#theory about poetry

[mosss-y]

The Choir Invisible

A Malevolent episode 52 epiphany I had:

I don’t know if this has been pointed out but I haven’t seen any posts about this so here I go

The idea of a choir of other Arthur’s all playing instruments as our Arthur died has stuck with me and felt hauntingly familiar for some reason. Fast forward to today when I was found the phrase ‘joining the bloody choir invisible’ from a Monty Python skit of all things. I looked it up and found the poem, “The Choir Invisible” by George Eliot.

I read it and I was greeted with such lines as “of those immortal dead who live again” (Arthur being revived so many times) and “in thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars” (Arthur seeing the stars) and “A vicious parent shaming still its child” (Kayne with Lillith) and “Divinely human, raising worship so / To higher reverence more mix’d with love” (John and Arthur’s relationship but also Arthur being the best and worst humanity has to offer) and of course “So I shall join the choir invisible / Whose music is the gladness of the world.”

All in all this feels too perfect not to be intentional, but I don’t know. Go read the poem cause there are many more lines I left out.

[annispillowfort]

The Invisible String

A string of lights, a golden thread,

moons and stars above your bed.

Softly tangled, faintly spun,

glowing quiet, one by one.

The moon pulls tides, a lover’s plea,

the waves rush in, then break, then flee.

But even when the shore is bare,

the ocean’s heartbeat lingers there.

The sun wakes up and kisses you,

leaves freckles where its light shines through.

A touch so soft, a trace so light,

as if to say, “I’m here. I might.”

And when you lift your eyes to see,

the stars blink back, they call to me.

A secret glance, a fleeting spark,

a quiet love inside the dark.

They say we’re tied by unseen strings,

by whispered words and trembling wings,

by hands that brushed, by hearts that knew,

by every road that led to you.

I do not pull. I do not stray.

But if you turn, I stay, I stay.

For distance bends but won’t erase—

if you are lost, I’ll find you…

Always.

[love-ardour-anarchism]

As I am inching towards being 30 years of age I think I found some utmost truth that I will cling to for as long as I will live

I think that hope is like a fungus, its growing in the crevices of everything that I believe in

and I will hold it like Antonio Gramsci said: the only way that we can truly lose as revolutionaries, as progressives, as people who wish nothing more than for a better world is if we give up hope and I won't sugar coat this mess we're in but I will rise each morning and I will do the dishes and I will ask you what we can do today to be less miserable tomorrow

and I will hold it just the way that Terry Pratchett said, and he made Death the one who said it: I'd sieve the world to finest grain and I will show you molecules of mercy, I'll show you atoms of all of the good things I believe in and I will tell you that that kind of hope starts with the little lies that I choose to believe in cause I think he was right if I can make myself believe in what I say each saturday at our game night table then I can rise another day and I can do the laundry and ask you what we'll do today to make sure that our friends will have enough tomorrow; all capitalistic deprivation will be damned as long as we're together

and Ursula K. Le Guin wrote that any human power can be resisted by our human resistance. She wrote that all these systems of oppression that we've been living in won't always stay the same. That they are as unchangeable as was the right of kings to rule. They said that it was godly-given and yet it did not last. And in the spirit of the same I think that I am holding on to hope because to me its all that I can do. Le Guin wrote that resistance often starts in art and I feel called to that. And everytime that someone says that something that I wrote impacted them I know that I have reasons to hold on aplenty. And I won't act like all is bright and like there's plenty lights on the horizon that don't form mushroom clouds; and maybe all the world comes to an end in horror and in agony but I refuse to yield until that day is here. I still believe in better worlds, and I believe there's dishes to be done and friends to call and lovers' lips to kiss; once there is not then maybe I can have a look at apathy.

:SCRR

[nenoname]

me: oh i totally get it if some folks dont jive with same coin theory, plus it's strange to conceptualise at first--

me when i see people call it lame:

[sqertt]

Some facts about me ᵕ̈

the shows/books can barely be seen lmao 😭

[stabknives]

Picrew easy with him because he's all concepts to me

[inkedwingss]

"(...) attempts to find general laws on literature have always failed."

"Most of these 'laws' (...) could not tell us anything really significant about the processes of literature."

"(...) no work of art can be wholly 'unique' since it then would be completely incomprehensible."

Theory of Literature, René Wellek and Austin Warren, 1948

[moon-thestardustwriter]

do you know where your atoms come from?

you are in the universe just as the universe is in you

you are in the ground that you walk on, the air that you breath, the planet in which you are a part of

you are in the sun and the moon and the stars far away

you are in stars in the sky and galaxies near and far and the tiniest of pebbles in space

you are but an immeasurable speck, less than dust in the size of the universe

you are everywhere and everything all at once

you are the universe given life and persona and thought and will

you are the will of the universe

we are the universe given life and breathe

we are the universe given understanding and thought

we are cosmically small and yet we are in everything

if that's not beauty, if that's not purpose, what is?

[lightineventide]

My Train Of Thoughts - Yet Again

To be more specific, it's just one thought. I know the lyrics of the album Poetry For The Poisoned are vague as a whole and even weird at times, but I was wondering if I'm just imagining a pattern. Can any fellow fan share some wisdom with me, please? :)

I mean, have you noticed the little detail in The Great Pandemonium, where the backing vocals repeat the phrase "Red light - hit the brake now" right before the guitar solo (it was omitted in the live versions, I think)? It definitely adds more clarity about the pictured situation, but what does it mean for the rest of the songs? I have a feeling that it is connected to Part III of the title track - All Is Over. The first two parts can be seen as some form of mental analysis of the "character"'s life and "What if all is over?" seems like a logical continuation of these thoughts, given the cruel and dark experiences the rest of the songs portray (The Zodiac, Hunter's Season, Necropolis, etc.). But then, all of a sudden, the character describes a calm and endearing memory of his childhood (Part IV)? Does this mean he's really dead (life flashes before his eyes and all), and that The Great Pandemonium was foreshadowing the end? And is the resolution of Once Upon A Time just him realizing there won't be peace for his soul, so to say?

I can go in a lot more detail, but the whole situation reminds me of Haven and The Shadow Theory - it technically isn't a concept album, but there seems to be a theme progression. My theory is that the protagonist here just realizes that he's had chances to become a better person after the implied crime against the woman in If Tomorrow Came (such a creepy song! But the title could imply that he thinks he won't face consequences...) - for example learning from the trial of the murderer in The Zodiac (Roy plays a very small part in this song, probably as a judge?) and the experience of grief in Hunter's Season, but he wastes all of them, and is kinda conscious of it (My Train Of Thoughts, Seal Of Woven Years) - but it isn't until the implied car crash and his death that he fully realizes what it all means.

What do you think? :) I appreciate any ideas!

[boycritter]

realizing that the only 3 classes first semester thing is a much more strict requirement than i originally thought ???

[love-ardour-anarchism]

somedays I feel everything at once and I can scarcely tell where my love poems end and where my anticapitalist ramblings start

[crmsnmth]

Nihilist

I read all the books Knew all of the rhetoric Practiced what I could with theories I dressed the part in a uniform of black jeans and a black t-shirt Keeping a black bandanna around my neck You never knew when you needed a mask I came on drunk on all those words that I think, even at the height of my beliefs, could never actually come to be We’re too uncaring of a species selfish because we all think we’re the hero of the story but every movie still needs extra’s as well

I came in with a fire burning in my heart one I wanted to capture in a flying glass bottle that’s headed right for the open window of a cop car It only takes one brick to start a revolution in the birthing chambers of a riot I swore I wanted to set the world on fire and I was glad to start with just this city the smell of gasoline and burning rubber Let me breathe in the smoke and then I get the essence right?

I came in optimistic that we could actually do this that we had finally figured out a real plan of attack that wasn’t just pipe bombs and talking points And they were all for the idea but those who only talk about revolution and never once acts it out, are those that are only in it for the fashion Political tourists And I just don’t have it inside me to sit here and try and recruit into this sad cult

When I left, I was angry rageful, rejected, betrayed the scene I’d spent so much time loving I’ll spend the rest of my life hating Pushed away and pushed out all because Dogboy’s a better charmer

I bow out, my beliefs now only jaded and I take the only bibles and banners and burn them all None of this matters. We’re all going to die.

[kukekakuningaskris]

since joker out posted a snippet of everybody's waiting (and made me cry) i looked at the form of the lyrics and ordered what i think are also lyrics from bojan's instagram based on the rhyme schemes and syllable counts (as well as the metrical feet used). welcome back to poetry theory!

the real snippet:

hype comes, love goes, everybody fades hiding every day behind the shelter of your shades you can't make it go away ginger shot, vitamins, shower cold, feeling old just do everything the way you are told case closed, soul sold.

what i think is another verse (might not be lyrics and if they are i still might have gotten the order wrong! this is just an educated guess!):

quotas to fill, bills to pay you should be getting ready for the big day starlight effect and a cigarette everyone’s there, no one gives you a call the center of the world on a pedestal, until it's your turn to take the fall

given how the real snippet has an AABCCC rhyme scheme i'm guessing the other verse would be the same, and within the rhyming lines i ordered them based on line lengths. for the CCC cluster i also took into account the fact that one of those lines (the fourth) is dactylic in both instances and the others are trochaic in the snippet while one in iambic in my proposed verse.

also, the lines in the snippet are less strict, having anywhere from 2 to 7 stressed syllables in a line, but with the exception of the fourth line every other line is trochaic with no iambs in sight. but other than that my main sentiments from this post still stand!

[novelconcepts]

do you have any theories or anything you want to happen in season 3 of yellowjackets?

Theories, not so much. Pet desires? Absolutely. I want to see more in-depth work on Taissa, particularly in relation to the no-eyed man. I want to see childhood flashbacks for any of the girls, but especially Van. I would love to get, as I've said, more of the bleeding-in of the 90s cast into the adult timeline situations. I want Akilah to have survived to adulthood. I want Taivan shenanigans in both timelines, and if this means adult Taivan banging it out, I will not be remotely argumentative.

I think my biggest (deeply unlikely) want is a parallel episode to Doomcoming--with the girls prepping for the end of summer/fall with another shindig. This time, they're very much in control and ready for The Rituals. Bonus points if it includes, instead of a cute lil' coming out dance, a Taivan Wilderness Wedding. Bonus BONUS points if, instead of hunting Travis-the-stag in a fit of madness (and letting him go), they hunt Ben-the-stag in a fit of sober fury (and have their first feast for the changing season). I think that's my wildest "yes please" hope, because I love parallels in my narratives, and because it would be genuinely the funniest thing to find out Taissa has been married twice this entire time, and her entire romantic life somehow a bigger mess than any of us thought possible.

[requiesticat]

Regarding the Strange Boy's canon name, Ozzy might be a shortened form of Ozymandias, which is the title of a poem about a cursed statue that induces despair in the travellers who look at it:

https://poets.org/poem/ozymandias

"I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed: And on the pedestal these words appear: ‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.”