Donald Justice was a poet mostly in the latter half of the twentieth century, and he has consistently wowed me. This is him reading his noted "Pantoum of the Great Depression." He's got a great delivery too.
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2 comments:
Having no familarity with the form I read the wiki link
and was no further ahead. Then I listened to him reading
it and got the idea - you're right it was a wonderful delivery.
Finally, I had to look up the poem itself to understand
exactly how the Pantoum of the Great Depression
was written. It really is beautiful:
We gathered on porches; the moon rose; we were poor.
And time went by, drawn by slow horses.
Somewhere beyond our windows shone the world.
The Great Depression had entered our souls like fog.
And time went by, drawn by slow horses.
We did not ourselves know what the end was.
The Great Depression had entered our souls like fog.
We had our flaws, perhaps a few private virtues.
But we did not ourselves know what the end was.
People like us simply go on.
We have our flaws, perhaps a few private virtues,
But it is by blind chance only that we escape tragedy.
And there is no plot in that; it is devoid of poetry.
***
btw: Don't be surprised if you get an Amazon delivery on Saturday.
It's an unusual form, in both its difference from other kinds of rhyming poetry and the relatively few poets that have been able to make it work. Although apparently there's a Rush song that follows the pattern pretty closely. Justice was a very good poet, bold enough to try it and supple enough to get this kind of effect out of it.
The Amazon delivery did come. Was a nice surprise, too. Merci.
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