I love having insomia when I'm staying at my boyfriend's place. It's so much easier to not freak out about the fact that I'm not sleeping when I can steal into the living room with something that I haven't read seventeen times over already, and just read.
That being said, I've been good to my word and started reading some earlier Uncanny X-Men comics. The boy picked up a huge volume of issues, starting with the X-Men's escape from the Brood (somewhere in the area of Issue 160) - awesome read, so much so I wish it hadn't been 3am when I started!
I also managed to zip through a couple of issues of Wolverine: Origins, which the boy also recently acquired. Say what one wants about whether Wolvie's origins should remain a mystery to the reader and fan or not, so far it's a good read, good art, a good story.
Which brings me to William Blake. Origins takes one of Blake's most famous poems, The Tyger (also the original name of a book by one of my most favorite authors ever, guess which one) and uses it with some contextual imagery. Now, I've been aware of this poem for some time, and once had it memorized, because I thought it was pretty cool. But reading it again, something just felt off about it, and I think late last night I realized what it might be.
It's too structured. The structure of it (iambic, if I'm not mistaken) is completely at odds with the subject, the meat of the poem. One might argue that it evokes a heartbeat, something one might be aware of when confronted with this animal, which I agree is valid, but I still can't feel that it suits the poem. So I decided, not because I like poetry, or because I feel as though I have any skill with poetry at all, to attempt a free-verse rewrite of The Tyger. Is it going to be good? Probably not.
Tiger, o feline, gleaming
In the shifty twilight of a primal jungle
What dread inspirational spark shaped you
Beneath the hand, behind the eye
Of your creator?
Fuck, yeah. It needs work. But at least I'm writing something.
In other news, I'm about fifty dollars short on rent for June. Life is awesome!!
That being said, I've been good to my word and started reading some earlier Uncanny X-Men comics. The boy picked up a huge volume of issues, starting with the X-Men's escape from the Brood (somewhere in the area of Issue 160) - awesome read, so much so I wish it hadn't been 3am when I started!
I also managed to zip through a couple of issues of Wolverine: Origins, which the boy also recently acquired. Say what one wants about whether Wolvie's origins should remain a mystery to the reader and fan or not, so far it's a good read, good art, a good story.
Which brings me to William Blake. Origins takes one of Blake's most famous poems, The Tyger (also the original name of a book by one of my most favorite authors ever, guess which one) and uses it with some contextual imagery. Now, I've been aware of this poem for some time, and once had it memorized, because I thought it was pretty cool. But reading it again, something just felt off about it, and I think late last night I realized what it might be.
It's too structured. The structure of it (iambic, if I'm not mistaken) is completely at odds with the subject, the meat of the poem. One might argue that it evokes a heartbeat, something one might be aware of when confronted with this animal, which I agree is valid, but I still can't feel that it suits the poem. So I decided, not because I like poetry, or because I feel as though I have any skill with poetry at all, to attempt a free-verse rewrite of The Tyger. Is it going to be good? Probably not.
Tiger, o feline, gleaming
In the shifty twilight of a primal jungle
What dread inspirational spark shaped you
Beneath the hand, behind the eye
Of your creator?
Fuck, yeah. It needs work. But at least I'm writing something.
In other news, I'm about fifty dollars short on rent for June. Life is awesome!!
VIEW 7 of 7 COMMENTS
I'm not sure if i should just start up with the Dark Phoenix saga...or maybe go back farther so I can get a good foundation of what happened before that. Any suggestions?
Either way, I'm sure I'm in for many late nights catching up (if that is even possible).
Did you ever see the documentary Grizzly Man? About a troubled guy who goes to live with grizzlies in Alaska and "save" them, and he and his girlfriend are tragically killed by a bear, eventually.
Anyway, thinking of Blake and his "Tyger" poem reminded me of something Grizzly Man filmmaker Werner Herzog says: "What haunts me, is that in all the faces of all the bears that Treadwell ever filmed, I discover no kinship, no understanding, no mercy. I see only the overwhelming indifference of nature. To me, there is no such thing as a secret world of the bears. [ shows a close-up of a bear's face ] This blank stare speaks only of a half-bored interest in food. But for Timothy Treadwell, this bear was a friend, a savior."
[Edited on Jun 01, 2006 12:44AM]