Admit no angels

[PrinceMyshkin]

I’ll admit no angels
to this congress. It is the domain
of the impurely visceral
whose bodies chafe
and nudge and trace
the outlines of each other’s
oh so corporeal selves.

The spirit has no place
here, where the body dreams,
startled awake.

[adityasam]

The spirit has no place
here, where the body dreams,
startled awake.

Very Nice Lines

[angliholic]

I’ll admit no angels
to this congress. It is the domain
of the impurely visceral
whose bodies chafe
and nudge and trace
the outlines of each other’s
oh so corporeal selves.

The spirit has no place
here, where the body dreams,
startled awake.


Hi, Prince.

Terrible and Scary!

Is it hell you were despicting?

[Hawkman]

My Prince, This poem is magnificent, concise and a pleasure to read. I'm not sure that I completely agree with it though. Surely an element of spiritual harmony enchances any union. But if your angel represents a false, imposed morality, then I'm with you.

Live long and prosper, H

[PrinceMyshkin]

My Prince, This poem is magnificent, concise and a pleasure to read. I'm not sure that I completely agree with it though. Surely an element of spiritual harmony enchances any union. But if your angel represents a false, imposed morality, then I'm with you.

Live long and prosper, H

Thanks, my friend, and while I have nothing against "spiritual harmony," I thought the other-worldliness of angels was incongruous with this most worldly activity.

[Hawkman]

My Prince, wasn't there supposed to be a choir of Angels who mated with human women? I read somewhere that it was supposedly to wipe out their hybrid offspring that God brought forth the flood. However, the source was an internet site and the citations are probably unverifiable :D

Best, H

[PrinceMyshkin]

Hi, Prince.

Terrible and Scary!

Is it hell you were despicting?

It might of course be your own concept of hell, but no, that isn't what I intended.


My Prince, wasn't there supposed to be a choir of Angels who mated with human women? I read somewhere that it was supposedly to wipe out their hybrid offspring that God brought forth the flood. However, the source was an internet site and the citations are probably unverifiable :D

Best, H

If so, I surely wouldn't have wanted to be one of those women, penetrated by an incorporeal penis!

[blank|verse]

This has a strong mix of intimacy and formality, Prince!

The tone of the title and opening line is emphatic and declaratory. The diction - 'congress', 'domain', 'impurely visceral' - is quite academic and formal and is at striking odds with the act of physical love it describes. The switch to the third person in the second sentence also distances the reader (and narrator) from events. (And I think I could do without 'oh so'.)

It has the feel of trying to elevate sex to the realms of the gods, but perhaps at the expense of the human element. And the second stanza suggests it could all be a dream, anyway.

I don't think this could be written by anyone else!

[PrinceMyshkin]

This has a strong mix of intimacy and formality, Prince!

The tone of the title and opening line is emphatic and declaratory. The diction - 'congress', 'domain', 'impurely visceral' - is quite academic and formal and is at striking odds with the act of physical love it describes. The switch to the third person in the second sentence also distances the reader (and narrator) from events. (And I think I could do without 'oh so'.)

You're in the very best company re this observation, as one of my sons (a poet) made a similar point. I explained that my choice of the diction was not consciously made but might have been intended to ward off any suspicion that my intent here was vulgar or salacious.


It has the feel of trying to elevate sex to the realms of the gods, but perhaps at the expense of the human element. And the second stanza suggests it could all be a dream, anyway.

I don't think this could be written by anyone else!

Thank you especially for this last. However, in a scruffy room in the souk area of Addis Ababa, it might well be that the seventh son of a failed shoe-maker and his Eritrean wife, is even now composing the very same poem, albeit in Amharic.

[Jerrybaldy]

Kudos to you P and all replies as I am not dumb but did not understand but that is my shortcoming. Rather be honest
JB

[PrinceMyshkin]

Kudos to you P and all replies as I am not dumb but did not understand but that is my shortcoming. Rather be honest
JB

Thanks, Jerrybaldy, I don't think it's a matter of being "dumb" or smart but of getting on the same wave-length. As for your decision to be honest, all of us, I think, value that from anyone who responds.

[Jerrybaldy]

Thank you Prince
I remember reading Ozymandias at school and not understanding and I thought that the analysis and explanation that followed was all hot air. But I remember that poem now for what it stood for.
anyway
best wishes
JB

[PrinceMyshkin]

Thank you Prince
I remember reading Ozymandias at school and not understanding and I thought that the analysis and explanation that followed was all hot air. But I remember that poem now for what it stood for.
anyway
best wishes
JB

T.S. Eliot once described his method of reading a poem. First he read it through without trying to interpret it, trusting that something of the essence would come through to him. With that, he read it again, more carefully.

Sometimes, of course, the essence doesn't come through to us but, hopefully, some of the music does, or an image that stays with us. And some poems, of course, don't communicate to us at all; which may be either our own or the poet's fault.