Poem of the week is Rich Mullins song “We Are Not As Strong As We Think We Are.”

Many factors combine to make this an eery video. Hopkins’ body language seems remote and forced, as of an animated wax figure. I think this is partly a change in mannerism over the years. But the poor synching, the black and white, and the beat also contribute.

And I think it will shortly seem more appropriate than it does even now.

“Oh, my friend, we’re older but no wiser.”

The furor over Obama’s recent comments on people is small towns clinging to guns and God due to economic problems caused us to think of the country music song below.

This week’s poem of the week is Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Home Burial is one of the most gut wrenching poems that Robert Frost ever wrote. Though it must be admitted that in many ways the poem is more like lines out of novel then a proper poem.

This week’s poem of the week is Rich Mullin’s song How to grow up big and strong. In a slightly perverse way, it fits with both this week’s rant and this week’s essay.

Sometimes a story that uses cliches and does not get the characters quite right and is a little too popular to be really very good still is a good story.

H/T YouTube 2007 awards.

Poem of the week is Psalm 22. It is our small concession to Easter.

Poem of the Week: 3/16/08-3/22/08

There are two parts to a great poem. The first is a compelling imagery that should draw you in even before you can quite figure out what it is all about. The second is skillful allusions that bring a whole world of thought to life with a few sparse lines.

The Consolations by Adam Kirsch falls a little short when it comes to the department of compelling imagery. But it makes up for this deficiency by working hard on the department of skillful allusions. On the balance, it does not quite rise to the heights of a truly great poem, but as mediation on America’s current economic problems it has no poetic peer as of yet.

Unfortunately, if you don’t get any of the illusions, this poem can be dismissed out hand. So we recommend that you read up on Boethius before you read this poem (Catholic Encyclopedia and Wikipedia both have good short biographical pieces on him). If you really have time, it would not hurt to read a translation of Boethius’s The Consolation of Philosophy.

But if you have not the time for that, at least read the three places that Adam Kirsch draws direct quotes from. Here is a translation of the song that quote that heads the first section Mr. Kirsch’s poem comes from. Here is a translation of the song that the quote that heads the second section of Mr. Kirsch’s poem comes from. And here is a translation of the song that the quote that heads the last section comes from.