"Another thing these gentlemen seem not to know
is that poetry and history offer different wares, and
have their separate rules...."
Lucian of Samosata (tr. Fowler & Fowler)
Poetry is f_____g up.
Falling.
Dead poets: n_
s___ t____.
No such thing.
Poetry is what
happens between words when no one is looking.
War
Laughing
Intercourse
Autoeroticism
Echoing
Mutating
&....
Why say one thing
with one word
when you can sing everything with two?
Tú.
Too.
Twin.
Twain.
Tween....
Explaining the
endless endurance
of love poetry.
He said.
She said.
And by the way
what did Alcman
love when he threw
away
his shield?
And by the way
what did Alcman
love when he
lyricized
throwing away
his shield?
Running?
Laughing?
Archilochus?
Being openly
unshielded?
By a bush?
These verses
and melodies
Alcman discovered
by paying close
attention to:
f_____g up.
falling.
fouling.
fowling.
Fooling around
with two,
with tú and you &
other partridges
in a pair tree.
Caccabides.
Ars.
A(r)matoria.
Naso beware.
Q.E.D.
E. A. Costa 8 December 2014 Granada, Nicaragua
__________________________________________
Nota Bene: As far as is known, Archilochus, soldier and poet, was the first to drop his shield in battle and run, then treat the event in a poem, vowing to get another one just as good. Thus began the figure called the rhipsaspia, or the throwing down of the shield, known also in regard to Alcaeus and Anacreon and later used by Horace, who fled the battle of Philippi, relicta non bene parmula (“my little shield having been left behind not at all nicely”). Did Horace actually carry a shield in the battle to throw down, and not only that one by definition small enough not to hinder running? It is the best with topoi and figures, poetic and otherwise, to leave the question open. Alcman unshielded, on the other hand, is a modern expansion.
__________________________________________
Nota Bene: As far as is known, Archilochus, soldier and poet, was the first to drop his shield in battle and run, then treat the event in a poem, vowing to get another one just as good. Thus began the figure called the rhipsaspia, or the throwing down of the shield, known also in regard to Alcaeus and Anacreon and later used by Horace, who fled the battle of Philippi, relicta non bene parmula (“my little shield having been left behind not at all nicely”). Did Horace actually carry a shield in the battle to throw down, and not only that one by definition small enough not to hinder running? It is the best with topoi and figures, poetic and otherwise, to leave the question open. Alcman unshielded, on the other hand, is a modern expansion.
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bueno
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