{"id":302,"date":"2008-12-21T10:29:43","date_gmt":"2008-12-21T10:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meeseeks:5080\/blog\/?p=302"},"modified":"2019-02-24T08:38:20","modified_gmt":"2019-02-24T08:38:20","slug":"poem-mnemosyne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/2008\/12\/poem-mnemosyne\/","title":{"rendered":"Poem: Mnemosyne"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another poem by Joe Stickney, following Song<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 This is Mnemosyne<\/em>, which on the surface appears to be a straightforward poem about a country where he had lived in the past (given the title, probably Greece, which Stickney knew well).\u00a0 However, reading the poem carefully, one sees that it also about that country we have all visited, called The Past.<\/p>\n

Quoting this poem allows me to point you to Ljova Zurbin’s wonderful setting of the poem, available here<\/a>.\u00a0 What I find particularly powerful in this setting\u00a0is the repetition of the varying refrains as a final verse, which brings Stickney’s argument into clear focus.<\/p>\n

I had the rare chance to see Ljova and the Kontraband<\/a> perform this song and other great music live at The Stone<\/a> last weekend.\u00a0 Ljova played a 6-string viola with a facility and fluency that Paganini would have envied:\u00a0 the man must have about 20 fingers on his left hand!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Lots of what they played did not make it onto their great CD, so I hope they are able to release a second CD soon.<\/p>\n

Mnemosyne<\/em>
\nIt’s autumn in the country I remember.
\nHow warm a wind blew here about the ways!
\nAnd shadows on the hillside lay to slumber
\nDuring the long sun-sweetened summer-days.<\/p>\n

It’s cold abroad the country I remember.
\nThe swallows veering skimmed the golden grain
\nAt midday with a wing aslant and limber;
\nAnd yellow cattle browsed upon the plain.<\/p>\n

It’s empty down the country I remember.
\nI had a sister lovely in my sight:
\nHer hair was dark, her eyes were very sombre;
\nWe sang together in the woods at night.<\/p>\n

It’s lonely in the country I remember.
\nThe babble of our children fills my ears,
\nAnd on our hearth I stare the perished ember
\nTo flames that show all starry thro’ my tears.<\/p>\n

It’s dark about the country I remember.
\nThere are the mountains where I lived. The path
\nIs slushed with cattle-tracks and fallen timber,
\nThe stumps are twisted by the tempests’ wrath.<\/p>\n

But that I knew these places are my own,
\nI ‘d ask how came such wretchedness to cumber
\nThe earth, and I to people it alone.
\nIt rains across the country I remember.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

PS (2016-09-09):<\/strong> \u00a0Another wonderful song about the invocation of memories, suddenly, is\u00a0The Bones of You<\/em> by Elbow, official video\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another poem by Joe Stickney, following Song.\u00a0\u00a0 This is Mnemosyne, which on the surface appears to be a straightforward poem about a country where he had lived in the past (given the title, probably Greece, which Stickney knew well).\u00a0 However, reading the poem carefully, one sees that it also about that country we have all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,63,72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-poetry","category-reviews","p1","y2008","m12","d21","h10"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9766,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions\/9766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}