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WritersNotes.Net: Helping Writers Follow Their Dreams Through Information, Inspiration, and Encouragement!
Happy Mother's Day to All the Moms Who Read Writer's Notes!
To wish all the moms who read my blog a Happy Mother's Day, I'd like to post my poem, "Mothers." (As soon as you begin reading it, you'll recognize immediately the famous poem on which it's based.)
MOTHERS
I think that I shall never see
a brush surpass the artistry
That brings to bud the eve or morn
a helpless little babe is born
The delicate maternal bloom
that sheds a fragrant new perfume,
That nurtures with the nectar of
a sweet and freely flowing love
And fills her field with beauty spread
by outstretched arms and sun-turned head.
Art can tap one well or other,
but only God can make a mother.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You may have read Mothers on the Orble Poems blog. It's posted there, though on that blog, it's formatted slightly differently.
If you'd like to read some modern quotes about motherhood, here's a link to my post, Cleverly Contemporary Quotes on Motherhood.
Have a very Happy Mother's Day!
Jeanne
Mother and infant thumbnail image comes from the Karen's Whimsy collection of Public Domain Images. (Image also available in larger size.)
Did you enjoy this post? Have anything to add? Know any poems or quotes about moms? I'd love to hear from you!
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"King Lear": A Literary Masterpiece!
The following article is one I wrote some years ago. I've decided to resurrect it here for all the ardent admirers of William Shakespeare who may be among my readers. It is an in-depth analysis of the literary device of Inversion, as it has been so ingeniously used by Shakespeare to craft "King Lear" into the dramatic literary masterpiece that it has unfailingly proven itself to be over the centuries.
If you have never read this play, I highly recommend it! (To read it online, click this link: "King Lear" - The Free Library.) It is absolutely incredible just how deftly conceived and masterfully written this Shakespearean tragedy is! (As you read the quoted passages which follow, you will glimpse the power of Shakespeare's prose and the intricate weaving of the play's thematic elements into the overall storyline, enjoying a delightful preview of what you can expect from the remainder of the play.)
Inversion Sets the Stage
In the play's opening scene, King Lear sets the mechanism of Inversion in motion by dividing his kingdom between his evil daughters, Regan and Goneril, disowning his good daughter, Cordelia, and banishing his loyal servant, Kent.
In so doing, he "divests" himself of those persons who represent goodness, honesty, loyalty, and nobility (Cordelia and Kent--though Kent later returns disguised as Caius) and those things which represent dignity, power, security, and prosperity (his kingdom, rule, wealth, position).
At the same time, he "invests" his authority and substance in those individuals who symbolize greed, malice, insincerity, deviousness, insensitivity, disloyalty, ungratefulness, disrespect (Goneril, Regan, and Cornwall), and moral weakness (Albany).
The word "divest" is highly appropriate here, and is intended by Shakespeare as a very purposeful foreshadowing of the figurative nakedness that Lear unwittingly brings upon himself as a result of his impulsive and unreasonable actions. "Since now we will divest us both of rule, interest of territory, cares of state...” (1.1, lines 47-48).
His corresponding use of the word "invest" is equally deliberate and also very apt, expressing as it does Lear's "clothing" of his evil daughters with the "vestments" of power and authority, the willing removal of which is the cause of their father's pitiful "nakedness." "I do invest you jointly with my power, preeminence, and all the large effects that troop with majesty" (1.1, lines 129-131).
The clothing/unclothing metaphor is adeptly sustained through Scene 1 and slipped into Scene 4 as a reminder of Lear's humiliating predicament.
The divestment of his power and property is referred to in lines 216-217, in part, as a "dismantl(ing of) so many folds of favor" in regard to his loving daughter, Cordelia; and his investment of these is alluded to in Cordelia's declaration to her evil sisters that "time shall unfold what plighted (or pleated) cunning hides" (line 279).
The Fool also reminds us in Scene 4 that "E'er since (Lear made his) daughters (his) mothers [another example of Inversion], (he gave them) the rod and (put) down (his) own breeches" (lines 165-167).
Tragic Irony Reigns Supreme
In addition to his innate ability in the sustained use of metaphor, Shakespeare's lines are executed with poetic power and vivid emotional impact, which he skillfully utilizes to create and maintain the play's tragic mood and firmly establish its exalted character.
Lear's heart-rending oath to Cordelia is an excellent example of the sheer tragic power of Shakespeare's prose (1.1, lines 109-119):
"The mysteries of Hecate, and the night; / By all the operation of the orbs / From whom we do exist and cease to be; / Here I disclaim all my paternal care, / Propinquity, and property of blood, / And as a stranger to my heart and me / Hold thee from this forever. The barbarous Scythian, / Or he that makes his generation messes / To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom / Be as well neighbour'd, pitied, and relieved / As thou my sometime daughter."
The King's reaction to the inexcusable treatment he receives at the hand of Goneril (Scene 4, lines 256-260) likewise displays Shakespeare's powerful command of language:
"Detested kite! thou liest. / My train are men of choice and rarest parts, / That all particulars of duty know, / And in the most exact regard support / The worships of their name.--"
The rest of his angry diatribe--first over Cordelia, in remorseful self-recrimination for the way he's wronged her (lines 260-266), and then against Goneril, after finally recognizing her for what she truly is (lines 269-283)--and his new outburst, after losing 50 of his followers (lines 296-309--not quoted), are further examples of this power:
260-266: "O most small fault, / How ugly didst thou in Cordelia show! / Which, like an engine, wrench'd my frame of nature / From the fix'd place; drew from my heart all love / And added to the gall. O Lear, Lear, Lear! / Beat at this gate, that let thy folly in / And thy dear judgement out!--Go, go, my people."
269-283 (in reference to Goneril): "Hear, Nature, hear; dear goddess, hear! / Suspend thy purpose, if thou didst intend / To make this creature fruitful; / Into her womb convey sterility; / Dry up in her the organs of increase, / And from her derogate body never spring / A babe to honour her! If she must teem, / Create her child of spleen, that it may live / And be a thwart disnatured torment to her. / Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth; / With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks; / Turn all her mother's pains and benefits / To laughter and contempt; that she may feel / How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is / To have a thankless child!--Away, away!"
France's lovely and emotional acceptance of Cordelia (not quoted) also exemplifies Shakespeare's ability to express beauty and use language to elevate a scene above the mundane and into a more exalted sphere.
A World Turned Upside Down
Essentially, Inversion, expressed powerfully and with great beauty, is a key element in the play's first two acts. The following potent examples of Inversion indicate the strong part the literary device plays in this tragic drama:
-Children in authority over parent
-King ruled by his subjects
-Good punished-evil rewarded
-Flattery triumphing over honesty
-Greed triumphing over unselfish love
-Impulsiveness triumphing over reason
-Anger triumphing over mercy
-Cold rejection kindling ardent respect
-Fool becoming wise-King becoming Fool
Perhaps the most pointed (and also the most powerful) example of Inversion in the first two acts occurs in Scenes 4 and 5, when the Fool becomes the voice of reason for the King, who has unwittingly relegated himself to the status of Fool. The words of wisdom spoken by the Fool in this portion of the play represent prime examples of the inverted status between Lear and his Fool; and the Fool's manifold vocal jabs also evoke a poignancy born of his deep love, loyalty, and concern for his master (lines 207-210, 217-218, 224, 228).
Shakespeare has, in "King Lear," skillfully and systematically created a universe turned upside down--a topsy-turvy world fraught with injustice, irony, and pathos--a world by which only a "marble-hearted fiend" of the likes of a Goneril, a Regan, or an Edmund could possibly remain unmoved.
If you've never read Shakespeare, give his work a try! It is definitely writing of a most exalted kind--the kind you won't soon forget!
Dramatically yours,
Jeanne
Did you enjoy this post? Don't leave me lonely--Please comment!
Here are a few more quotes by writers on writing. Some are thought-provoking, some brutally honest, some inspiring, and some simply clever--but whatever your thinking about the art or the craft, you should find something here that will catch your fancy!
Here goes:
There is only one trait that marks the writer. He is always watching. It's a kind of trick of mind and he is born with it. ~Morley Callaghan~
Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it's a letdown, they won't buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book. ~Mickey Spillane~
Autobiography is an obituary in serial form with the last installment missing. ~Quentin Crisp~
A poet's autobiography is his poetry. Anything else can only be a footnote. ~Yevgeny Yevtushenko~
Books are...funny little portable pieces of thought. ~Susan Sontag~
I never desire to converse with a man who has written more books than he has read. ~Samuel Johnson~
Journalism is literature in a hurry. ~Matthew Arnold~
Literature is the question minus the answer. ~Roland Barthes~
Literature is recognizable through its capacity to evoke more than it says. ~Anthony Burgess~
A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author. ~G.K. Chesterton~
To be a poet is a condition rather than a profession. ~Robert Graves~
The poet marries the language, and out of this marriage the poem is born. ~W.H. Auden~
A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom. ~Robert Frost~
It's easier to write a mediocre poem than to understand a good one. ~Montaigne~
In a poem the words should be as pleasing to the ear as the meaning is to the mind. ~Marianne Moore~
Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings...in a man who has thought long and deeply. ~William Wordsworth~
You write by sitting down and writing. There's no particular time or place--you suit yourself, your nature. How one works, assuming he's disciplined, doesn't matter. ~Bernard Malamud~
I put a piece of paper under my pillow, and when I could not sleep I wrote in the dark. ~Henry David Thoreau~
When I stop (working), the rest of the day is posthumous. I'm only really alive when I'm working. ~Tennessee Williams~
Words are loaded pistols. ~Jean-Paul Sartre~
Words are like leaves, and where they most abound,
Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found. ~Alexander Pope~
All the fun's in how you say a thing. ~Robert Frost~
The greatest possible mint of style is to make the words absolutely disappear into the thought. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne~
I do not understand this chronic illness. I wish I had gone to law school. ~Darryl Pinckney~
The best time for planning a book is when you're doing the dishes. ~Agatha Christie~
I talk out the lines as I write. ~Tennessee Williams~
If I could, I would always work in silence and obscurity, and let my efforts be known by their results. ~Emily Bronte~
If writers were good businessmen, they'd have too much sense to be writers. ~Irvin S. Cobb~
Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go. ~E. L. Doctorow~
Hope a few of these provocative thoughts have set your own creative juices flowing!
Happy writing!
Jeanne
Did you enjoy this post? Don't leave me lonely--Please comment!
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