Poetry Appreciation

Ariadne, where are you? I have just read this and want to know your thoughts on it.
J05 your first contribution on this thread was interesting. You are now drifting into a more familiar mode in which you are not discussing the poem but just chatting to yourself and spoiling the thread for other people. There are many areas in GN where frivolity rules and it's great to have fun. Would it be too much to ask that you consider others a little bit more and do not give in to your compulsion to throw in one liners on every thread?

And the fairy was made of celluloid. Cracking a bit in places. But sooo loved!

I've still got some thin tinsel. I treasure it. Much prettier than to-day's gaudy stuff.

Maybe you're not old enough jodi! You have to remember the days when Christmas trees had no lights but dangerous candles, and tree decorations had newspaper for a base with silver paper over the top. And tinsel was thin.

I like the tortoise stove. I want one!

Ah - I thought it might be something to do with the poem and couldn't get my head round it!

Mishap I was merely exchanging pleasantries with two friends.

Jodi - I think you either like Betjeman or you don't! I did a photography exhibition based on his church poems and they are wonderfully descriptive, so I got a bit hooked on him then.

Soop - I can't understand your last two posts - what is that about please?

...reciprocated, Butty

Hi soop + ((hug))

Ariadne yet another

Oh dear. I can't get into this poem. What am I missing please?

Just dug out the Christmas poem by Betjeman.

It has his trademark "homeliness." It describes the everyday, and is very good at drawing us into the scene. It is also very much of his time and class. And of course it reflects his strong Christian faith. The last few lines express some regret at the commercialization of Christmas - but he also paints a benign picture of the modern (then) Christmas and does not dissmiss the importance of the gestures of generosity that characterise the Christmas season.

I love the line...."And girls in slacks remember Dad, and oafish louts remember Mum."

I love the rhyming and metre - all very simple and a bit Pam Ayres reallly - but it fits the piece so well.

Sounds good! I'll dig out the Betjeman now - the advent one is it?

Well Ariadne if everyone is done with the Magi now I have no personal objection to moving on to another poem. It's just we can't really discuss more than one poem at once without chaos and confusion breaking don't you think?
Over to you to kick off on the next one.

We have to wait to talk about the Betjeman. Apparently.

Hi CHEELU I'm sure others will join me in saying welcome if they were on this strand. I'd love to hear more about your poetry

sorry! no 'H'!

Hello CHEELUH.

The Betjeman one is pure heaven.

Just what Christmas used to be. Is it like that now? We can only try.

"That God was man in Palestine, and lives today in bread and wine"

I once went to Venice (a celebration for my 50th with my 3 daughters - a sort of week-long cultural hen-party). One of my DDs had been living there for 3 months and she was studying art history at the uni - she took us round the galleries and shed so much light on the paintings - the techniques, the symbolism - and I learnt so much and got so much more out of the experience than I would otherwise have done. But at the same time I was also just blown away in a non-analytical way.

I think there is room for both approaches; analysis can illuminate; but an instant impression also has its place. Both have their value.

I am happy to hear people's analysis of a selected poem on this forum, and also to continue to read other poems in a different spirit.

Hi I am a published poetry writer only small time but aspiring

On the "litttle blurbs" beside paintings in Galleries, I always find that they tell you things that you are not particularly interested to know - the exact date it was done, who the subject is if it is a portrait - when I would rather hear just how that effect of light flooding in was achieved, say, or why there is a little twig of oak leaves lying near Jesus' feet.

I went to a marvellous series of talks on "How to read paintings" which covered the difference between the uses of various mediums and the symbolism used in religious pictures, the attributes of the various saints who stand around and so on.

Those oak leaves were the badge of the Della Robbia family (robur = oak tree) which contained several Popes, who commissioned paintings and liked their patronage to be shown prominently.

hi