teenybuffalo: Death by Water

teenybuffalo (

teenybuffalo) wrote,
@ 2008-04-29 09:31:00

Entry tags:

poetry, rl

Death by Water
Posting from class:

This past month was apparently National Poetry Month. I missed it myself, because last year I posted a poem every day all through April, and I got burnt out. I've enjoyed reading everyone's poetry posts this month, though, and I was starting to feel left out. Here is one part of The Waste Land that I like.

Also, I've been reading and writing too many business plans lately.

Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,
Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep seas swell
And the profit and loss.
A current under sea
Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell
He passed the stages of his age and youth
Entering the whirlpool.
Gentile or Jew
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.

(Post a new comment)

	sovay 2008-04-29 04:36 pm UTC (link)
	A current under sea Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell He passed the stages of his age and youth Entering the whirlpool. This is, naturally, my favorite piece of Eliot. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	teenybuffalo 2008-04-30 02:33 am UTC (link)
	He manages to make death and dissolution at sea sound simultaneously tragic and like the most beautiful, peaceful way to go. (Reply to this)(Parent)

woolymonkey
2008-04-29 06:46 pm UTC (link)

Doesn't Eliot tie it in somehow with The Tempest?
Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly sing his knell.

Bill always makes me think of those lines, although you'd have to love him very much to call his look 'rich and strange'. Not many sea-nymphs either...

(Reply to this)(Thread)

teenybuffalo
2008-04-30 02:28 am UTC (link)

Maybe not rich, but definitely strange. I was hoping for Bill to meet a nice mermaid or so during the movie. (You know, Mermary Sue.) Well, it doesn't say that he didn't meet any...

Oooo, let me go get my paperback of "The Waste Land". Yes! Good call. Here is Eliot:

Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante,
Had a bad cold, nevertheless
Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe,
With a wicked pack of cards. Here, said she,
Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor,
(Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!)
Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks,
The lady of situations.
Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel,
And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card,
Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,
Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find
The Hanged Man. Fear death by water.
I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring.
Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone,
Tell her I bring the horoscope myself:
One must be so careful these days.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	sovay 2008-04-30 02:41 am UTC (link)
	Bill always makes me think of those lines, although you'd have to love him very much to call his look 'rich and strange'. I don't know. That's what I thought when I saw him. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	teenybuffalo 2008-04-30 03:10 am UTC (link)
	I also think he is fetching :*) (Reply to this)(Parent)

asakiyume
2008-05-06 10:31 am UTC (link)

Laurie Anderson quotes some of that song from the The Tempest in one of her pieces, and then connects it to Moby Dick

Full Fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange
And I alone remain to tell the tale
Call me Ishmael. (Laurie Anderson, "Blue Lagoon")

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	teenybuffalo 2008-05-07 04:52 am UTC (link)
	Shakespeare/Melville crossover fic! This makes me very happy. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	asakiyume 2008-05-06 10:32 am UTC (link)
	What did your link at the last line lead to? I get a 404 not-found.... (Reply to this)(Thread)

	teenybuffalo 2008-05-07 04:51 am UTC (link)
	That's funny--I wonder if I typed it wrong. It was supposed to be a picture of one of the characters from the Pirates movies--Bootstrap Bill, who is an old cursed pirate covered in sea creatures and barnacles. He looks much like my mental image of Phlebas, above. Here, let me see if this link works: http://zakath-nath.joueb.com/images/dmc46.jpg (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	asakiyume 2008-05-07 05:19 am UTC (link)
	That one worked--thanks! (Reply to this)(Parent)

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