It’s always tantalizing to try and imagine
what it might be like to meet in person
one of one’s literary heroes outside the
dog-eared pages of a much loved book
to stumble upon a favorite poet on the
verge of a country laneway for instance
one magic, lazy midsummer afternoon
just as he or she — found in garrulous
good mood and happy for company —
stops to tie the laces of an undone shoe
nature-bound with an urge to ramble on
at length through the field and over hill
for what epiphanies might be shared like this!
In short, to take a lengthy lake walk with Messrs
Wordsworth & Coleridge is my idea of bliss.
October 2, 2013
Pre-ambulatory nostalgia
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23 responses to “Pre-ambulatory nostalgia”
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Lorem Ipsum's personal mantra is that it never works to resort to wearing resort wear to work, unless one works at a resort where the wearing of resort wear is what works best of all, and is no way a last resort of any sort.Recent Comments
Missing Zero 
October 2nd, 2013 at 2:49 pm
this is lovely to read, I am ambling with you in your words and your sentiment.
October 3rd, 2013 at 6:41 am
The more who share the walk the merrier, I say. Glad you liked both the poem and its sentiment. Thanks!
October 2nd, 2013 at 3:28 pm
Living in those times appeals to me on several different levels! Lovely writing and I like the idea of a shared epiphany. 🙂
October 3rd, 2013 at 6:59 am
Thanks, Safia. Yes, beyond the many obvious inconveniences of the age in which Wordsworth and Coleridge etc lived, the Romantic era has an allure all of its own. Still, epiphanies are open to people of any time period, fortunately, I suppose. It was just the way these writers expressed such experiences that remains so inspiring!
October 3rd, 2013 at 7:09 am
How do you feel about Robert Frost and Seamus Heaney – two poets who, I feel, were strongly influenced by Wordsworth?
October 3rd, 2013 at 12:47 pm
I enjoy Seamus Heaney (RIP) , having studied his poetry at university — although not at a postgraduate level, like yourself! As for Frost, I must confess I haven’t read all that much. My question to you, in return, however, is how do you feel about the fact Heaney won a Nobel Prize for literature, when Joyce never did?
October 4th, 2013 at 5:12 am
I think the answer to that is, you’ve got to look at the context, ie, the times they were living in. I feel the Nobel committee always consider political issues and they very much saw SH as speaking for a ‘people’ (whatever that means), ie, those Northern Irish minorities who, throughout at least 3 decades of SH’s writing were on the periphery of society in those little 6 counties on the island of Ireland. And then of course, he was seen by many (incorrectly IMHO) as a ‘Troubles’ poet. Joyce – too much too soon IMO – they weren’t ready for his Modernism (they gave it to Yeats in 1923), whereas Samuel Beckett … well, by 1969, the world was ready to accept a more avant garde winner. It’s a shame when it all comes down to politics really, but doesn’t everything these days?
October 2nd, 2013 at 7:01 pm
how cool would that be? I would love to sit on a park bench with Jane Austin, Ernest Hemingway and Tom Clancy! Yes, quite a mixture of talent 🙂
October 3rd, 2013 at 6:48 am
That’s quite a park bench you’ve imagined, I must admit! I fear for Miss Austen’s modesty, it must be said, however, if she were to be sat directly next to old Papa Hemingway. But it is fun to think what conversations might be had in such a situation, isn’t it?
October 3rd, 2013 at 9:23 am
The strangest thing happened a few hours after I wrote my comment. I found out Tom Clancy had passed away. I actually cried.
October 3rd, 2013 at 12:58 pm
That is sad — and a bit spooky. I’ve just been reading some tributes to Tom Clancy, following what you told me. And weirdly in one of them he was quoted as saying “I’m not the new Hemingway”…Well, I guess, either way, he’s gone now to that great park bench in the sky to join Jane Austen and Hemingway sort of like you predicted?!
October 3rd, 2013 at 5:44 pm
Mr. Clancy was certainly not Hemingway – but who could be but Ernest himself? tom could certainly write a thriller – I fell in love with submarines after I read the Hunt For Red October!
October 3rd, 2013 at 12:02 am
I would like to throw back a few shots and smoke cigarettes with Kurt Vonnegut . Great post.
October 3rd, 2013 at 7:04 am
Well, if you can find a way of becoming “unstuck in time”, like Billy Pilgrim, achieving your wish should be no problem. Otherwise, John, you will have to be content with dreaming of such an encounter, like the rest of us, I’m afraid to say. Cheers!
October 3rd, 2013 at 12:30 pm
Sadly yes.
October 3rd, 2013 at 6:26 am
Loved your post. Sometime ago I visited Wordsworth’s home at Dove’s Cottage in the Lake District in the North of England. I had a kind of walk with him. Sat in the place where he contemplated some of his greatest poetry. An unforgettable experience.
October 3rd, 2013 at 6:39 am
I am most envious, Don. For now, such an experience must remain on my wish list of places to visit. But it’s important to have dreams, I tell myself, right? Cheers!
October 5th, 2013 at 5:24 am
[…] in Sweden announce the winner of the annual Nobel Prize for Literature. Fellow wordpress blogger Lorem Ipsum recently asked me how I felt about Seamus Heaney winning the Nobel Prize for Literature when James […]
October 10th, 2013 at 12:38 am
If only! To go back in time and see a hero who doesn’t know he is a hero at all. Loved this!
October 10th, 2013 at 6:01 am
Thanks, it’s funny but I didn’t even think of the hero not knowing yet they would one day become a hero. It adds another layer of enjoyment to the whole concept. Cool idea!
October 11th, 2013 at 1:52 am
When I was studying abroad in Ireland, I took an Irish literature course and we studied Yeats’ work. When we visited Thoor Ballylee, I just kept imagining him walking in the yard and sitting at his writing desk looking out the window as he wrote The Tower. Although he was a known writer at that time, the feeling of walking the same steps as a hero was truly amazing and inspirational in its own way. I just kept imagining that I was living in his time and that he would be walking along the drive at any minute. If he only knew that in a little under 100 years, his castle would be a tourist destination haha this post made me think of that!
October 11th, 2013 at 2:15 pm
I am jealous, on a number of counts, I must admit! To study abroad in Ireland must have been awesome. I’m sure you drank your share of Guinness, too, while there, I’m guessing. What’s more, Yeats happens to be one of my favorite poets, being very quotable, I find, in almost any setting. To have actually gone to his digs is very cool. Maybe one day I’ll get there, who knows? Thanks, for sharing!
October 11th, 2013 at 2:39 pm
It was an awesome experience, one that I’m very fortunate and grateful to have had! Yeats is one of my favorites too! 🙂