Friday, July 8, 2011

Dept of "other observations"

1. As an appendix to the previous post, Harold Bloom reportedly could read "Lycidas" backwards from memory; this is how it would end:
For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime,
Compels me to disturb your season due:
Bitter constraint, and sad occasion dear,
Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year.
And with forc'd fingers rude,
I com to pluck your Berries harsh and crude,
Ye Myrtles brown, with Ivy never-sear,
Yet once more, O ye Laurels, and once more.

Which makes sense, sounds properly wistful, and is about as good as the way the poem actually ends! (I cheated by starting where I did, of course; two lines further and you have "Who would not weep for Lycidas? He knew / Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer," which is intelligible but irrelevant.)

2. I was surprised to discover that "No ideas but in thongs" (cf.) hasn't yet been done according to google.

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