Barker might also mean, and Berryman knew of these things, a carny barker, that is one who inveigles passers-by to come and see the show, the circus, a fair, a carnival...or a minstrel show. Given that we have Mr Bones, that would play.
Thank you, George. I would normally agree, but the phrase "the barker nips me" forces me towards a single reading in that poem (28), which I strongly but reluctantly believe is deliberately written as if by a sheep.
Nice reading, and I especially like your envisioning the mother's wagging finger lurking behind that last wonderful image. I suspect you have more you could have said about achilles, since you see a connection between this one and #53, where the speaker basically identifies himself as an Achilles calling for a tranquilizer ("more Sparine for Pelides"); opting in that case for Achilles's other name, the son of Peleus. Peleus didn't commit suicide, but he's an absentee father, growing old back in Phthia while his son rages on at Troy. It's an interesting identification, and reminds me of #!'s "Huffy Henry hid. the day / unappeasable Henry sulked . . . wicked and away"--and what could be more like the Greek anti-hero than that? I think it is meant to remind us, too, that he is "embarked on an epic." Then there is "who loves people and valiant art": logic tells me this can't be achilles, and must be Henry, but the grammar indicates otherwise. Perhaps if Henry is an achilles the phrase applies to them both?
This is one of the songs I memorized, too. I would love to hear you recite one of these. Could you post a recording? I know how they sound to me, but every performance is also an interpretation, yes? Think about it!
Thank you, Alan. Yes, I covered the DS53 reference to Pelides back when I wrote about DS1. And should gave refrenced it; it's not always easy, when moving back and forth across the book in these posts, to know which details to repeat. (I have an anxious feeling that by the time i get to the later poems, each post will simply be a densely packed collection of hyperlinks!)
I must have read this particular song when studying for A level an anthology of American poems edited by Donald Hall, though I hadn't remembered it. It is brilliant for all the reasons you say. It has made me think about boredom - I sometimes say I am never bored, but that's not true, there is the restless boredom of being unable to choose a track from the inexhaustible fountain of music on streaming, and the oppressive/depressed boredom of being unable to start the to-do list, or even to know how to start. I liked the immediate debunking of the pathetic fallacy - the flashing and yearning, that's us. And you're so right in noting the vivaciousness of a poem about being bored!
Barker might also mean, and Berryman knew of these things, a carny barker, that is one who inveigles passers-by to come and see the show, the circus, a fair, a carnival...or a minstrel show. Given that we have Mr Bones, that would play.
Thank you, George. I would normally agree, but the phrase "the barker nips me" forces me towards a single reading in that poem (28), which I strongly but reluctantly believe is deliberately written as if by a sheep.
yes, you're right.
Nice reading, and I especially like your envisioning the mother's wagging finger lurking behind that last wonderful image. I suspect you have more you could have said about achilles, since you see a connection between this one and #53, where the speaker basically identifies himself as an Achilles calling for a tranquilizer ("more Sparine for Pelides"); opting in that case for Achilles's other name, the son of Peleus. Peleus didn't commit suicide, but he's an absentee father, growing old back in Phthia while his son rages on at Troy. It's an interesting identification, and reminds me of #!'s "Huffy Henry hid. the day / unappeasable Henry sulked . . . wicked and away"--and what could be more like the Greek anti-hero than that? I think it is meant to remind us, too, that he is "embarked on an epic." Then there is "who loves people and valiant art": logic tells me this can't be achilles, and must be Henry, but the grammar indicates otherwise. Perhaps if Henry is an achilles the phrase applies to them both?
This is one of the songs I memorized, too. I would love to hear you recite one of these. Could you post a recording? I know how they sound to me, but every performance is also an interpretation, yes? Think about it!
Thank you, Alan. Yes, I covered the DS53 reference to Pelides back when I wrote about DS1. And should gave refrenced it; it's not always easy, when moving back and forth across the book in these posts, to know which details to repeat. (I have an anxious feeling that by the time i get to the later poems, each post will simply be a densely packed collection of hyperlinks!)
I must have read this particular song when studying for A level an anthology of American poems edited by Donald Hall, though I hadn't remembered it. It is brilliant for all the reasons you say. It has made me think about boredom - I sometimes say I am never bored, but that's not true, there is the restless boredom of being unable to choose a track from the inexhaustible fountain of music on streaming, and the oppressive/depressed boredom of being unable to start the to-do list, or even to know how to start. I liked the immediate debunking of the pathetic fallacy - the flashing and yearning, that's us. And you're so right in noting the vivaciousness of a poem about being bored!