[New-Poetry] Mercury Retrograde War of Glitched Worlds
David Bircumshaw
david.bircumshaw at ntlworld.com
Fri Jul 28 18:43:57 EDT 2006
I'd say, Richard, that I construe Yeats' kitsch aristocratic idealism, so
beautifully and musically and divorced from anything resembling reality
conveyed 'In Memory of Major Robert Gregory', as a victory for rhetoric over
poetry.
In a very strange way I can actually find myself agreeing with the Little
Englander Philip Larkin in this: his statements of shock at realising what
Yeats was really saying in his poems, and his rejection of his former idol,
are well documented.
I'm not too sure about relating Yeats to contemporary politics though.
John Berryman's section about Yeats in The Dream Songs is quite interesting,
I recall.
Best
Dave
----- Original Message -----
From: <elemenope at icubed.com>
To: <new-poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu>
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 11:10 PM
Subject: [New-Poetry] Mercury Retrograde War of Glitched Worlds
> Well.
>
> You aren't implying that Yeats would be riding today with Craze Eyed
> Professor Makmadinijad? Do you construe Yeats' aristocratic idealism
> with any of the virulent fascisms Churchill foresaw as coming to afflict
> the Earth, including the current ultra potent Wahhabi strain?
>
> Richard
>
>
>
>
> > You have to be very careful witrh Yeats' great piece of windbag
rhetoric,
> > Richard, as well, I might add, with the theatrics of the Book of
> > Revelations. Yeats' poem came to prominence through widespread
> > misapphrension of what he was 'talking' about: 'the best lack all
> > conviction/ while the worst are full of a passionate intensity' was
widely
> > seen as the Prophet Yeats predicting the rise of Nazism, as was that
rough
> > beast. He meant nothing of the sort, as the little cryptic note to the
> > poem
> > in his Collected implies. The best were his extremely dodgy fringe
> > fascisti
> > friends in the little green island, the worst were people who were in
> > favour
> > of council houses in England having baths because everyone knew that the
> > working classes would use their baths to store coal in, I'm not of the
> > camp
> > who think Yeats was a full-blown facist, but he was friendly with the
> > devil,
> > and he was a pathetic fantasing arrogant snob, but a great poet, his
> > first,
> > and authorised, biography by the Nazi sympathiser Joseph Hone (pub.
1941,
> > of
> > all years) when the little green government was covertly sympathising
with
> > Hitler and the IRA were planting bombs in Coventry (of all places)
weasly
> > implies all.
> >
> > Mecury, that god of communication, was very definitely retrograde in the
> > reception of Yeats's admitedly powerful rhetoric, as is that defunct by
> > then
> > already in the delirium of St Revelation John.
> >
> > All the Best
> >
> > Dave
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: <elemenope at icubed.com>
> > To: <new-poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu>
> > Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2006 12:34 AM
> > Subject: [New-Poetry] (no subject)
> >
> >
> >> (Taken from correspondence outside this list, but the content is
> >> immediatly apparent to interested parties.
> >>
> >> R.D.)
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> And Mercury is retrograde until the 28th. Lots of Mercury retro
> >> glitches
> >> in my video work.
> >>
> >> I'm writing on Tuesday. I may be going up to Chatauqua, N.Y. on
> >> Thursday.
> >>
> >> I've been busy evaluating the question: Is Terra undergoing WWW IV?
> >> (USSR
> >> vs. USA Cold War being WWW III.) If so, is this the Battle of
> >> Armageddon
> >> as predicted in "The Book of Revelations," or the prophecy W.B. Yeats
> >> saw
> >> in his poem, "The Second Coming."
> >>
> >> A "gyre" is a funnel shaped, spring-like pattern Yeats used to measure
> >> the
> >> ages of 2000 years that mark the Great Astrological Cycle of 24,000
> >> years.
> >> The falcon and the Falconer point to the relationship of man's
control
> >> over the ferocity of animal will and mind; also, consider the fact that
> >> the Arabs are associated with falconry. The term, "Spiritus Mundi,"
> >> means
> >> the Collective Unconsciousness of Deepest Dream Archetypes, or the
> >> Akashik
> >> Records. I quote from memory:
> >>
> >> THE SECOND COMING
> >>
> >> Turning and turning in the ever widening gyre,
> >> The falcon cannot hear the falconer,
> >> Things fall apart, the center cannot hold
> >> Mere anarchy is loosed upon the earth,
> >> Everywhere the blood dimmed tide is loosed.
> >> And the ceremony of innocence is drowned.
> >> The best lack all conviction,
> >> While the worst are filled with passionate intensity.
> >> Surely some revelation is at hand.
> >> Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
> >> The Second Coming! No sooner are those words out,
> >> When a vast image out of the Spiritus Mundi
> >> Arises to trouble my sight.
> >> Somewhere in sands of desert
> >> A shape with body of lion and head of a man
> >> Is moving its slow thighs
> >> While all about it screech the indignant cries
> >> Of desert birds. The darkness drops again.
> >> But now I know that twenty centuries of stony sleep,
> >> Where vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle.
> >> And what rough beast? Its hour come round at last,
> >> Slouches towards Bethelem to be born.
> >>
> >> (Circa 1921)
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> > I'm going to call you.
> >> >
> >> > ----- Original Message -----
> >>
> >> > Sent: Sunday, July 23, 2006 1:30 PM
> >> > Subject: Re: Fw: Fw: WE WILL NEVER SEE THIS AGAIN IN OUR LIFETIME
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >> Remember the mechanically physical effects of Mercury Retrograde as
> >> >> Mercury stopped stationary, retreated backwards, stopped, and then
> >> went
> >> >> back over the path it had just traced. Remember the analogy of a
> >> boat
> >> >> and
> >> >> its wake.
> >> >>
> >> >> Now consider the current planetary crisis. What is Mars doing? And
> >> >> what
> >> >> is Mars in mythology? Mars (Roman), Ares (Greek), the GAWD OV WAR!
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>>
> >> >>>
> >> >>>
> >> >>>
> >> >>>
> >> >>> We will never see this again in our lifetime
> >> >>>
> >> >>> ...nor will the people of the next 50-to-1,000 Life
> >> >>> Times!
> >> >>> Mars
> >> >>>
> >> >>>
> >> >>> The Red Planet is about to be spectacular!
> >> >>>
> >> >>> This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars
in
> > an
> >> >>> encounter that
> >> >>> will culminate in the closest approach between the
> >> two
> >> >>> planets in
> >> >>> recorded history. The next time Mars may come this
> > close
> >> >>> is
> >> >>> in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on
> >> >>> Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be
> >> >>> certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth
> >> >>> in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as
> >> >>> 60,000 years before it happens again.
> >> >>>
> >> >>> The encounter will culminate on August 27th when
> >> >>> Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and
> >> >>> will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in
> >> >>> the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9
> >> >>> and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest
> >> >>> 75-power magnification...
> >> >>>
> >> >>>
> >> >>>
> >> >>> Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked
> >> >>> eye.
> >> >>>
> >> >>> Mars will be easy to spot. At the
> >> >>> beginning of August it will rise in the east at
10p.m.
> >> >>> and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m.
> >> >>>
> >> >>> By the end of August when the two planets are
> >> >>> closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its
> >> >>> highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That's pretty
> >> >>> convenient to see something that no human being has
> >> >>> seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at
> >> >>> the beginning of August to see Mars grow
> >> >>> progressively brighter and brighter throughout the
> >> >>> month.
> >> >>>
> >> >>>
> >> >>> Share this with your children and grandchildren.
> >> >>>
> >> >>> NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN
>
>
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