tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post652621786178496921..comments2024-03-19T21:14:01.007-07:00Comments on The Compass Rose: A Tribute to Ronald Johnson (1935-1998): Part TwoCurtis Favillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-85356495145788576072009-02-05T11:24:00.000-08:002009-02-05T11:24:00.000-08:00Sure, and, of course, the writing through Milton i...Sure, and, of course, the writing through Milton in RADIOS is a consummately Blakean project.<BR/><BR/>But the lyrics are sly, deceptive creatures. Innocence pairs with Experience, and round & round they go: none quite gets the last dance. I'm thinking here particularly of "The Clod and the Pebble," where the meek clod gives its ease to the cattle who tread it, while the less submissive pebble vows to stub the toes of anyone who comes near it. ("Metres meet," the poem remarks, perhaps with a nod to its own procedure.) <BR/><BR/>Which may lead back to the paired crunches of the bare heel tough enough to open chestnut-burrs, still "careful not to step on snails." A dialectic of force & restraint? Though no surprise if a poem takes notice where it puts its feet.<BR/><BR/>But yes: more. Apace.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12714098498354846094noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-4359290541754178092009-02-05T09:34:00.000-08:002009-02-05T09:34:00.000-08:00The more I think about it, the more I believe John...The more I think about it, the more I believe Johnson's model was indeed Blake.<BR/><BR/>Not the roaring rhetorician of the visionary poems, but the Blake of the lyrics and paintings.<BR/><BR/>Also, Samuel Palmer, the visionary British painter. His landscapes feel like science fiction. <BR/><BR/>More about them both later.Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-82460420631255019802009-02-04T09:34:00.000-08:002009-02-04T09:34:00.000-08:00"but must branch an eye" is very Blakean..."but must branch an eye" is very Blakean:<BR/><BR/>In harrowing fear rolling his nervous brain shot branches <BR/>On high into two little orbs hiding in two little caves<BR/>Hiding carefully from the wind his eyes beheld the deep<BR/>And a third age passed a State of dismal woe<BR/><BR/>but without the terror & horror that such vegetating immanence so often provokes in Blake. <BR/><BR/>There's such gentleness & delicacy in RJ. "careful not to step on snails"<BR/><BR/>not Blake's "terrific numbers," but "the mild & gentle for the mild and gentle parts" to their furthest extension: "'these moving circles in which we walk'."<BR/><BR/>(verification: "dermis")Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12714098498354846094noreply@blogger.com