tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4534076742744899388.post3169754869190749092..comments2024-01-08T11:39:44.389+00:00Comments on hanged man perspectives: 'Love's not so pure and abstract as they use[d] to say'NJPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03342734256280681569noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4534076742744899388.post-50517366946711479302010-11-06T01:53:22.893+00:002010-11-06T01:53:22.893+00:00Postponement of self, what a great concept!Postponement of self, what a great concept!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4534076742744899388.post-46971632423213807192010-11-06T00:23:04.314+00:002010-11-06T00:23:04.314+00:00I found the book, actually the 'Selected,'...I found the book, actually the 'Selected,' and it was one poem of hers only, 'Postponement of Self', which I recalled, and which has the lines:<br /> Arriving, arriving, not yet, not yet,<br /> Yet yet arriving, till I am met.<br />Otherwise this matter of participles is not a feature. It's funny how we gather impressions and ideas. Maybe it was the title which resonated.<br />In the preface to this book she speaks at length about her departure from poetry. It's a complex statement which is hard to condense. Here's an extract:<br />'[I became] so much aware of a discrepancy, deep-reaching, between what I call the creed and the craft of poetry - which I might otherwise describe as its religious and its ritualistic aspects - that I perceived the impossibility of anyone's functioning with consistency in the character of poet.'<br />She qualifies this judgement, but her problem appears to be about the matter of 'creed'. She even compares herself (as a different case) with Rimbaud.NJPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03342734256280681569noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4534076742744899388.post-1520493902810815392010-11-05T13:53:48.354+00:002010-11-05T13:53:48.354+00:00Rimbaud went off to work as a shipping agent, I th...Rimbaud went off to work as a shipping agent, I think! I don't know much about Laura Riding's life or trajectory, but the turn away from poetry towards some other means of realising 'truth-potential' certainly appears to counter the idea I have expressed in this blog. Maybe the devil which is ambiguity took its toll? Will try to find out more about Laura Riding. I was inspired once by her but couldn't find my 'Collected' at the point of referring to her. There was something about her use of the present continuous participle that I latched on to. Stuff available online doesn't reflect this however. I will report back. Thanks for your comment.NJPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03342734256280681569noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4534076742744899388.post-78571992521249909622010-11-03T19:31:40.130+00:002010-11-03T19:31:40.130+00:00I am not familiar with the work of Laura Riding, b...I am not familiar with the work of Laura Riding, but reading a bit about her online, I see that at a certain point she renounced poetry and turned her attention instead to a dictionary and other writing. It seems that she felt constrained by the poetic form or believed that it somehow compromised what she took to be the truth-potential of language. I may well have got that completely wrong, but anyway it is an intriguing trajectory for a literary life...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com