Sam, If a student, good. Guidance, encouragement. If old, like me, it's too late. TJ |
Curious about reactions to this one (not by me) that was posted on another poetry list:
> Millrace > > Each April's different: this one saw a spate > Of rain increase the run-off from the snow > To make the village millpond overflow > Well-groomed banks and leap an unused gate > Into the race, which had not felt the flood > In fifty years. That's when the mill and wheel, > Back then thought insufficiently genteel, > Were leveled and the stream shut up for good, > Or so it seemed. But flood will out, commotion > Run its course. I watched the water boil > Through undergrowth, sluicing astonished soil > Off toward the deep disturbance of our ocean, > And so subside and next day leave no trace > But mud and some erosion in the race. > |
Popping this back up as a number of posts from Tuesday April 8th 2003 were wongly dated 2002 due to some weird computer glitch and wound up on the end of the forum lists.
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I think it's formidable work of great depth.
The image is finely sustained throughout, and the close is brilliant. Wish I'd thought of the dual meaning of "race" as applied in the close. ("You will, David, you will".) Like the author, I had fooled myself into thinking there are some things we don't do any more. Life's full of shocks, and surprises. Who wrote it? Regards, David http://www.davidgwilymanthony.co.uk/ |
Looks quite masterful to me. (Maybe a bit "Frost-y" with all those great monosyllables.) I love "flood will out" and the "race" pun at the end. Can't think of anything I'd tweak, really. I have the feeling I've come across this somewhere before.
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Yes, a wonderful piece:
Excerpted from Some Assembly Required by George Bradley. Copyright© 2001 by George Bradley. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part About SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED: http://info.randomhouse.com/cgi-bin2...XMGo0Wa0JO20AZ A conversation with George Bradley: http://info.randomhouse.com/cgi-bin2...XMGo0Wa0JO30Aa Bradley's essay about his working methods: http://info.randomhouse.com/cgi-bin2...XMGo0Wa0JO40Ab ------------------ Ralph |
Glad for the positive responses. I was unaware of this poet's work until someone posted it on another list as yet another "excuse for a sonnet." I rather liked it. The poster especially objected to "sluicing astonished soil / Off to the deep disturbance of our ocean""--which I don't particularly like but wouldn't fault excessively. The poem reminds me a little of Frost's "Spring Pools" if for no other reason than the subject.
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Damn. Somebody beat me to it
(identifying Bradley). This appeared in "The New Yorker about two years ago, in the same issue that had Wilbur's "The Gambler" in it. Bradley has two books out, but his most recent (can't remember the title) has a brilliant modern georgic on growing wine in Connecticut. |
Personally I found 'sluiced astonished soil/ off to the deep disturbance of our ocean' the most illuminating lines of a sustainedly lucent poem. A poem that lifts the lid on the workings of things, I think. Thanks for posting it here,
Sam (if I may). Ed Everett |
Although it fits the subject pretty well, I found the breathless enjambment running across five lines to be a bit much, but only a bit. I might have quibbled with "insufficiently," too. But those are very small issues in a poem that does lots of wonderful stuff. "Or so it seemed. But flood will out, commotion / Run its course" is perfect conjunction of form and sense, to my ear, and although "sluicing astonished soil / Off towards the deep disturbance of our ocean" is a tad on the ornate side, to my taste, it sure fills the mouth -- all those sibilants sluicing around...
RPW |
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