tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13315102.post5250135479678371918..comments2023-12-25T04:05:46.487-06:00Comments on poesy galore: The "They Feed They Lion" EffectEmily Lloydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03920886883651975823noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13315102.post-76271656913523431242007-08-17T15:00:00.000-05:002007-08-17T15:00:00.000-05:00I think he was thinking of Lorca too. He mentions...I think he was thinking of Lorca too. He mentions this poem in an essay on Lorca.Jonathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09371893596402673898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13315102.post-62999412344036106802007-08-17T08:58:00.000-05:002007-08-17T08:58:00.000-05:00Yes--I meant to comment on that being a really nic...Yes--I meant to comment on that being a really nice pair to teach together.<BR/><BR/>Yeah, I hear you on the anaphora--but Levine did also say "rhythm." Whitman's anaphora in the first section of <A HREF="http://www.bartleby.com/142/212.html" REL="nofollow">"Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking"</A> reminds me much more of Levine's use of it in "Lions" than <A HREF="http://clawoftheconciliator.blogspot.com/2006/03/poetry-thursday-for-i-will-consider-my.html" REL="nofollow">the Smart</A> does--I think "Out of" leads straight into that drive, that momentum in ways "For I will consider" does not. Most of Smart's lines end with periods, too--and are full sentences. Periods and one-line sentences would take a lot of the steam out of the Levine.Emily Lloydhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03920886883651975823noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13315102.post-6024870551447682352007-08-17T07:49:00.000-05:002007-08-17T07:49:00.000-05:00Yes, I'm pretty sure it's that poem. I think Levi...Yes, I'm pretty sure it's that poem. I think Levine took from it the anaphoric device, rather than the structure. (And maybe he also thought of the <I>out out?</I> of <I>Macbeth</I>).<BR/><BR/>I love the pair-ups poems can make. I put a blog post up about them today. Thanks for inspiring me.Pamela Johnson Parkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06637447850820805268noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13315102.post-34770070901902446352007-08-17T07:33:00.000-05:002007-08-17T07:33:00.000-05:00Wow, thanks, Pamela--I'd never read this. Sheds a ...Wow, thanks, Pamela--I'd never read this. Sheds a lot of light. And I suppose it would be boring as hell to read the work of a Philip Levine who ALWAYS tried to utilize that rhythm...goes both ways. But it was such a successful experiment that I'd love to have seen him go on to do other ones (not with Smart, with a variety)--he really inhabited it.<BR/><BR/>Funny, though--is Levine really talking about "My Cat Jeoffrey"? I think the rhythms of that and "They Feed They Lion" are incredibly different: Smart's is more like a recitation, Levine's like a giant, sweeping storm (pushpushpushpushpush). "For I will consider my cat Jeoffrey..." vs. "Out of burlap sacks, out of bearing butter,<BR/>Out of black bean and wet slate bread..." I get a sense of "Jeoffrey" being delivered from a state of repose. "Lion" feels like music for a riot about to happen.Emily Lloydhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03920886883651975823noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13315102.post-17213033761837685072007-08-17T07:16:00.000-05:002007-08-17T07:16:00.000-05:00I use this as a pair-up with Christopher Smart's p...I use this as a pair-up with Christopher Smart's poem when I teach Intro to Creative Writing. It's pretty cool to see the students' faces when they move from "My cat" to "They Lion."Pamela Johnson Parkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06637447850820805268noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13315102.post-72610716155423467012007-08-17T07:13:00.000-05:002007-08-17T07:13:00.000-05:00(Continuation of MAP post)I waited two days, got a...(Continuation of MAP post)<BR/><BR/>I waited two days, got a good night's sleep, and got up in the morning and wrote the damn thing. It struck me that it was a long line, and that it would be out of the poet Christopher Smart. Do you know his work? He's an eighteenth-century mystical poet, a great poet, and his greatest poem was written in a madhouse. We only have a fragment of it. It's a sort of call-and-response poem -- very incantatory. I said, "That's the rhythm I'm going to try and use." It's the only time I've ever tried to utilize that rhythm.Pamela Johnson Parkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06637447850820805268noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13315102.post-44526638132803022652007-08-17T07:03:00.000-05:002007-08-17T07:03:00.000-05:00I love the story about how this poem germinated. ...I love the story about how this poem germinated. Here's Levine's explanation of the poem's impetus (from <I>Modern American Poetry</I>): <BR/><BR/>I had the title, which derived entirely from a statement that was made to me. I was working alongside a guy in Detroit -- a black guy named Eugene -- when I was probably about twenty-four. He was a somewhat older guy, and we were sorting universal joints, which are part of the drive-shaft of a car. The guy who owned the place had bought used ones, and we were supposed to sort the ones that could be rebuilt and made into usable replacement parts from the ones that were too badly damaged. So we spread them out on the concrete floor, and we were looking at them carefully, because we were the guys who'd then do the job of rebuilding them. We had two sacks that we were putting them in -- burlap sacks -- and at one point Eugene held up a sack, and on it were the words "Detroit Municipal Zoo." And he laughed, and said, "They feed they lion they meal in they sacks." That's exactly what he said! And I thought, This guy's a genius with language. He laughed when he said it, because he knew that he was speaking an English that I didn't speak, but that I would understand, of course. He was almost parodying it, even though he appreciated the loveliness of it. It stuck in my mind, and then one night just after the riots in Detroit -- I'd gone back to the city to see what had happened -- somehow I thought of that line. "There's a poem there," I said. "But I don't know what it is. And I'm just going to walk around for a couple of days and see what accumulates."Pamela Johnson Parkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06637447850820805268noreply@blogger.com