their sorrow a name/and drowned it.” WOW — going from simply musing or daydreaming about mythology, she’s turned this into something deeper. Love it.
What I like about this poem is the melancholy in it, the saudade! It truly gives me that sad, lost feeling. My favorite line:
“the old fable-makers searched hard for a word
to convey that what is gone is gone forever and
never found it”
What is gone is gone forever: lovely!
Thanks for sharing! It helps me on my journey to learn more about poetry!