Edwin Arlington Robinson

Edwin Arlington Robinson is one of those great poets you've probably never heard of. He was an American, lived in the late 19^th Century and wrote long poems, epic poems and short poems. He was; in short; a poet. He did write some plays in verse but I am not familiar with them, so I can’t say if they are any good. I suspect that they are.

The poem here is called “Ballad By the Fire” and is considered; at least by me; to be one of his best. He wrote quite a few. Almost all of them end with a 4 line summary under the heading of ENVOY. I only mention this because if you have never read his stuff before it might throw you.

This is one of my favorite of his many ballads, as it speaks to my own self-doubts. Curiously I have the same ability as the author does, in that I can also feel myself shedding those doubts with each passing year. The more I get to know me the more comfortable I am with being me. Now, that’s easier said than done.

And that’s the beauty in this poem. A poet’s job is to distill complex feelings into as few, potent words as possible. The reader fills in the missing pieces, which is what makes poetry so personal. What this poem means to me may not mean the same thing to you. And neither one of us is probably even close to knowing what the poet felt when he wrote it. So, without further ado, I give you Edwin Arlington Booth.

Ballad by the Fire

Slowly I smoke and hug my knee,

The while a witless masquerade

Of things that only children see

Floats in a mist of light and shade:

They pass, a flimsy cavalcade,

And with a weak, remindful glow,

The falling embers break and fade,

As one by one the phantoms go.

Then, with a melancholy glee

To think where once my fancy strayed,

I muse on what the years may be

Whose coming tales are all unsaid,

Till tongs and shovel, snugly laid

Within their shadowed niches, grow

By grim degrees to pick and spade,

As one by one the phantoms go.

But then, what though the mystic Three

Around me ply their merry trade? --

And Charon soon may carry me

Across the gloomy Stygian glade? --

Be up, my soul! nor be afraid

Of what some unborn year may show;

But mind your human debts are paid,

As one by one the phantoms go.

ENVOY

Life is the game that must be played:

This truth at least, good friend, we know;

So live and laugh, nor be dismayed

As one by one the phantoms go.

For more poetry by Edwin Arlington Robinson, use the following links. You will find them all encompassing.

https://archive.org/stream/cu31924021671106#page/n11/mode/2up  (Audio as well as visual.)

http://www.poemhunter.com/edwin-arlington-robinson/  (Good biography.)

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/391#sthash.VB4mfVKw.dpuf  (Whatever the others don’t have you can find here.)

"Little Margaret" - Sheila Kay Adams (1982)

You never can tell where you might run into music. In this case I ran across the name of Sheila Kay Adams while reading about the murder of a young VISTA volunteer in Marshall County, North Carolina. Curious as to who she was I went to You Tube to find out. This was the very first thing I watched and listened to.

North Carolina is rich in mountain music and folklore. Ms. Adams has spent the better part of her lifetime chronicling that culture and keeping it alive. In this film, from You Tube; of course; Ms. Adams is singing a sad mountain ballad to a group of children. I’m sure that some people will find the song inappropriate for children, but it speaks to the history of mountain culture more than anything else. This kind of singing and storytelling is the backbone of what Ms. Adams does.

Ms. Adams is also a skilled “claw hammer” style banjo picker and composer, and her agility and expertise with her own “drop thumb” style of playing have won her much acclaim. She has been featured on NPR’s “The Thistle & Shamrock” program with Fiona Ritchie.

According to the information on Wikipedia, as well as her own website; which is listed below; Ms. Adams hails from the town of Sodom Laurel, located in Madison County, which is near Asheville. She comes from a long line of traditional storytellers and balladeers. 

She has actually learned; and promulgates; the Irish, Scottish and English versions of just about every ballad that arrived in our country from the late 1700’s and on. As such, she is the repository for much of the culture which unites us all as the pioneers our ancestors once were. In today’s world of division, this is an awesome achievement.

Please take the time to visit Ms. Adams web site at;  http://www.sheilakayadams.com/

"The Witmark Demos" by Bob Dylan (1962-64)

One of the best things about not having enough money to buy everything you want is that you often come across that item several years later, and, having forgotten all about it, it’s brand new to you. Everyone else may have heard it; all the critics have expressed their views; but for me it’s like finding treasure. It becomes personal; mine; a secret which has apparently passed by all the others who got there first. That’s how this album affected me.

Released in 2010 by Sony Brothers, this unique collection represents the “demos” recorded by Bob Dylan in the first few years of his life as a recording artist. As a result, the collection contains such unusual items as Dylan doing “The Times they Are a Changing” on piano, rather than guitar, It’s more of a hymn than a protest song. I can hardly imagine him lugging a piano around to all those Civil Rights rallies and having the same effect as he did with his guitar upon the millions who saw and heard him.

Almost all of the selections on this album were released on Mr. Dylan’s first 3 albums for Columbia. And even without much change in the arrangements; indeed some were not changed at all; there is more urgency on these tracks than in their final incarnations. There is also a bit of banter with the engineers as he struggles through some of the numbers which lends more of a “live” effect to the songs, making the whole listening experience even better. This is Dylan; alone playing guitar, piano and harmonica; singing the songs he sings best. If you are lucky, as I was, in missing this collection when it was first released; then you are in for a real treat.

Below is the track listing from the rear cover;

________________________________________________

RIP Annette

Annette Funicello appears at 43 seconds.

The Day the Music Died

Today marks the date on which the plane carrying 3 of America’s greatest pop artists of their time crashed, killing all three on board. We all know the story of how Waylon Jennings was supposed to be on that plane but gave it up at the last minute. Pretty dramatic stuff considering what happened.

Here is a 1972 performance by Don MacLean of his memorable hit recording “Bye Bye Miss American Pie”, which not only chronicles the events of February 3, 1959, but also goes on to make quite a statement about rock and roll, and the direction it was taking, in the early 1970’s. The Beatles were gone, Dylan was hibernating, and disco was about to explode on the scene at the time Mr. MacLean wrote this lament to a by-gone and seemingly dying era.

See how many of the musical artists you can identify in the song. I have always looked upon “the joker, on the sidelines in a cast”, as being Bob Dylan. The princes and queens all represent other musical acts that, though current, were in Mr. MacLean’s opinion, falling short of the original glory of rock and roll. Hence the refrain - “the day the music died.”

Of course, he was wrong. Disco came and went; country swept the nation during the 1980’s, encompassing rock and leaving the genre forever changed; and the current independent music scene all serve to show that music never really dies. It just changes from time to time. But the good stuff, like cream, always rises to the surface and remains. (There’s a joke in that last sentence – see if you can spot it and let me know.)

"The Partisan" by Leonard Cohen

In 1968 I first heard Leonard Cohen on the radio doing "Suzanne", one of his signature ballads. I immediately recognized his talent as a songwriter and poet. He had me mesmerized with that song. Over the years I have heard many of his songs in movies and as background music on TV dramas. This song was used in the film "The Escapist", and the voice was easily recognizable as being that of Leonard Cohen.

Here he is on TV in France, performing the song in both English, and French, in 1969. I have printed the lyrics below, including both the French and English, just as he sings it. It is a hauntingly beautiful song about the courage and sacrifice of the French Resistance, and is emblamatic of people everywhere, pushing back when authority steps over the line.

"The Partisan"

When they poured across the border
I was cautioned to surrender,
this I could not do;
I took my gun and vanished.

I have changed my name so often,
I've lost my wife and children
but I have many friends,
and some of them are with me.

An old woman gave us shelter,
kept us hidden in the garret,
then the soldiers came;
she died without a whisper.

There were three of us this morning
I'm the only one this evening
but I must go on;
the frontiers are my prison.

Oh, the wind, the wind is blowing,
through the graves the wind is blowing,
freedom soon will come;
then we'll come from the shadows.

Les Allemands e'taient chez moi, (The Germans were at my home)
ils me dirent, "Signe toi," (They said, "Sign yourself,")
mais je n'ai pas peur; (But I am not afraid)
j'ai repris mon arme. (I have retaken my weapon.)

J'ai change' cent fois de nom, (I have changed names a hundred times)
j'ai perdu femme et enfants (I have lost wife and children)
mais j'ai tant d'amis; (But I have so many friends)
j'ai la France entie`re. (I have all of France)

Un vieil homme dans un grenier (An old man, in an attic)
pour la nuit nous a cache', (Hid us for the night)
les Allemands l'ont pris; (The Germans captured him)
il est mort sans surprise. (He died without surprise.)

Oh, the wind, the wind is blowing,
through the graves the wind is blowing,
freedom soon will come;
then we'll come from the shadows.