However soon it will all be over and then the question will be: 'will I be able to fit and feed a baby in here and type at the same time' - ooh to own a laptop!
Anyway, just realised that the lovely Titus tagged me ages ago to: "Collect the book that you have most handy, turn to page 161, find the 5th complete sentence, and cite the sentence on your blog."
So here it is:
"The Palace's little windows glow,
remote in the stillness."
'
From Anna Akhmatova's poem 'Verses About Petersburg' which is in the fantastically wonderful Complete poems of Anna Akhmatova translated by Judith Hemschemeyer - one of my desert island books.
Just in case I was supposed to pick a prose book:
"One of her most instinctive compulsions was to make patterns - vivid, bold, symmetrical patterns."
Ted Hughes' essay 'Sylvia Plath: Ariel' in his book Winter Pollen: Occasional Prose, the nearest prose book to hand.
Works out nicely - two main poetry obsessions of mine, Plath and Akhmatova!
11 comments:
Akhmatova is supreme, sublimely wonderful. And what a hell of a life she had.
You look after you both now.
And Petersburg - a place I'd love to visit again. I think I'm out of date...it's St Petersburgh again now, right? It was Leningrad when I went!
x
hi frances, happy to find a fellow Akhmatova fan!!
I would so love to go there, rachel. maybe one day *sigh*
Oh Sorlil , thank you for participating so eloquently!
As with Frances, Akhmatova sublime.
Great choice.
And no, there was no necessity to pick a prose book, it just ended up that way as few of us appeared to have poetry books that went up to page 161.
It was interesting that the fifth line of the relevant page of the Hughes book is one that you can read and make sense of, immediately. A lot of random fifth lines needed quite a bit of background to provide context. Maybe the fact that the essay is on Plath helps?
Thank you for your dedication, the swollen ankles are a pain and I had to buy new field-and-trek-esque sandals in my last month with the boys (permanently swollen ankles) because they had amazingly adjustable velcro straps.
Wishing you very well.
what a wondrous happening, to get these two quotes - they complement each other, i feel - i love them both, and their authors as well...
hi titus, thanks. there are lots of great sentences in the Plath essay, I enjoy Hughes' prose anyway but obviously he has exceptional insight into Plath's writing.
glad you like them roxana, two of my fav authors. I love your 'her skirt of fire' title in one of your recent photo sets and thinking I might have to steal it for a poem :)
Easing your way back in via Akhmatova is as good a way as any, Sorlil! I hope you're going to stick around.
thanks Dick :) looking forward to being part of the blogging scene again, I think it's a great wee online community we have here.
Sorlil, are you 'with child' as they used to say? Another on the way. My friend, Sarah, is pregnant, it's her first time, she is due in November. She is bursting at the seams. Big changes in their life on the way (her boyfriend of course being the second).
Get a loptap. It's a good idea but then it becomes harder to escape the web.
Hope to see you about.
Colin
I certainly am, hopefully for not much longer, and yes, bursting at the seams!!
Get your friend some nice relaxing bubble bath (she'll appreciate it)and tell to enjoy long soaks while she can b/c there won't be much chance of that when the baby's here!
A baby is a laptop.
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