Limericks about chatters

sceptical guy wrote:

Of course, i did, Nem…

and I took no offence…though I think we both have a different definition of nerdy, and the majority may well agree with you. Doesn’t bother me.. I see your point and the limerick was amusing…

I’d had a look at a poetry site recommended by AD, and noted that there was a serious post on T.S.Eliot, that’s all. I would be making seriously argued points about Eliot (and Pound) if I decided to write there..to many, close and balanced argument isn’t what’s wanted, and is nerdy.

I may write a limerick about it, after all…not sure.

Oh you mean this and the review I wrote?

A bit about TS Elliot.

Thomas Stearns Eliot, OM, was an essayist, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic, and “one of the twentieth century’s major poets”. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States, to a prominent Boston Brahmin family, he moved to England in 1914 at the age of 25, settling, working, and marrying there. When T. S. Eliot moved to London, he came under the influence of Ezra Pound, who convinced him of his literary talent and helped him publish several poems

Morning at the Window

They are rattling breakfast places in basement kitchens,

And along the trampled edges of the street

I am aware of the damp souls of housemaids

Sprouting despondently at area gates

The brown waves of fog toss up to me

twisted aces from the bottom of the street,

And tear from a passer-by with muddy skirts

An aimless smile that hovers in the air

And vanishes along the level of the roofs

My review

This poem is quite significant I think in what was happening at that time in history.  He speaks of basement kitchens and breakfast plates making me think of hard working poor people catering for the more wealthy.  The ‘trampled’ edges makes me think if a dark and dirty street also highlighted by the ‘brown waves of fog toss up to me’ so the streets are dirty and the air is foggy.  I would without knowing imagine this poem is set during the industrial revolution where work was hard, people were poor, factory life was distasteful and no one seemed to be very happy – apart from the maybe the rich who everyone worked for, but still may have had their own issues during this time of our history.  The ‘damp souls of housemaids’ shows he is sympathetic/empathic towards the working women and is aware of them, this notion is also suggested with the line ‘sprouting despondently at area gates’ gives me the image of an unhappy housemaid expressing her unhappiness verbally, the line ‘twisted faces from the bottom of the street’ further impresses on me the misery of the people around him at that time.  One of the people is said to be tearful with muddy skirts.  How did the skirt get muddy?  Due to work and to dirty streets and overall drudgery.  ‘An aimless smile that hovers in the air’ reminds me of how depressed people look, kind of vacant and bereft of the will to even bother smiling properly.  The smile has no direction as it is not really felt, just a mask or just an effortless position to hold ones face in.  And then the ‘smile’ just floats off into the air via the ‘level of the roofs’.

This is one of my favourite TS Elliot poems because its fairly simple but so descriptive and so telling of how life was at that time.  We can look at the facts in history but its writers who really show us how peoples moods and feelings were at that particular time.  Reading this poem I can actually feel the despair and misery of these housemaids and understand their angst.  His words give me the image of a dirty London street with a heavy fog stinging my eyes.  I see lost souls with no hope caught up in the drudgery of their existence.

I confirm this is my review and I have no researched anyone else’s reviews.

Thank you scep x

You know i would struggle to write anything positive about his cat poems since Tim Rice took his words and made them into an Andrew Lloyd Webber play.  I just avoid writing reviews on those.

I personally feel they are  tainted.  I prefer to focus on his uncat poetry.  He was an amazing writer and wrote so much.

People should remember that poets capture the essence of time and what was happening during that period.  It is still true to this day.  People disregard poetry but sometimes poetry can be a significant pointer as to the feelings experiences and can be an indication as to what was actually happening at the time of the writing of the poem.  Can we always trust propaganda and the news and all that is re-written in history?  Sometimes artists and poets are the only people who are uncensored and they slip through the net.  All the attention is spent looking at the ‘dominators’ of history, the governmental hierarchy’ the filtered ‘news items’ the what is written for example.  Even the renaissance has been given a title? A word to describe the natural progression of humanity and creativity.  Just shows you how in history like in the here and now everyone needs a title.

Truth is, they will always overlook certain types when they re-write the past.  But this poem written by TS Elliot sums up real life at the time he wrote it.

Thank you Scep.

I would love to see your limmeric, some talent on this thread would be so great x

In fact an otherwise really crap thread has actually inspired more.

If more people wrote poetry about what is happening right now it would be so great for future generations to actually get a feel for what it is like to live in 2019.

Like the poem by TS Elliot how wonderful would it be if this thread invoked a few poets to write about life with descriptions about your day etc.

Everyone is a poet, find your inner poet!!!

Write about your day, your work, what you do and how you feel.

You could make history!

• This reply was modified 5 years, 10 months ago by  Artful Dodger.

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sceptical guy

Credible……that a new term for worthy of credit…..LMAO…..

Ok joke……(not that any thing else i’ve ever said wasn’t)……..

Dr Dr i think i’ve gone a shade of Scottish tea table…….Dr Says….don’t worry.. i’ll just cheque you out…..LMAO

I’d like to endorse AD’s post on the importance of poetry.

The serious posts here degenerate so often into nasty personal attacks and hypocrisy.

I’ll keep plugging away on them, and I will try to avoid the personal abuse, but I do hit hard when it comes to argument, and people had better get used to that or get the hell out of the kitchen. *wait, some of them have got out of the kitchen lol Ah, well, let’s see how things develop..

The poetry threads are the only threads whihc haven;t degenerated, and I hope that AD (and Nem) will continue to contribute to them,.

So, thank you, AD x

I think a reply to your Eliot post belongs on its original site, and I’ll write one for next week (family affairs lead me away this weekend).

Linda, yes, I’m for real.

What’s the problem in answering a serious post about T.S.Eliot?

I’ve always distanced myself from the cruel comments of AD, but I’ve also said that I respond to her poetry and her serious comments.

She can be cruel, but there’s been a lot of cruelty in jc over the years. I left the chat rooms years ago – rarely go back – because of the nastiness there was then.

I say – and I have to keep saying – that you don’t choose who I talk to. You can play the game of ignoring me if you wish,  that’s up to you, but don’t tell me who I talk to.

You can be offensive and cruel, too – how on earthy can you support the killing of a baby???