Date: January 24, 2004 7:26:38 PM PST
?Subject: ?Rhetorical questions
From: mhemming@lineone.netRhetoric, when simply challenged, can sound pretty silly. Hardy himself
recognised this when he penned the 'little dog's' brilliant 'punchline' in
"Ah, Are You Digging On My Grave?". So why didn't he finish "The Reminder"
with a response from the poor thrush? It's easy to imagine the bird coming
up with a few choice words when confronted with the watcher's daft question.
Might have gone something like (with apologies):
While I watch the Christmas blaze
Paint the room with ruddy rays,
Something makes my vision glide
To the frosty scene outside.
There, to reach a rotting berry
Toils a thrush, constrained to very
Dregs of food by sharp distress,
Taking such with thankfilness.
Why, O starving bird, when I
One day's joy would justify
And put all misery out of view,
Do you make me notice you?
Replied the thrush, "I'm glad you see
The sorry plight in which I be.
Now would you kindly fetch some bread?
Unless you'd rather find me dead".
From: rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu
Subject: Re: Rhetorical questions
Date: January 24, 2004 8:28:38 PM PST
Replied the thrush, "I'm glad you see
The sorry plight in which I be.
Now would you kindly fetch some bread?
Unless you'd rather find me dead".
O luckless songster -- ill unwill
the mindless crumb no beak can fill.
Ere bread was nigh the spectral yeast
denied the rising dough its feast.
From: schweikr@localnet.com
Subject: Will the Real Hardy Please Stand Up?
Date: January 25, 2004 10:16:27 AM PST
Forum members,
I found the exchange between Martin Hemming and Rosemarie
Morgan a delight, but it reminded me in part of a discussion that
once took place about the painter Piet Mondrian. Someone
argued that it would be very easy to fake a Mondrian, and a
contest was held to compare fake Mondrians with real ones.
It turned out that it was relatively easy for informed critics to distinguish
the fakes from the real ones. Or so I have heard and do in part
believe.
So, my question is this: can Forum members cite ways in which they
might distinguish the real Hardy lines from the fake ones provided by
Hemming and Morgan? Or (I will take silence as assent) are the
Hardy lines indistinguishable in style and quality from those of
Hemming and Morgan? Here is the Hardy poem, with the Hemming and
Morgan stanzas added.
While I watch the Christmas blaze
Paint the room with ruddy rays,
Something makes my vision glide
To the frosty scene outside.
There, to reach a rotting berry
Toils a thrush, constrained to very
Dregs of food by sharp distress,
Taking such with thankfilness.
Why, O starving bird, when I
One day's joy would justify
And put all misery out of view,
Do you make me notice you?
[Martin Hemming's addition]:
Replied the thrush, "I'm glad you see
The sorry plight in which I be.
Now would you kindly fetch some bread?
Unless you'd rather find me dead".
[Rosemarie Morgan's addition to
the Hemming addition]:
O luckless songster -- ill unwill
the mindless crumb no beak can fill.
Ere bread was nigh the spectral yeast
denied the rising dough its feast.
Bob Schweik
Robert Schweik
University Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus
Department of English
State University of New York
Fredonia, NY 14063
USA
schweik@fredonia.edu
From: hardycor@owl.csusm.edu
Subject: Re: Will the Real Hardy Please Stand Up?
Date: January 25, 2004 1:00:40 PM PST
Why, Why, O thrush are you so glum?
'Tis true you lack the outcast crumb,
But t'other darkling thrush did chortle
With glee, when HE faced winter's portal.
Betty
From: wesspix1@btinternet.com
Subject: Re: Will the Real Hardy Please Stand Up?
Date: January 26, 2004 10:54:27 AM PST
Then spake the unfulfilled First Cause,
"When thrushes first I made outdoors,
I made their songs and speckles sweet
but never thought what they would eat".
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