by Federico Garcia Lorca (1898 – 1936).

The Guitar

The weeping of the guitar
begins.
The goblets of dawn
are smashed.
The weeping of the guitar                  5
begins.
Useless
to silence it.
Impossible
to silence it.                                    10
It weeps monotonously
as water weeps
as the wind weeps
over snowfields.
Impossible                                      15
to silence it.
It weeps for distant
things.
Hot southern sands
yearning for white camellias.             20
Weeps arrow without target
evening without morning
and the first dead bird
on the branch.
Oh, guitar!                                        25
Heart mortally wounded
by five swords.

Notes:
http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/clsc67.html
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/fglorca.htm

Material for the Stout-Hearted Reader to Ruminate

♦ Essays, Lectures & Speeches ♦

—   —   —

Randolph Bourne  (1886 – 1918) was an American intellectual and writer.  He advocated America should be a melting pot that accommodates immigrant cultures and is changed by them rather than simply assimilating these cultures into an Anglo-Saxon America.  He died in the Spanish Influenza Epidemic on December 22, 1918.  The Randolph Bourne Institute was established in his name to promote non-interventionist foreign policy.

This week’s text is his essay, “Trans-National America” (1916), which was written at the height of World War I.  In it he discusses what should be meant by the term “Americanism” and addresses the assimilation, or Americanization, of immigrants.  Although his focus is on German-American immigrants at the turn of the twentieth century, his argument is just as salient today regarding Hispanic and other  immigrant cultures.

Join others from around the world in this weekly reading event!  You can find Bourne’s text at this website:

http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/16jul/bourne.htm

by E. J. Pratt (1882 – 1964).

The Shark (1923)

He seemed to know the harbour,
So leisurely he swam;
His fin,
Like a piece of sheet-iron,
Three-cornered,                                               5
And with knife-edge,
Stirred not a bubble
As it moved
With its base-line on the water.

His body was tubular                                        10
And tapered
And smoke-blue,
And as he passed the wharf
He turned,
And snapped at a flat-fish                                 15
That was dead and floating.
And I saw the flash of a white throat,
And a double row of white teeth,
And eyes of metallic grey,
Hard and narrow and slit.                                 20

Then out of the harbour,
With that three-cornered fin
Shearing without a bubble the water
Lithely,
Leisurely,                                                        25
He swam—
That strange fish,
Tubular, tapered, smoke-blue,
Part vulture, part wolf,
Part neither—for his blood was cold.                   30

Notes:
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/pratt/
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0006453

by John Boyle O’Reilly (1844 – 1890).

A White Rose (1875)

The red rose whispers of passion,
And the white rose breathes of love;
Oh, the red rose is a falcon,
And the white rose is a dove.
 
But I send you a cream-white rose bud           5
With a flush on its petal tips;
For the love that is purest and sweetest
Has a kiss of desire on the lips. 

Notes:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11294c.htm
http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/John_Boyle_O’Reilly

by Harold Hart Crane  (1899 – 1932).

Forgetfulness

Forgetfulness is like a song
That, freed from beat and measure, wanders.
Forgetfulness is like a bird whose wings are reconciled,
Outspread and motionless, —
A bird that coasts the wind unwearyingly.                                   5

Forgetfulness is rain at night,
Or an old house in a forest, — or a child.
Forgetfulness is white, — white as a blasted tree,
And it may stun the sybil into prophecy,
Or bury the Gods.                                                                   10

I can remember much forgetfulness. 

Notes:
http://www.english.illinois.edu/Maps/poets/a_f/crane/bio.htm
http://www.thehypertexts.com/Hart%20Crane%20Poet%20Poetry%20Picture%20Bio.htm

by Du Fu (712 – 770).

Nocturnal Reflections While Travelling

Gentle breeze on grass by the shore,
The boat’s tall mast alone at night.
Stars fall to the broad flat fields,
Moon rises from the great river’s flow.
Have my writings not made any mark?             5
An official should stop when old and sick.
Fluttering from place to place I resemble,
A gull between heaven and earth.

Notes:
http://www.biography.com/articles/Du-Fu-9280427
http://www.chinapage.com/biography/bio-poet.html

by Victor Hugo (1802 – 1885).

Tomorrow, at Dawn (1847)

Tomorrow, at dawn, at the hour when the countryside whitens,
I will set out.  You see, I know that you wait for me.
I will go by the forest, I will go by the mountain.
I can no longer remain far from you.

I will walk with my eyes fixed on my thoughts,                                                 5
Seeing nothing of outdoors, hearing no noise
Alone, unknown, my back curved, my hands crossed,
Sorrowed, and the day for me will be as the night.

I will not look at the gold of evening which falls,
Nor the distant sails going down towards Harfleur,                                           10
And when I arrive, I will place on your tomb
A bouquet of green holly and of flowering heather.

Notes:
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/vhugo.htm
http://www.victorhugo.gg/

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882).

 

Concord Hymn

 

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,

    Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,

Here once the embattled farmers stood,

    And fired the shot heard round the world.

 

The foe long since in silence slept,                                            5

    Alike the Conqueror silent sleeps,

And Time the ruined bridge has swept

    Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

 

On this green bank, by this soft stream,

    We set to-day a votive stone,                                               10

That memory may their deed redeem,

    When like our sires our sons are gone.

 

Spirit, that made those heroes dare

    To die, or leave their children free,

Bid Time and Nature gently spare                                           15

    The shaft we raise to them and Thee.

 

(Sung at the Completion of the Battle Monument, July 4, 1837)

 

Notes:

http://www.transcendentalists.com/1emerson.html

http://www.online-literature.com/emerson/

by James Weldon Johnson (1871 – 1938).

To America

How would you have us, as we are?
Or sinking ‘neath the load we bear?
Our eyes fixed forward on a star?
Or gazing empty at despair?
Rising or falling? Men or things?                        5
With dragging pace or footsteps fleet?
Strong, willing sinews in your wings?
Or tightening chains about your feet?

Notes:
http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/amlit/johnson/johnson1.html
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/72

Material for the Stout-Hearted Reader to Ruminate

♦ Essays, Lectures & Speeches ♦

—   —   —

Harold Ickes (1874 – 1952) was U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Secretary of the Interior from 1933 to 1946.  He played a major role in overseeing Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ programs.

This week’s text is his speech, “What is an American?” given on May 18, 1941 in New York City’s Central Park at the I Am an American Day celebration; approximately 750,000 people attended.  At that time, Nazi Germany had already conquered many nations and its air force was bombing Britain.  However, many Americans were still ambivalent about entering the war (Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7th of that year).

His speech is remarkable for its clear statement of an American view that held sway through the remainder of the twentieth century.

Join others from around the world in this weekly reading event! You can find the text for Ickes’ speech at this website:

http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/ickes.htm

Notes:

• The second sentence of the Declaration of Independence reads—“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
• The aviator, senator and ‘mail-order executive’ of whom Ickes refers in his speech likely are Charles Lindbergh, Sen. Burton Wheeler (D-Mont.), and  Robert F. Wood of Sears, Roebuck & Co.
• ‘Sixth column’ is derived from the phrase ‘fifth column’, which was coined during the Spanish Civil War to mean any group of traitors ready to pounce on their government while it is preoccupied with defending itself against an external enemy (from Safire’s Political Dictionary).  Here, Ickes uses ‘sixth column’ as a mirror image to refer to partisans ready to liberate their country from a tyrant.