I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, not cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.
Randall Jarrell (less lovely,
more timely; no possibility of an air)
Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
I fell out of my mother’s sleep
into the state
And lay hunched in its belly
till my wet fur froze.
Six miles above the earth,
Loosed from its dream of life
I woke, to the black flak
and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out
of the turret with a hose.
On 2002-09-21 10:47, FJohnSharp wrote:
This is as achy as an air.
Totally agree!! This was the first Yeats poem I read in the school library
With regards to Irish authors, has anyone tried reading Finnegan’s Wake? I mean…Dubliners was ok, and so is Potrait of an Artist As a Young Man…but Finnegan’s Wake takes the cake :roll:
Tim Finnegan lived on Walkin (sp) street,
A gentle Irishman mighty odd.
He’d a beautiful brogue, so rich and sweet,
And to rise in the world he carried a hod.
You see he’d sort of a tipplin way,
With a love for the liquor Tim was born.
To help him off to work each day,
He’d a drop of the crather every morn.
What follows is phonetic: Chorus
Whack for the dar (sp) now, dance to
your partner,
Welt the floor your trotters shake.
Wasn’t it the truth I tell you,
Lots of fun at Finnegan’s wake!
Beginning of Clancy Brothers rendition,
apologies for mistakes.
[ This Message was edited by: jim stone on 2002-09-21 14:09 ]
On 2002-09-21 13:49, psychih wrote:
With regards to Irish authors, has anyone tried reading Finnegan’s Wake? I mean…Dubliners was ok, and so is Potrait of an Artist As a Young Man…but Finnegan’s Wake takes the cake :roll:
Some people also have a lot of trouble with Ulysses, but it’s not so bad if read slowly.
As for Finnegans Wake, I think the only way to get at it is to use something like A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake by Campbell & Robinson.
It also helps to know the inspiration for Finnegans Wake, which is the song of the same title about the hod carrier Tim Finnegan. Slightly drunk, he falls off a ladder and apparently dies, but at his wake there is a brawl, during which whiskey is accidentally spilled on Tim’s body, which causes him to revive.
