Perhaps this is the first of many posts in which I will ask for your advice on the creation of the 2007 Indiana University-South Bend lit mag "Analecta". I am trying to prepare myself for an extremely busy semester and do what I can while I have time to hang out the wash. I'm trying to think of a theme. I want it to be broad and not really a tool for choosing sumbissions, but more as a way to identify this slice of history that is "us". I have since been thinking of a "now is the time"/ a slice of history, etc. type of theme, and rather than that choose a poem that reflects this idea and use that as the theme.

So any poem ideas? Perhaps I'm not verbalizing the idea very well, by no matter, not sure I get it all myself at this point. I would prefer a short poem. Here are a few I found. What do you think? Also, I'm thinking surely E.D. has a poem that would fit...

A Meditation In Time Of War
by William Butler Yeats

FOR one throb of the artery,
While on that old grey stone I Sat
Under the old wind-broken tree,
I knew that One is animate,
Mankind inanimate fantasy'.


The Moods
by William Butler Yeats

TIME drops in decay,
Like a candle burnt out,
And the mountains and woods
Have their day, have their day;
What one in the rout
Of the fire-born moods
Has fallen away?

Talia, I like this one, though it is by an unpublished author: [www.poemhunter.com]

So far in my search, this is my favorite:

Sonnett LX

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end;
Each changing place with that which goes before,
In sequent toil all forwards do contend.
Nativity once in the main of light,
Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crowned,
Crookèd eclipses 'gainst his glory fight,
And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.
Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth,
And delves the parallels in beauty's brow,
Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth,
And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow.
And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand,
Praising thy worth despite his cruel hand.

William Shakespeare

There are many more segments of verse, if not whole poems which might apply listed here: [www.bartleby.com]

Les

Are you leaning toward "capturing the moment", yet the message retains its applicability to all times?


and I really like "sumbissions"

Talia, I'm sure many poets have written with the feeling that there is something special about the time in which they live, needing to be expressed.

For instance, though it’s doubtless too long and too old-fashioned for you to use (unless you select just one or two stanzas), there’s ‘Hellas’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley:

The world's great age begins anew,
   The golden years return,
The earth doth like a snake renew
   Her winter weeds outworn;
Heaven smiles, and faiths and empires gleam
Like wrecks of a dissolving dream.

A brighter Hellas rears its mountains
   From waves serener far;
A new Peneus rolls his fountains
   Against the morning star;
Where fairer Tempes bloom, there sleep
Young Cyclads on a sunnier deep.

A loftier Argo cleaves the main,
   Fraught with a later prize;
Another Orpheus sings again,
   And loves, and weeps, and dies;
A new Ulysses leaves once more
Calypso for his native shore.

O write no more the tale of Troy,
   If earth Death's scroll must be—
Nor mix with Laian rage the joy
   Which dawns upon the free,
Although a subtler Sphinx renew
Riddles of death Thebes never knew.

Another Athens shall arise,
   And to remoter time
Bequeath, like sunset to the skies,
   The splendour of its prime;
And leave, if naught so bright may live,
All earth can take or Heaven can give.

Saturn and Love their long repose
   Shall burst, more bright and good
Than all who fell, than One who rose,
   Than many unsubdued:
Not gold, not blood, their altar dowers,
But votive tears and symbol flowers.

O cease! must hate and death return?
   Cease! must men kill and die?
Cease! drain not to its dregs the urn
   Of bitter prophecy!
The world is weary of the past—
O might it die or rest at last!

Perhaps you could adopt a reverse angle approach to your ‘This is us’ theme, by inviting a present day response to the thoughts expressed and questions asked in James Elroy Flecker’s poem ‘To A Poet A Thousand Years Hence’, even though it is still only about a century old, or inviting some updated present day address to future readers:

I who am dead a thousand years,
And wrote this sweet, archaic song,
Send you my words for messengers
The way I shall not pass along.

I care not if you bridge the seas
Or ride secure the cruel sky,
Or build consummate palaces
Of metal or of masonry.

But have you wine and music still,
And statues and a bright-eyed love,
And foolish thoughts of good and ill,
And prayers to them who sit above?

How shall we conquer? Like a wind
That falls at eve our fancies blow,
And old Maeonides the blind
Said it three thousand years ago.

O friend unseen, unborn, unknown,
Student of our sweet English tongue:
Read out my words at night, alone:
I was a poet, I was young.

Since I can never see your face,
And never shake you by the hand,
I send my soul through time and space
To greet you. You will understand.

Thank you all! I really like that Flecker poem--I think there are a lot of possibilites in there.

My idea for a theme has evolved somewhat from my original idea. I recently read Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" and discovered this great quote, which I'm sure many of you are familiar with:

But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.” From Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

I think it is a great expression for the purpose of art, as it describes the good with the bad; how eliminating everything eliminates the human condition. As I type this that idea of human=(something) seems to have been a very strong theme in one of my lit classes last semester and now I can't think of the class/professor/book,nothing...hmm maybe some Greek mythology? Anyhow, got any ideas on how I can expand this concept further into my lit mag? For example, on the first page is the quote, then the art work and writing is divided among the various topics (God, danger, freedom, sin, etc) that are bound to be covered in student's work one way or another.

Specifically, I would love to somehow (in a very vague and non-political way) relate the whole "Brave New world"/moment in time theme to the very real and memorable events occurring now in the world. I'm thinking the cover is going to say a lot of that? What do you think?

for your cover how about a big blender on the front, with lots little vignettes of aretefacts representing world events and lighter modern artefacts eg suicide bombers and mobile phones and ipods and wind farm machines and icebergs melting - all dropping into it to make a huge smoothie that is the representation of the human being?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/2006 02:01AM by marian2.

I love that idea Marian2!

Here's a nice painting you could use to illustrate it. It's called The Garden of Eartly Delights: [www.ibiblio.org]

Les



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/2006 10:57AM by lg.

I am noticing in digging up quotes and exploring the above mentioned that I am running across many Shakepeare quotes inbedded in numerous pieces of literature.

"Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley

"O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beautious mankind is!
O brave new world,
That has such people in't!" (from The Tempest)

"The Winter of our Discontent" by John Steinbeck

"Now is the winter of our discontent" (from Richard III)

Both of these happen to be the titles of the books as well.

So how many more are there? Can you think of any? Just Shakespeare quotes inside of other works of literature. I know there are other quotes inside of others, like Fitzgerald's "To Kill a Mockingbird" is from a Keats poem I think, Ode to a Nightingale. so jut for fun can you think of any of those too?

This could take a while Talia, according to the following website there are 150 works based just on the famous "to be, or not to be" soliloquy in "Hamlet". [72.14.203.104]
Many are listed here: [www.barbarapaul.com]

Les



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/2006 09:36PM by lg.

My mind is off in a million places. Instead of "To Kill a Mockingbird" I meant to type "Ode to a Nightingale"

You weren't kidding. I think this is a good argument for studying Shakepeare. This is tremendous proof of either Shakespeare's influence on society (and not only the literary society, as many of those books don't really count), or on the lack of creativity of most when titling their books. Why would you wnat to title your book the same as 6 others? Most of those authors I have never heard of.

OK, so much for that. How about non-Shakepeare quotes?

Good list:

[en.wikipedia.org]

link from the end of the article:

[www.barbarapaul.com]

Star Trek references:

[www.answers.com]

List of book titles taken from literature:

[en.wikipedia.org]

Johnny you listed the same link that I have on my post. I guess a little redundancy never hurt anyone. Here's a bunch of quotations, Bartleby is good for quotes about literature. Many quotations are listed here:

[dmoz.org]

and here:

[www.ability.org.uk]

one of the neatest ones is this:

[annabelle.net]

"The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt."
--Max Lerner

"No problem is so large it cannot be run away from."
--Charles M. Schultz (Peanuts)


Les



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/30/2006 12:43AM by lg.

Here's a site with zany quotes: [www.funthingies.com]

Les

Indeed, Les, especially considering that one could have accessed that link from the end of the wikipedia article anyway

yours truly,
Boutros Boutros Ghali
Department of Redundancy Department



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/30/2006 08:25AM by JohnnySansCulo.

# Messages containing a deliberate flaw or error: "I think 2001: A Space Odyssey is Roman Polanski's best film."
# Asking for help with an implausible task or problem: "How do I season my Crock Pot? I don't want everything I cook in it to taste the same."
# Intentionally naive questions: "Can I cook pasta in Evian instead of water?"
# Trying to look for vulnerable people and being offensive to them.
# Intentional typos: "Does anyone have a copy of Super Maria Bras. for the Nintendo?"

from an Interesting article on "trolls" (of the internet variety)
[en.wikipedia.org]

how about a big blender... (by Marian2)

Because I think in systems and through-put, hitchiking on the blender idea... perhaps, just perhaps... a meat grinder - input all the things that Marian2 mentiond, but the output is a sausage(s), a string of famous poetic lines, perhaps 2, or 3 on/in each sausage, perhaps in different type faces...

poetically yours... dawling...
E.

For a moment, i confused this thread with the one requesting suggestions for the street-fair.

yikes if street fair suggestion !

(gasp) I love the meat grinder-poetic-sausage idea, Elliot! And maybe some quotes from "Wasteland". You geniuses(sp?) are doing great. Keep those brains moving. (I'm learning that being Editor is really all about getting other people to do things for me. The other day I had to get the English Dept. secratary to call my professor who was vacationing in the south of France!!)

Thanks for the zany quotes, Johnny. Nothin' like a good Homer Simpson quote for a little inspiration.

I'm not Johnny, Talia: [www.hormel.com]

"The lion and the calf shall lie down together but the calf won't get much sleep." ---Woody Allen


Les



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2022 12:40AM by lg.

Sorry Les...it was so Johnny-esque.

"I can't believe it! Reading and writing actually paid off!" Homer Simpson

this is more me:


[media.hormel.com]

A simulated SPAM production line gives visitors the chance to put on hard hats and frocks just like the folks who work in the real SPAM plant.


A dream of your's Johnny?