Poetry and Poets of Poland

@Rich, you're typically confusing the output of oevre with the man who
created it!
Many of history's most creative beings were indeed either homo- and or bisexual,
but who cares in the long run?

Quite a number of the modern world's most significant contributors, to the arts at least,
were Nazi-leaning, to be sure openly bigoted, such Richard Wagner, D.W. Griffith, Leni Riefenstahl and the
French poet Ferdinand Celine among others, yet few go into paroxisms of rage as they would if they discovered
that someone's gay or lesbian.

Now THAT'S a double standard.

In Poland he was famous for his prose. I can`t recall any poem by him. Opposite to his novels or short stories. Some were so good they were adapted into films which became masterpieces of the Polish cinema;

Can't recall of course the entire verse, but one of them begins "Przez caly, bialy dzionek czekam, az stanie wieczor wiencu gwiazd..."
Have an old CD of Andzej Lapicki reading it in his wonderful rumbling baritone:-)

More slowly - than turtles - with freight - on their - backs,
The drowsy - steam engine - sets off - down the tracks.
She chugs and she tugs at her wagons with strain,
As wheel after wheel slowly turns on the train.
She doubles her effort and quickens her pace,
And rambles and scrambles to keep up the race.

What a load of crap...

So what is that "poem" about and how does it make me more knowledgeable?

Can I walk into the bar and say, hey, guys, let me tell you what I just read...They would kill me halfway trough it...

No, it is a beautiful rendition of the original poem. I would like to be able to translate like that. I tried in my youth but soon gave up after realising I have no talent for it.


Watch the video I posted and if you do it the same style, those bar patrons will be flabbergasted and will buy you dozens of beers and drinks.

I can't recall any poems and I am doing very well.
In fact, the only books I read were by Sienkiewicz, and not a single one after I turned 18.
I read user manuals when I buy cars.

So that is your argument ?
Stay focused here Rich.
The 10 most famous classical love poems for him written by a woman

ideapod.com/love-poems-for-him/

Ya still trackin' with us ?


I just named ten, you lost the debate to Atch so now you are changing your song and dance of comparing instead of admitting you were wrong.


Now you have added another totally different topic to diminish your opponent to confuse and deny your loss to her.
Why do you keep doing this time and time again ?

Quoting from Quora:

My wife of 30+ years is my wife in part because I wrote (and still write) poems for her.
The really great thing, though, is that poetry is much, much less expensive and more permanent than good chocolate, fine wine, or beautiful roses.

Just what I said in #21:

Poetry, like roses, is for chicks and was invented by guys who want to get laid but don't have enough money for a movie and dinner.

I am beyond brilliant...

Not really as candy and poetry are dandy but liquor is quicker.
I am a poet and don't know it.
I am way beyond brilliant.

Ah yes, Ogden Nash!

"I never saw a purple cow,
I never hope to see one.
But I can tell you this right now,
I'd rather see than be one."

:-))) Delightful stuff, isn't it.

What a brilliant thought...I can replace "cow" with 10,000 other things and be as correct. Like "smart leftist".

Stupid question, but does the purple cow have any hidden meaning in English?

No, it doesn't.

One of my favourites is:

There once was a lass and a very pretty lass
And she was an isotope's daughter
They called her Ethyl Methyl
For her mother was a gas
Made of CH17 and water.

You copied it from Dead Poet`s Society: :):):) Students learn that the function of the language and poetry is wooing women.

youtu.be/2dh8C_HHE2g

I swear I have no idea what it is. Never belonged...What I posted is just common sense.

I am still waiting for a good love poem by a woman. No LGBT stuff...

There was one American poetess I vaguely remember learning about at uni times. Give me some time. :):)

But, why do you insist? Women don`t have to write love poetry to woe men. They don`t even have to open their mouths and speak at all and they still attract males.

I am so proud of you. That was my point all along although not stated so well and so directly.

Men truly love women. Women want security. It's a fair exchange and has proven to work since that first bite.

Emily Dickinson? I find most women poets uninteresting-they don't have the meat and bones needed for a good poem. Dickinson had some meat and bones.

Stevie Smith was an excellent British poet. An occasional poster here went to the same school as her, albeit decades apart. Her work is quite dark sometimes and often has religious themes however she's certainly one of the greats.

Toria Garbutt is an interesting poet. I'd never have thought I'd like someone described as a 'punk poet' however I like her stuff. She's fairly local to me and it's good to hear poetry read out in my own accent,


One of the finest living poets in the English language (perhaps even the best) is Tony Harrison. He uses themes from classical mythology and blends very traditional with contemporary. His translations of Moliere were so good that they were translated back into French. If Ant likes 'meat and bones' as mentioned above, he'd find plenty there. He is also a playwright, again drawing on classical traditions.

His poem "A cold coming" about the first Iraq war is particularly well-regarded. I've seen it reduce people to tears when read out. And his filmed poem "Black daisies for the bride" (filmed in an old-fashioned hospital for dementia sufferers) is considered an important poem. He's done several pieces like that one where he combines the spoken word with film and music.

When his best known work, V, was televised in the 80s various minor right-wing rentagob politicians were hugging and puffing in parliament before the TV transmission because it contains some obscene words (the poem was written after his parents' grave had been graffitied by football hooligans). You'd think a conservative would like it since it's very much in the classical idiom and is quite anti-modern however it turned out that none of the huffing and puffing Tories had actually read it before criticising. This produced a famous riposte. One of the sillier conservatives (Gerald Howarth) said; "Probably another bolshie poet wishing to impose his frustrations on the rest of us".When told of this, Tony Harrison replied that Howarth was "Probably another idiot MP wishing to impose his intellectual limitations on the rest of us"

He must be well in his 80s now. He was married to the opera singer Teresa Stratas for many years. I've met him several times (in connection with his plays) and bought him a drink now and again.

The poem V is easily found online however I recommend the 1985 TV version where he reads it out. It's on YouTube in full. If you've a few minutes it's very worth watching.

Since this is about poetry and poems connected to Poland, it's worth mentioning that in one of his filmed pieces (A maybe day in Kazakhstan) he writes about Polish exiles there. Unfortunately it's hard to find since he himself apparently doesn't rate it. Two of his works are available in Polish translation, Kumkwat dla Johna Keatsa and Sztuka i zagłada.

For many years (long pre-1990) he lived in Prague where he taught literature at the university.

@Alien,
"Purple cow" has no more significance in English than "Blaue Blume" does in German
(an allusion to the mysterious in Novalis).

While perhaps not chosen entirely at random, the element of the absurd with Nash
is what's of significance here, not the color itself:-)

Mickiewicz, Tuwim, and Herbert though are certainly great poets, yet entirely different
from Iwaszkiewicz.

They only think so. In fact, they only need sex but call it love to woe more women. Simple.


Much better than this primitive sex desire of males.


She, too . But I was thinking about another poetess who was even more special than Dickinson. And I found her: Anne Bradstreet, the poetess of 17th century, when female poets were looked down on.

...old instincts, Novi....very old instincts!

That's what I meant to say....it's evolutionary!

Summarizing:
Poetry sucks.
Never marry a poet.
Rent one for a day but never marry him.

Speak for yoursefl. It isn`t my summary. :)):)


I won`t.

Sb said this as a complaint about my contribution:
forget it; every word will be interpreted literally. making further conversation impossible.

My reply:
When I said nasty things about you and your family, it was also poetic and metaphorical. Do you know turpizm, a trend in Polish poetry??? I strictly followed its prerogatives.

Turpism appeared in Polish poetry after 1956 and was used by: Stanisław Grochowiak , Ernest Bryll , Andrzej Bursa and others. Representatives of turpism included motifs of ugliness, disability, disease and death in their works. They described objects, landscapes and disgusting phenomena (destruction, transience, aging, decay), which was intended to authenticate the presented vision of the world and help affirm reality with all its aspects.

Why you interpreted everything so literally and got so pissed off in result is a mystery to me!!!!

Here is an example of turpizm by Stanisław Grochowiak: Burning Giraffe. Do you remember that famous painting by Dali?

hamlet.edu.pl/grochowiak-zyrafa

Yes
This is something
Poor construction of human fear
A giraffe smoking so slowly
Yes
This is something

Something from that wall made of aspirin and sweat.
That face that looked like a shattered shotgun

Yes,
that's something

Why are you rotting from your chin to your temples?
What kind of tooth is ringing in your empty skull ?
Yes, that's something.

Something that awaits us
Useful and dangerous
Like a leg
Like a heart
Like a belly and a poker

The dark grave of man's sky
Yes, that's something

I am writing this poem
to myself and to donkeys,
to two rheumatized people,
one with toothache,
they will understand him,
yes
, it is something

Because life
means:

Buy meat Quarter meat
Kill meat Love meat
Fertilize meat Curse meat
Teach meat and bury meat

And make of meat And think with meat
And in the name of meat In spite of meat
For the tomorrow of meat For the destruction of meat
Especially especially in defense of meat

AND IT'S ON FIRE

It does not last.
It does not cool.
It does not survive even in salt.
It falls
and rots.
It falls off
and hurts

Yes,
that's something
1958

I meant principles, of course.

one with toothache,
they will understand him,

Not him but it, namely the poem.