 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| HomeDiscussion GroupsEnglish UsageBritish EnglishESL Teaching Learnglish.com Contact UsLink To UsSearch & Site Map |
Discussion Groups / English Usage / November 2006A poem
hi, how to understand this, Swetest melodies Are those that are by distance made more sweet. - woody > hi, > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > Are those that are by > distance made more sweet. This seems to be a conflation of 1) the proverb "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" and 2) Keats's 'Ode on a Grecian Urn', esp. ll. 11-12 Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness, Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time, Sylvan historian, who canst thus express A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme: What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape 5 Of deities or mortals, or of both, In Tempe or the dales of Arcady? What men or gods are these? What maidens loth? What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy? 10 Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd, Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone: Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave 15 Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare; Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss, Though winning near the goal—yet, do not grieve; She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss, For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair! 20 } Steven Woody wrote: }> hi, }> }> how to understand this, }> }> Swetest melodies }> Are those that are by }> distance made more sweet. } } } This seems to be a conflation of } 1) the proverb "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" and } 2) Keats's 'Ode on a Grecian Urn', esp. ll. 11-12 ... } Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard } Are sweeter; ... "What's a Grecian Urn?" "Oh, about eight-fifty an hour."  Signaturerjv The R J Valentine entity posted thusly: >} Steven Woody wrote: >}> hi, [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > >"Oh, about eight-fifty an hour." Drachmas? > The R J Valentine entity posted thusly: [ ... ] > >"What's a Grecian Urn?" > > > >"Oh, about eight-fifty an hour." > > Drachmas? Euro (euros?) SignatureBob Lieblich >> The R J Valentine entity posted thusly: > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > >Euro (euros?) It's "euros" in English -- despite the worst efforts of Irish-government quangos to impose otherwise. (Yes, on the notes and coins themselves it says "EURO", but that was a typical Brussels let's-please-nobody-in-order-to-piss-nobody-off copout. Having decided that the design of the coins and notes would be basically the same throughout the EU, they were careful to avoid pissing off any Italians and Germans who might have expected the plural of their national currency to be "euri" or "Euren" rather than tacking an "s" onto it.) SignatureMillicent Tendency (TEFKATHE) > hi, > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > Are those that are by > distance made more sweet. Literally, it means that good music sounds better at a distance. Figuratively (it's a poem, right?), it could apply to other things than music and measure distance in other ways than the spatial. You're the one with the rest of the poem: you tell us. > > hi, > > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > Are those that are by > > distance made more sweet. "The sweetest melodies are those that are made more sweet by distance." The omission of the initial "The" and the inverted word order are typical of poetry. Not necessarily the best poetry, at least since 1900 or so. > Literally, it means that good music sounds better at a distance. > Figuratively (it's a poem, right?), it could apply to other things > than music and measure distance in other ways than the spatial. > You're the one with the rest of the poem: you tell us. It looks like a haiku--there may not be any more of it. SignatureJerry Friedman >>> hi, >>> [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > > It looks like a haiku--there may not be any more of it. Well, shame on me for not looking it up; shame, indeed, for not recognising it, at least dimly: it's Wordsworth, talking about the imagination (by me). Children are blest, and powerful; their world lies More justly balanced; partly at their feet, And part far from them: sweetest melodies Are those that are by distance made more sweet; Whose mind is but the mind of his own eyes, He is a Slave; the meanest we can meet! http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww310.html > >>> hi, > >>> [quoted text clipped - 28 lines] > > http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww310.html Shame on someone, anyway. SignatureJerry Friedman >> >>> hi, >> >>> [quoted text clipped - 30 lines] > >Shame on someone, anyway. Nah, that was another poem: Fool me once Shame on Shame on you Fool me You can't get fooled again -- George W. Bush SignatureMillicent Tendency (TEFKATHE) > it's Wordsworth, talking about the > imagination . One online commentary on the poem (the text in the OP is near the end of v. II): http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1232654 [excerpt] ....I believe this poem, Personal Talk sums up William Wordsworth's emulation of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's mind that, as he described, could, "...startle other minds out of the ordinariness which so easily besets most men and besets at fitful intervals even genius." (H.W. Garrod, Wordsworth p. 139). Was he speaking for the Romantic Monastic in all artists? Have not we all become aesthetically nauseated at the cow-pies served to us on a daily basis? Ironically, after this poem was published in Poems in Two Volumes, in 1807; his introspective qualities took him to that ordinariness, more than other peers, even though he succeeded Robert Southey as Poet Laureate in 1843. [end excerpt] I read the poem as saying live with the ordinary in the physical world while at the same time nurturing the personal themes that dwell in our imaginations (his themes starting with Desdemona and Una) -- I differ from the above commentary in regard to the poet's assessment of the ordinary; the last three lines of v. I hardly suggest cow-pies: In the loved presence of my cottage-fire, And listen to the flapping of the flame, Or kettle whispering its faint undersong. Wordsmith, and especially Coleridge, would have been well-advised to maintain moderation in entertaining things of the mind's eye. I don't say stifle all imagination, just keep a pretty close control of it. A little fear of Virginia Woolf is good, no? (And of Sylvia Plath, Ernest Hemingway, etc etc etc) > how to understand this, > Swetest melodies > Are those that are by > distance made more sweet. Sounds like a takeoff on the time-honored comment on the quality of someone's singing: "Can you sing 'Far Far Away'? Please do." "Bob Cunningham Wrote: " > > how to understand this, > [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > quality of someone's singing: "Can you sing 'Far Far Away'? > Please do." i am not a native speaker. my purpose it to study english. so i just want to know how to analysis the structure of the above sentence. can anyone tell me? > "Bob Cunningham Wrote: > " [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > just want to know how to analysis the structure of the above > sentence. can anyone tell me? In prose, you might say, "The sweetest melodies are those that are made sweeter by distance." Is that what you were looking for? > "Bob Cunningham Wrote: > > > how to understand this, > > > Swetest melodies > > > Are those that are by > > > distance made more sweet. > > Sounds like a takeoff on the time-honored comment on the > > quality of someone's singing: "Can you sing 'Far Far Away'? > > Please do." > i am not a native speaker. my purpose it to study english. so i just > want to know how to analysis the structure of the above sentence. can > anyone tell me? Note that your use of the word "above" is faulty. Strictly speaking, you're asking for analysis of my remark, while I think you meant to ask for analysis of the structure of the sentence preceding that (the remark above the "above" remark). Anyway, the poem can be put into more usual English as follows (I've assumed "swetest" was a typo, although I suppose it could have been an archaic spelling): The melodies that are sweetest are the ones that are made more sweet because of being distant. Quoting again the original, Swetest melodies Are those that are by distance made more sweet Analysis shows that there are two clauses Sweetest melodies are those and that are by distance made more sweet In the first clause, the subject is "sweetest melodies, and "those" is the predicate nominative. In the second, dependent, clause which modifies "those", "that" is the subject, "are made" is the verb, and "more sweet" is an adjectival phrase modifying "that". Again, the structure of the dependent clause should be clear when it's rephrased using more normal word order: that are made more sweet by distance or, less loosely that distance makes more sweet Note that "that distance makes more sweet" is in active mode, while "that are made more sweet by distance" is passive. By the way, you should try to remember to always write the pronoun "I" in uppercase, not as "i" as you have done. > In the second, dependent, clause which modifies "those", > "that" is the subject, "are made" is the verb, and "more > sweet" is an adjectival phrase modifying "that". Note that the comma after "dependent" seems at first glance to be an error, but it's there for a purpose. I didn't intend "second" and "dependent" to be serial adjectives. I did intend "dependent" to be parenthetical. That is, I was referring to the second clause and I mentioned in passing that it was dependent. I could as well have said "the second (dependent) clause" or "the second clause, which incidentally is dependent". If I had written "the second, dependent clause" I would have been giving equal weight to the clause being the second one and its being dependent. Note also that if I had written "the second dependent clause" I would have meant that there were two dependent clauses and I was referring to the second one. (While making these comments I have in mind the poster who recently raised the question about "two blue heads".) > > "Bob Cunningham Wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 61 lines] > By the way, you should try to remember to always write the > pronoun "I" in uppercase, not as "i" as you have done. thank you Bob, Jerry and CDB! thank you. > hi, > > how to understand this, > > Swetest melodies Are those that are by distance made more sweet. A popular music concert is intolerable if you happen to live next door. From a long way away, all you can hear is the percussion ... oops, bad example. If the poem is about bagpipes, I would say that the optimum listening distance for bagpipe music is about one or two miles away. SignaturePeter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org Please note the changed e-mail and web addresses. The domain eepjm.newcastle.edu.au no longer exists, and I can no longer receive mail at my newcastle.edu.au addresses. The optusnet address could disappear at any time. Peter Moylan wrote, in <455beb66$0$19406$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au> on Thu, 16 Nov 2006 15:39:03 +1100: > > hi, > > [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > If the poem is about bagpipes, I would say that the optimum listening > distance for bagpipe music is about one or two miles away. <http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/18.html> SignatureNick Spalding > Peter Moylan wrote, in [...] >> If the poem is about bagpipes, I would say that the optimum >> listening distance for bagpipe music is about one or two miles >> away. > > <http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/18.html> Music indeed. I always half-sing that one, to the tune of "All Around the Mulberry Bush". CDB <bellemarec@sympatico.ca> had it: > > Peter Moylan wrote, in > [...] [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > Music indeed. I always half-sing that one, to the tune of "All Around > the Mulberry Bush". "All around"? I've only ever heard "Here we go round". SignatureDavid ===== > CDB <bellemarec@sympatico.ca> had it: > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > "All around"? I've only ever heard "Here we go round". Pondial difference, apparently. I should have said "Cobbler's Bench", or called it "Pop! Goes the Weasel"; although Google finds plenty of sites with the title I used. > > CDB <bellemarec@sympatico.ca> had it: > > [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > or called it "Pop! Goes the Weasel"; although Google finds plenty of > sites with the title I used. "Up and down the Cowley Road, In and out the Regal! It's Betty Grable for some of the boys, But for me it's Anna Neagle!" SignatureMike. |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2012 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.