Benny Bunter

Well-known member
Haven't read Wordsworth since I was at school, I think we did the ice skating section of the prelude, but don't remember much about it. Will definitely get to him this year though.

Will give the Heidegger a go as well at some point, nice one.
 

luka

Well-known member
Haven't read Wordsworth since I was at school, I think we did the ice skating section of the prelude, but don't remember much about it. Will definitely get to him this year though.

Will give the Heidegger a go as well at some point, nice one.
This is a very short thing of him writing about a small section of the prelude (and Wallace Stevens) you should read it this instant

 

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
Just downloaded it. Is it you that's photographed the entire book?!

Anyway, I'll give it a go when I've finished with this word order thing.
 

luka

Well-known member
This is the point I've reached in my read-through. I've read it more carefully than on previous occasions. I don't think I'd registered the ambiguity of the phrases before. that you can choose to read it with invisible punctuation marks. Full stops, for example, after face and them and a comma after wheels.

And that the blood may be estranged for going unnoticed, as we are taken out of ourselves and out of the room by the warm indolence of fancy, the cheap music on the radio, that a change in state is effected while we are 'away'...

That's a possible path though solace of wheels is beyond me
 

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
Yeah that's pretty much how I read it, with that punctuation inserted in my mind.

"The solace of wheels, muffled in sheepskin" confused me also, but I just had a thought: 'wheels' could refer to the 'small flares' wheeling (turning, spinning) down the coalface at the beginning, which gives him solace.
 

luka

Well-known member
I read a (neurotic, drippy) essay on it by Peter Riley just now that had it as a poet needing special conditions of undisturbed silence to create, away from the distraction of traffic noise. And wanting to link the animal skin to shaman cloak. Tenuous but not out of the question. Mostly I think it's just odd.
 

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
Bit of parataxis for you there btw, hehe

the solace of wheels, muffled in sheepskin

More like a list of things that give him solace, rather than an image of actual wheels being wrapped in sheepskin.
 

luka

Well-known member
Bit of parataxis for you there btw, hehe

the solace of wheels, muffled in sheepskin

More like a list of things that give him solace, rather than an image of actual wheels being wrapped in sheepskin.
The ambiguity is irresolvable. Prynne is always, in the final analysis, gibberish.
 

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
The thing of mentally inserting your own punctuation with poetry like this is key, and you can try putting full stops and commas in different places to get different possible meanings.

Another thing I've noticed about Prynne is that he never uses question marks afaik, yet the poems are full of what may or may not be questions - lines starting with how, what, why etc.
 

luka

Well-known member
What I mean is that if you need it to resolve into some ultimate settled meaning it will only ever frustrate you.
 

luka

Well-known member
Obviously I think the process of trying to solve a puzzle without a solution is a worthwhile endeavour. Which is why I recommend the book to everyone.
 
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