#perhaps my gay poetry manuscript?

[lohstandfound]

I should go back to making collages

[culturecalypsosblog]

Today's blog is on the pagan holiday Beltane on 5-1-21 BLESSED BELTANE!

🌳👑🌿🔥🙌🍄🌖🌌🌼🦋🌻🌸💐

Beltane

Beltane or Beltain (/ˈbɛl.teɪn/) is the Gaelic May Day festival. Most commonly it is held on 1 May, or about halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice. Historically, it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. In Irish the name for the festival day is Lá Bealtaine ([l̪ˠaː ˈbʲal̪ˠt̪ˠənʲə]), in Scottish Gaelic Là Bealltainn ([l̪ˠaː ˈpjaul̪ˠt̪ɪɲ]) and in Manx Gaelic Laa Boaltinn/Boaldyn. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals—along with Samhain, Imbolc and Lughnasadh—and is similar to the Welsh Calan Mai.

Also calledLá Bealtaine  (Irish)

Là Bealltainn  (Scottish Gaelic)

Laa Boaltinn/Boaldyn  (Manx)[1]

Beltaine  (French)

Beltain; Beltine; Beltany[2][3]Observed byHistorically: Gaels

Today: Irish people, Scottish people, Manx people, Galician people, Wiccans, and Celtic neopagansTypeCultural

Pagan (Celtic polytheism, Celtic neopaganism, Wicca)SignificanceBeginning of summerCelebrationslighting bonfires, decorating homes with May flowers, making May bushes, visiting holy wells, feastingDate1 May[4]

(or 1 November in the S. Hemisphere)FrequencyannualRelated toMay Day, Calan Mai, Walpurgis Night

Beltane is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature and is associated with important events in Irish mythology. Also known as Cétshamhain ("first of summer"), it marked the beginning of summer and it was when cattle were driven out to the summer pastures. Rituals were performed to protect the cattle, crops and people, and to encourage growth. Special bonfires were kindled, and their flames, smoke and ashes were deemed to have protective powers. The people and their cattle would walk around or between bonfires, and sometimes leap over the flames or embers. All household fires would be doused and then re-lit from the Beltane bonfire. These gatherings would be accompanied by a feast, and some of the food and drink would be offered to the aos sí. Doors, windows, byres and livestock would be decorated with yellow May flowers, perhaps because they evoked fire. In parts of Ireland, people would make a May Bush: typically a thorn bush or branch decorated with flowers, ribbons, bright shells and rushlights. Holy wells were also visited, while Beltane dew was thought to bring beauty and maintain youthfulness. Many of these customs were part of May Day or Midsummer festivals in other parts of Great Britain and Europe.

Beltane celebrations had largely died out by the mid-20th century, although some of its customs continued and in some places it has been revived as a cultural event. Since the late 20th century, Celtic neopagans and Wiccans have observed Beltane or a related festival as a religious holiday. Neopagans in the Southern Hemisphere celebrate Beltane on or around 1 November.

Historic Beltane customs

Beltane was one of four Gaelic seasonal festivals: Samhain (~1 November), Imbolc (~1 February), Beltane (~1 May), and Lughnasadh (~1 August). Beltane marked the beginning of the pastoral summer season, when livestock were driven out to the summer pastures. Rituals were held at that time to protect them from harm, both natural and supernatural, and this mainly involved the "symbolic use of fire". There were also rituals to protect crops, dairy products and people, and to encourage growth. The aos sí (often referred to as spirits or fairies) were thought to be especially active at Beltane (as at Samhain) and the goal of many Beltane rituals was to appease them. Most scholars see the aos sí as remnants of the pagan gods and nature spirits. Beltane was a "spring time festival of optimism" during which "fertility ritual again was important, perhaps connecting with the waxing power of the sun".

Before the modern era

Beltane (the beginning of summer) and Samhain (the beginning of winter) are thought to have been the most important of the four Gaelic festivals. Sir James George Frazer wrote in The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion that the times of Beltane and Samhain are of little importance to European crop-growers, but of great importance to herdsmen. Thus, he suggests that halving the year at 1 May and 1 November dates from a time when the Celts were mainly a pastoral people, dependent on their herds.

The earliest mention of Beltane is in Old Irish literature from Gaelic Ireland. According to the early medieval texts Sanas Cormaic (written by Cormac mac Cuilennáin) and Tochmarc Emire, Beltane was held on 1 May and marked the beginning of summer. The texts say that, to protect cattle from disease, the druids would make two fires "with great incantations" and drive the cattle between them.

According to 17th-century historian Geoffrey Keating, there was a great gathering at the hill of Uisneach each Beltane in medieval Ireland, where a sacrifice was made to a god named Beil. Keating wrote that two bonfires would be lit in every district of Ireland, and cattle would be driven between them to protect them from disease. There is no reference to such a gathering in the annals, but the medieval Dindsenchas includes a tale of a hero lighting a holy fire on Uisneach that blazed for seven years. Ronald Hutton writes that this may "preserve a tradition of Beltane ceremonies there", but adds "Keating or his source may simply have conflated this legend with the information in Sanas Chormaic to produce a piece of pseudo-history. Nevertheless, excavations at Uisneach in the 20th century found evidence of large fires and charred bones, showing it to have been ritually significant.

Beltane is also mentioned in medieval Scottish literature. An early reference is found in the poem 'Peblis to the Play', contained in the Maitland Manuscripts of 15th- and 16th-century Scots poetry, which describes the celebration in the town of Peebles.

Modern era

From the late 18th century to the mid 20th century, many accounts of Beltane customs were recorded by folklorists and other writers. For example John Jamieson, in his Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language (1808) describes some of the Beltane customs which persisted in the 18th and early 19th centuries in parts of Scotland, which he noted were beginning to die out. In the 19th century, folklorist Alexander Carmichael (1832–1912), collected the Gaellic song Am Beannachadh Bealltain (The Beltane Blessing) in his Carmina Gadelica, which he heard from a crofter in South Uist. The first two verses were sung as follows:

Beannaich, a Thrianailt fhioir nach gann, (Bless, O Threefold true and bountiful,)

Mi fein, mo cheile agus mo chlann, (Myself, my spouse and my children,)

Mo chlann mhaoth's am mathair chaomh 'n an ceann, (My tender children and their beloved mother at their head,)

Air chlar chubhr nan raon, air airidh chaon nam beann, (On the fragrant plain, at the gay mountain sheiling,)

Air chlar chubhr nan raon, air airidh chaon nam beam. (On the fragrant plain, at the gay mountain sheiling.)

Gach ni na m' fhardaich, no ta 'na m' shealbh, (Everything within my dwelling or in my possession,)

Gach buar is barr, gach tan is tealbh, (All kine and crops, all flocks and corn,)

Bho Oidhche Shamhna chon Oidhche Bheallt, (From Hallow Eve to Beltane Eve,)

Piseach maith, agus beannachd mallt, (With goodly progress and gentle blessing,)

Bho mhuir, gu muir, agus bun gach allt, (From sea to sea, and every river mouth,)

Bho thonn gu tonn, agus bonn gach steallt. (From wave to wave, and base of waterfall.)[18]

Bonfires

A Beltane bonfire at Butser Ancient Farm

Bonfires continued to be a key part of the festival in the modern era. All hearth fires and candles would be doused before the bonfire was lit, generally on a mountain or hill. Ronald Hutton writes that "To increase the potency of the holy flames, in Britain at least they were often kindled by the most primitive of all means, of friction between wood." In the 19th century, for example, John Ramsay described Scottish Highlanders kindling a need-fire or force-fire at Beltane. Such a fire was deemed sacred. In the 19th century, the ritual of driving cattle between two fires—as described in Sanas Cormaic almost 1000 years before—was still practised across most of Ireland and in parts of Scotland. Sometimes the cattle would be driven "around" a bonfire or be made to leap over flames or embers. The people themselves would do likewise. In the Isle of Man, people ensured that the smoke blew over them and their cattle. When the bonfire had died down, people would daub themselves with its ashes and sprinkle it over their crops and livestock. Burning torches from the bonfire would be taken home, where they would be carried around the house or boundary of the farmstead and would be used to re-light the hearth. From these rituals, it is clear that the fire was seen as having protective powers. Similar rituals were part of May Day, Midsummer or Easter customs in other parts of the British Isles and mainland Europe. According to Frazer, the fire rituals are a kind of imitative or sympathetic magic. According to one theory, they were meant to mimic the Sun and to "ensure a needful supply of sunshine for men, animals, and plants". According to another, they were meant to symbolically "burn up and destroy all harmful influences".

Food was also cooked at the bonfire and there were rituals involving it. Alexander Carmichael wrote that there was a feast featuring lamb, and that formerly this lamb was sacrificed. In 1769, Thomas Pennant wrote that, in Perthshire, a caudle made from eggs, butter, oatmeal and milk was cooked on the bonfire. Some of the mixture was poured on the ground as a libation. Everyone present would then take an oatmeal cake, called the bannoch Bealltainn or "Beltane bannock". A bit of it was offered to the spirits to protect their livestock (one bit to protect the horses, one bit to protect the sheep, and so forth) and a bit was offered to each of the animals that might harm their livestock (one to the fox, one to the eagle, and so forth). Afterwards, they would drink the caudle.

According to 18th century writers, in parts of Scotland there was another ritual involving the oatmeal cake. The cake would be cut and one of the slices marked with charcoal. The slices would then be put in a bonnet and everyone would take one out while blindfolded. According to one writer, whoever got the marked piece would have to leap through the fire three times. According to another, those present would pretend to throw them into the fire and, for some time afterwards, they would speak of them as if they were dead. This "may embody a memory of actual human sacrifice", or it may have always been symbolic. A similar ritual (i.e. of pretending to burn someone in the fire) was practised at spring and summer bonfire festivals in other parts of Europe.

Flowers and May Bushes

A flowering hawthorn

Yellow flowers such as primrose, rowan, hawthorn, gorse, hazel, and marsh marigold were placed at doorways and windows in 19th century Ireland, Scotland and Mann. Sometimes loose flowers were strewn at the doors and windows and sometimes they were made into bouquets, garlands or crosses and fastened to them. They would also be fastened to cows and equipment for milking and butter making. It is likely that such flowers were used because they evoked fire. Similar May Day customs are found across Europe.

The May Bush and May Bough was popular in parts of Ireland until the late 19th century. This was a small tree or branch—typically hawthorn, rowan, holly or sycamore—decorated with bright flowers, ribbons, painted shells, and so forth. The tree would either be decorated where it stood, or branches would be decorated and placed inside or outside the house. It may also be decorated with candles or rushlights. Sometimes a May Bush would be paraded through the town. In parts of southern Ireland, gold and silver hurling balls known as May Balls would be hung on these May Bushes and handed out to children or given to the winners of a hurling match. In Dublin and Belfast, May Bushes were brought into town from the countryside and decorated by the whole neighbourhood. Each neighbourhood vied for the most handsome tree and, sometimes, residents of one would try to steal the May Bush of another. This led to the May Bush being outlawed in Victorian times. In some places, it was customary to dance around the May Bush, and at the end of the festivities it may be burnt in the bonfire.

Thorn trees were seen as special trees and were associated with the aos sí. The custom of decorating a May Bush or May Tree was found in many parts of Europe. Frazer believes that such customs are a relic of tree worship and writes: "The intention of these customs is to bring home to the village, and to each house, the blessings which the tree-spirit has in its power to bestow."Emyr Estyn Evans suggests that the May Bush custom may have come to Ireland from England, because it seemed to be found in areas with strong English influence and because the Irish saw it as unlucky to damage certain thorn trees. However, "lucky" and "unlucky" trees varied by region, and it has been suggested that Beltane was the only time when cutting thorn trees was allowed. The practice of bedecking a May Bush with flowers, ribbons, garlands and bright shells is found among the Gaelic diaspora, most notably in Newfoundland, and in some Easter traditions on the East Coast of the United States.

Other customs

Holy wells were often visited at Beltane, and at the other Gaelic festivals of Imbolc and Lughnasadh. Visitors to holy wells would pray for health while walking sunwise (moving from east to west) around the well. They would then leave offerings; typically coins or clooties (see clootie well). The first water drawn from a well on Beltane was seen as being especially potent, as was Beltane morning dew. At dawn on Beltane, maidens would roll in the dew or wash their faces with it. It would also be collected in a jar, left in the sunlight, and then filtered. The dew was thought to increase sexual attractiveness, maintain youthfulness, and help with skin ailments.

People also took steps specifically to ward-off or appease the aos sí. Food was left or milk poured at the doorstep or places associated with the aos sí, such as 'fairy trees', as an offering. In Ireland, cattle would be brought to 'fairy forts', where a small amount of their blood would be collected. The owners would then pour it into the earth with prayers for the herd's safety. Sometimes the blood would be left to dry and then be burnt. It was thought that dairy products were especially at risk from harmful spirits. To protect farm produce and encourage fertility, farmers would lead a procession around the boundaries of their farm. They would "carry with them seeds of grain, implements of husbandry, the first well water, and the herb vervain (or rowan as a substitute). The procession generally stopped at the four cardinal points of the compass, beginning in the east, and rituals were performed in each of the four directions".

The festival persisted widely up until the 1950s, and in some places the celebration of Beltane continues today.

As a festival, Beltane had largely died out by the mid-20th century, although some of its customs continued and in some places it has been revived as a cultural event. In Ireland, Beltane fires were common until the mid 20th century, but the custom seems to have lasted to the present day only in County Limerick (especially in Limerick itself) and in Arklow, County Wicklow. However, the custom has been revived in some parts of the country. Some cultural groups have sought to revive the custom at Uisneach and perhaps at the Hill of Tara. The lighting of a community Beltane fire from which each hearth fire is then relit is observed today in some parts of the Gaelic diaspora, though in most of these cases it is a cultural revival rather than an unbroken survival of the ancient tradition. In some areas of Newfoundland, the custom of decorating the May Bush is also still extant. The town of Peebles in the Scottish Borders holds a traditional week-long Beltane Fair every year in June, when a local girl is crowned Beltane Queen on the steps of the parish church. Like other Borders festivals, it incorporates a Common Riding.

Since 1988, a Beltane Fire Festival has been held every year during the night of 30 April on Calton Hill in Edinburgh, Scotland. While inspired by traditional Beltane, this festival is a modern arts and cultural event which incorporates myth and drama from a variety of world cultures and diverse literary sources. Two central figures of the Bel Fire procession and performance are the May Queen and the Green Man.

Neo-Paganism

Beltane and Beltane-based festivals are held by some Neopagans. As there are many kinds of Neopaganism, their Beltane celebrations can be very different despite the shared name. Some try to emulate the historic festival as much as possible. Other Neopagans base their celebrations on many sources, the Gaelic festival being only one of them.

Neopagans usually celebrate Beltane on 30 April – 1 May in the Northern Hemisphere and 31 October – 1 November in the Southern Hemisphere, beginning and ending at sunset. Some Neopagans celebrate it at the astronomical midpoint between the spring equinox and summer solstice (or the full moon nearest this point). In the Northern Hemisphere, this midpoint is when the ecliptic longitude of the Sun reaches 45 degrees.

Celtic Reconstructionist

Celtic Reconstructionists strive to reconstruct the pre-Christian religions of the Celts. Their religious practices are based on research and historical accounts, but may be modified slightly to suit modern life. They avoid modern syncretism and eclecticism (i.e. combining practises from unrelated cultures).

Celtic Reconstructionists usually celebrate Lá Bealtaine when the local hawthorn trees are in bloom. Many observe the traditional bonfire rites, to whatever extent this is feasible where they live. This may involve passing themselves and their pets or livestock between two bonfires, and bringing home a candle lit from the bonfire. If they are unable to make a bonfire or attend a bonfire ceremony, torches or candles may be used instead. They may decorate their homes with a May Bush, branches from blooming thorn trees, or equal-armed rowan crosses. Holy wells may be visited and offerings made to the spirits or deities of the wells. Traditional festival foods may also be prepared.

Wicca

Wiccans use the name Beltane or Beltain for their May Day celebrations. It is one of the yearly Sabbats of the Wheel of the Year, following Ostara and preceding Midsummer. Unlike Celtic Reconstructionism, Wicca is syncretic and melds practices from many different cultures. In general, the Wiccan Beltane is more akin to the Germanic/English May Day festival, both in its significance (focusing on fertility) and its rituals (such as maypole dancing). Some Wiccans enact a ritual union of the May Lord and May Lady.

Name

In Irish, the festival is usually called Lá Bealtaine ('day of Beltane') while the month of May is Mí Bhealtaine ("month of Beltane"). In Scottish Gaelic, the festival is Latha Bealltainn and the month is An Cèitean or a' Mhàigh. Sometimes the older Scottish Gaelic spelling Bealltuinn is used. The word Céitean comes from Cétshamain ('first of summer'), an old alternative name for the festival. The term Latha Buidhe Bealltainn (Scottish) or Lá Buidhe Bealtaine (Irish), 'the bright or yellow day of Beltane', means the first of May. In Ireland it is referred to in a common folk tale as Luan Lae Bealtaine; the first day of the week (Monday/Luan) is added to emphasise the first day of summer.

The name is anglicized as Beltane, Beltain, Beltaine, Beltine and Beltany.

Etymology

Two modern etymologies have been proposed. Beltaine could derive from a Common Celtic *belo-te(p)niâ, meaning 'bright fire'. The element *belo- might be cognate with the English word bale (as in bale-fire) meaning 'white' or 'shining'; compare Old English bǣl, and Lithuanian/Latvian baltas/balts, found in the name of the Baltic; in Slavic languages byelo or beloye also means 'white', as in Беларусь ('White Rus′' or Belarus) or Бе́лое мо́ре ('White Sea').[citation needed] Alternatively, Beltaine might stem from a Common Celtic form reconstructed as *Beltiniyā, which would be cognate with the name of the Lithuanian goddess of death Giltinė, both from an earlier *gʷel-tiōn-, formed with the Proto-Indo-European root *gʷelH- ('suffering, death'). The absence of syncope (Irish sound laws rather predict a **Beltne form) is explained by the popular belief that Beltaine was a compound of the word for 'fire', tene.

In Ó Duinnín's Irish dictionary (1904), Beltane is referred to as Céadamh(ain) which it explains is short for Céad-shamh(ain) meaning 'first (of) summer'. The dictionary also states that Dia Céadamhan is May Day and Mí Céadamhan is the month of May.

There are a number of place names in Ireland containing the word Bealtaine, indicating places where Bealtaine festivities were once held. It is often anglicised as Beltany. There are three Beltanys in County Donegal, including the Beltany stone circle, and two in County Tyrone. In County Armagh there is a place called Tamnaghvelton/Tamhnach Bhealtaine ('the Beltane field'). Lisbalting/Lios Bealtaine ('the Beltane ringfort') is in County Tipperary, while Glasheennabaultina/Glaisín na Bealtaine ('the Beltane stream') is the name of a stream joining the River Galey in County Limerick.

Source: Wikipedia

I hope you've enjoyed this blog more to follow soon,

Blessed be,

Culture Calypso's Blog 🌻🌸💐

[awrldalone]

29th April 2021, 6.51pm

Hot coffee with a splash of milk is all I need to warm my bones. It is April, yet it is raining rivers outside. I got soaked, walking through Venice with no umbrella.

This morning, the grey sky threatened to unleash hell. But it held. I always get to school early, so before I get into the building I have time to get a coffee. I have been trying new places. One on the road to school, midway between the train station and my school: the coffee is nice, and the shop owner is cordial; he has a bald head, and a round face, covered with the mask. Another one is very close to my school, near the end of Strada Nuova; I like their americano, it tastes nutty but dry. The one I tried out today was in Cannaregio; it was a bit expensive (two euros for a cappuccino) but the boy - dark hair, thick round glasses, dark eyes that smiled, one simple black earring - was kind, and the foam was delicious.

I have been reading Sylvia Plath’s Diaries. A copy of them, wet and curled up at the edges, lies on my bed, drying. I find them comforting, extremely relatable. She understands what I feel; the constant need to prove ourselves, the deep-rooted sadness that plagued her since her earlier entries, her unashamed thoughts that I share, the inconsistency when it comes to producing literary work. 

It’s been very insightful, and it is giving me a lot of ideas for how I want to progress in life. I think I want to become a writer too, though I doubt I would ever make enough money to sustain myself. A part time writer will do. Getting published is one of my dreams though.

I think I started out too big, I aimed too high: no one wants to publish a manuscript from a nobody. I need to send poems to newspapers, magazines, publications: The New Yorker, AGNI, The Kenyon Review would be the top of the ladder; I will start, tonight, with Thrush Poetry Journal, FreezeRay,  Ghost City Review, Little Death Lit, anyone who will accept a submission. 

More writing needs to be done, more effort needs to be put into perfecting each poem. I have also started writing a book, for the millionth time, but this time it is serious.

I was at the book store, last week, and I asked myself, stupidly: “Why is there no queer section?” The answer is sad: “Because there is no queer literature translated or written in Italian.” I have the motivation to fill that gap. An all-Italian summer, a gay main character, romance near the sea, heartbreaks, running away in the night, looking at the stars. 

I set myself the goal to write one thousand words a day for it. It does not matter what I write, I just need to write. Write and write and write. No one has ever achieved anything by being lazy - and I need to prove I am not lazy. So far I have written 3.3k words, but by Sunday I hope to get to 8k. Or maybe 10k.

Today, in P.E. class, J. jumped and fell on her foot. She might have sprained her ankle, or perhaps it is broken, though it’s unlikely since she did not cry. She could not walk.

They gave her crutches, but since she lives in the other side of the city, K., C., A. and I helped her move around. Getting to the vaporetto stop was hard. K. picked her up on his back at one point, and I held all her belongings. It was raining thick droplets, a cover of circles over the green water and a cover of deep graphite grey over our heads. Bridges were the hardest part.

When we got to the boat, C. and K. left us. C. and A. are twins, but their difference has always been funny to me: while he’s tall, probably anorexic in a way that makes me uneasy, as sometimes I feel in competition, and very precise, she’s short, and sporty, and quiet. The vaporetto was crowded, but J. sat on the seats reserved for the elders, the injured, crippled, disabled, or pregnant. The windows were covered in water, my hair was soaked.

I always have an umbrella, but I did not open it: at one point I made her jump on my back, it was the fastest way to move, and when she was walking by herself I wanted to have free hands in case she lost her balance. Her mother was waiting for us at the door.

-c.

[lesamis]

Please tell us about owen wilde and yourself!!!

happily, anon! i’m titling this over-long response “Literary Gay Crushes On Keats: The Wilde & Owen Feature”. 

wilde’s writing on keats is stunning. keats plays something of an odd role in gay literary iconography among english writers: he’s an object of desire as much as of identification; his appearance, the sensuality of his poetry, and his perpetually unfulfilled sexuality all provide obvious reasons for this. but wilde’s affection for keats was intensely personal. he writes that he loves keats, that much is easily said, but the list of attributes he provides is detailed, generous, and a little bit quirky. he even mentions the cat anecdote. 

differently put, wilde admires keats’s poetry in a literary sense, as his open appreciation of beauty fits right into the aesthetic movement, but he also sees it as an expression of youthful genius and sensual tenderness that resonates with him on a more personal level. he ascribes genuine beauty to keats himself, his character, his body. he was approached by keats’s niece, emma speed, when he toured america, and through her acquired access to some of keats’s manuscripts. thanking her, he writes: 

[…] now I am half enamoured of the paper that touched his hand, and the ink that did his bidding, grown fond of the sweet comeliness of his charactery, for since my boyhood I have loved none better than your marvellous kinsman, that godlike boy, the real Adonis of our age, who knew the silver-footed messages of the moon, and the secret of the morning, who heard in Hyperion’s vale the large utterance of the early gods, and from the beechen plot the light-winged Dryad, who saw Madeline at the painted window, and Lamia in the house at Corinth, and Endymion ankle-deep in lilies of the vale, who drubbed the butcher’s boy for being a bully, and drank confusion to Newton for having analysed the rainbow. In my heaven he walks eternally with Shakespeare and the Greeks, and it may be that some day he will lift “his hymenaeal curls from out his amber gleaming wine, | With ambrosial lips will kiss my forehead, clasp the hand of noble love in mine.”

Again I thank you for this dear memory of the man I love, and thank you also for the sweet and gracious words in which you give it to me: it were strange in truth if one in whose veins flows the same blood as quickened into song that young priest of beauty, were not with me in this great renaissance of art which Keats indeed would have so much loved, and of which he, above all others, is the seed.

he also wrote two sonnets, the grave of keats and on the sale by auction of keats’s love letters, as well as this essay in his memory. 

owen finds it similarly easy to identify with keats, but, i think, for different reasons. their lives were strangely parallel; they were born a century apart in the respective 90s of their age (keats 1795, owen 1893), died young, suffered much, and left remarkable literary legacies. keats’s influence is extremely obvious in owen’s earliest poems, some of which are literally about keats, like written in a wood, september 1910 (“Yet shall I see fair Keats, and hear his lyre”), or this sonnet. 

owen admired keats’s style and agreed with his philosophy, but keats was also an object of hero-worship and affection that translated directly to owen’s later love for sassoon. he writes to his mother about the strangeness of his own love for keats, as “to be in love with a youth and a dead-un is perhaps sillier than with a real, live maid”. in fact, if you read owen’s letters from this time and have also read keats’s from when he was a similar age, it’s really difficult not to get emotional about how similar they are in tone. owen was trying to trace keats’s path through england, seeking out locations where keats stayed in hampstead and teignmouth, in what he describes as a “pilgrimage”. keats did exactly the same in the footsteps of his own literary heroes a century earlier.

all this, then, is wrapped up in owen’s most famous letter to sassoon:

I held you as Keats + Christ + Elijah + my Colonel + my father-confessor + Amenophis IV in profile.          What’s that mathematically?          In effect it is this: that I love you, dispassionately, so much, so very much, dear Fellow, that the blasting little smile you wear on reading this can’t hurt me in the least.

as opposed to wilde, to whom keats seems to have offered above all else aesthetic inspiration, i think to owen, keats was a source of comfort and security. this is why he recognises him in sassoon, who “fixed” his life: keats appears to have been something of a home to owen, a point of orientation, recognition, and safety. to which i can only say, from the bottom of my heart; well, fuck. 

(my own gay crush on keats, while utterly insignificant and also embarrassing, is still kind of a product of this same tradition: one that transfigures keats and has been doing so since shelley wrote adonais. keats had people who loved him dearly when he was alive; everything that came after is as much imagined as real. loving keats, as we do, after his death, is far more meaningful for each person who loves him than it could ever be for keats’s memory.) 

[andrebooker7532]

Mary Dearborn on Ernest Hemingway: An interview by Bob Morris

Mary Dearborn is the author of six books: Mistress of Modernism: The Life of Peggy Guggenheim (2006), Queen of Bohemia: The Life of Louise Bryant (1996), and Mailer: A Biography (1991). Her latest book, Ernest Hemingway: A Biography was published by Knopf (2017). She received a B.A. in English and Classics from Brown University and a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University, where she was a Mellon Fellow in the Humanities. She lives in Buckland, Massachusetts.

Here is an excerpt from my interview of Mary.

* * *

Before discussing your superb biography of Ernest Hemingway, a few general questions. First, who has had the greatest influence on your personal growth? How so?

My current partner, who I have been with for over thirty years. He is a journalist, and helped me unlearn bad academic writing habits and learn to write anew. He remains my best editor. Second, my father, who always encouraged me to read and to value literature.

The greatest impact on your professional development? How so?

I got my PhD from Columbia University, and was lucky enough to get my dissertation published very quickly by Oxford Univ. Press. This gave me a published book, which gave me a lot of leverage with agents and editors when I wanted to leave academics and write for the general public.

Years ago, was there a turning point (if not an epiphany) that set you on the career course you continue to follow? Please explain.

I had always wanted to be a writer, but my fiction was subpar (mostly because of wooden dialogue) and my poetry even worse. I spent my 20s in English grad school at Columbia, basically reading and writing about books, which, looking back, wasn’t a bad way to spend my 20s—that is if I hadn’t been broke all the time.

I had a sort of epiphany after publishing my first book (my dissertation) at age 30—which was that I was a writer—a writer of nonfiction. I could be a writer after all. (Sounds obvious—it wasn’t.)

To what extent has your formal education been invaluable to what you have accomplished thus far? It made me do a lot of reading and writing. But I had to kind of educate myself when it came to reading and learning to write biographies. The biographical approach isn’t very welcome—to say the least—in academia. But I’ve always wanted to know what made people tick, and since the people in whom I was most interested in were writers, that meant I was drawn to literary biography.

What do you know now about writing non-fiction that you wish you knew when you began work on your first manuscript? Why?

I’ve learned that you don’t need to comment on a subject’s behavior all the time, and that you should try not to judge. This is really very simple—you learn to show, not tell. This became an issue first with Norman Mailer, who, though I love him dearly, often behaved like a horse’s ass. I didn’t have to point that out for the reader—I just had to show what he said and did. The result was my biography was said by several reviewers to be very fair, which I think is a great compliment. Of course, you still have to be careful not to stack the deck—selecting all incidents or statements that show your subject behaving like a sinner/ignoramus--or a saint.

This came up with my Hemingway work as well, though he was a much more complicated creature, and sometimes I did have to stop and comment on why I thought he was doing certain things or saying things in a certain way.

I think you have to have compassion for your subject -- number one.

Of all the greatest biographers throughout history, with which one would you most like to be closely associated for an extended weekend of one-on-one conversation? Why?

This is an answer to a somewhat different question, but the biographer who is working today whom I most admire is Blake Bailey, whose biography of John Cheever won the National Book Award. He’s also the biographer of Richard Yates and Charles Jackson (of The Lost Weekend fame.) He’s now writing a biography of Philip Roth, for which I don’t envy him one bit!

What have you found to be the unique challenges of writing a biography as opposed to, say, a history of Florence during the Italian Renaissance?

Understanding another human being. While I don’t think of myself as taking a psychoanalytic or even psychological approach, you really have to act like a therapist in some ways: what are your subjects/patients trying to tell you when they say this? Do that? You need to listen to see if they aren't recreating or responding to a much earlier episode in their lives—perhaps from childhood. One crude example: the way a lot of subjects interact with spouses can have a lot to do with their experiences with their parents. That may seem obvious, but you need to be sensitive to it.

What seem to be the defining characteristics of an environment within which great writing is most likely to thrive.

I have an answer to this that might seem to be off-the-wall: it’s a good sign when gay people are thriving in a civilization. Renaissances are often gay—the Italian one, the Harlem one. Less flippantly, I guess I would rephrase—that I believe that personal freedom bears artistic fruit.

* * *

Here is a direct link to the complete interview.

Mary invites you to check out the resources at these websites:

Her website link

The New York Times review link

Washington Post review link

Mary’s Page at Amazon US  link  

from personivt2c http://employeeengagement.ning.com/xn/detail/1986438:BlogPost:193026 via http://www.rssmix.com/

[lohstandfound]

I have some collage bases but I don't know what to do with them

Like. None of them feel finished. Perhaps the only one that does is the first one which is just a collage of lines from my gay poetry manuscript

[andrebooker7532]

Mary Dearborn on Ernest Hemingway: An interview by Bob Morris

Mary Dearborn is the author of six books: Mistress of Modernism: The Life of Peggy Guggenheim (2006), Queen of Bohemia: The Life of Louise Bryant (1996), and Mailer: A Biography (1991). Her latest book, Ernest Hemingway: A Biography was published by Knopf (2017). She received a B.A. in English and Classics from Brown University and a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University, where she was a Mellon Fellow in the Humanities. She lives in Buckland, Massachusetts.

Here is an excerpt from my interview of Mary.

* * *

Before discussing your superb biography of Ernest Hemingway, a few general questions. First, who has had the greatest influence on your personal growth? How so?

My current partner, who I have been with for over thirty years. He is a journalist, and helped me unlearn bad academic writing habits and learn to write anew. He remains my best editor. Second, my father, who always encouraged me to read and to value literature.

The greatest impact on your professional development? How so?

I got my PhD from Columbia University, and was lucky enough to get my dissertation published very quickly by Oxford Univ. Press. This gave me a published book, which gave me a lot of leverage with agents and editors when I wanted to leave academics and write for the general public.

Years ago, was there a turning point (if not an epiphany) that set you on the career course you continue to follow? Please explain.

I had always wanted to be a writer, but my fiction was subpar (mostly because of wooden dialogue) and my poetry even worse. I spent my 20s in English grad school at Columbia, basically reading and writing about books, which, looking back, wasn’t a bad way to spend my 20s—that is if I hadn’t been broke all the time.

I had a sort of epiphany after publishing my first book (my dissertation) at age 30—which was that I was a writer—a writer of nonfiction. I could be a writer after all. (Sounds obvious—it wasn’t.)

To what extent has your formal education been invaluable to what you have accomplished thus far? It made me do a lot of reading and writing. But I had to kind of educate myself when it came to reading and learning to write biographies. The biographical approach isn’t very welcome—to say the least—in academia. But I’ve always wanted to know what made people tick, and since the people in whom I was most interested in were writers, that meant I was drawn to literary biography.

What do you know now about writing non-fiction that you wish you knew when you began work on your first manuscript? Why?

I’ve learned that you don’t need to comment on a subject’s behavior all the time, and that you should try not to judge. This is really very simple—you learn to show, not tell. This became an issue first with Norman Mailer, who, though I love him dearly, often behaved like a horse’s ass. I didn’t have to point that out for the reader—I just had to show what he said and did. The result was my biography was said by several reviewers to be very fair, which I think is a great compliment. Of course, you still have to be careful not to stack the deck—selecting all incidents or statements that show your subject behaving like a sinner/ignoramus--or a saint.

This came up with my Hemingway work as well, though he was a much more complicated creature, and sometimes I did have to stop and comment on why I thought he was doing certain things or saying things in a certain way.

I think you have to have compassion for your subject -- number one.

Of all the greatest biographers throughout history, with which one would you most like to be closely associated for an extended weekend of one-on-one conversation? Why?

This is an answer to a somewhat different question, but the biographer who is working today whom I most admire is Blake Bailey, whose biography of John Cheever won the National Book Award. He’s also the biographer of Richard Yates and Charles Jackson (of The Lost Weekend fame.) He’s now writing a biography of Philip Roth, for which I don’t envy him one bit!

What have you found to be the unique challenges of writing a biography as opposed to, say, a history of Florence during the Italian Renaissance?

Understanding another human being. While I don’t think of myself as taking a psychoanalytic or even psychological approach, you really have to act like a therapist in some ways: what are your subjects/patients trying to tell you when they say this? Do that? You need to listen to see if they aren't recreating or responding to a much earlier episode in their lives—perhaps from childhood. One crude example: the way a lot of subjects interact with spouses can have a lot to do with their experiences with their parents. That may seem obvious, but you need to be sensitive to it.

What seem to be the defining characteristics of an environment within which great writing is most likely to thrive.

I have an answer to this that might seem to be off-the-wall: it’s a good sign when gay people are thriving in a civilization. Renaissances are often gay—the Italian one, the Harlem one. Less flippantly, I guess I would rephrase—that I believe that personal freedom bears artistic fruit.

* * *

Here is a direct link to the complete interview.

Mary invites you to check out the resources at these websites:

Her website link

The New York Times review link

Washington Post review link

Mary’s Page at Amazon US  link  

from personivt2c http://employeeengagement.ning.com/xn/detail/1986438:BlogPost:193026 via http://www.rssmix.com/