Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

  Tear It Down

  We find out the heart only by dismantling what
  the heart knows. by redefining the morning,
  we find a morning that comes just after darkness.
  we can break through marriage into marriage.
  by insisting on love we spoil it, get beyond
  affection and wade mouth-deep into love.
  we must unlearn the constellations to see the stars.
  but going back toward childhood will not help.
  the village is not better than pittsburgh.
  only pittsburgh is more than pittsburgh.
  rome is better than rome in the same way the sound
  of racoon tongues licking the inside walls
  of the garbage tub is more than the stir
  of them in the muck of the garbage. love is not
  enough. we die and are put into the earth forever.
  we should insist while there is still time. we must
  eat through the wildness of her sweet body already
  in our bed to reach the body within the body.

  -Jack Gilbert


The poetic reference to Rome being better than Rome reminds me of Edmund Spenser's adaptation of Bellay's poem about Rome. http://www.bartleby.com/153/23.html

I think the most famous stanza (an excerpt from a much, much longer poem) is

  Thou stranger, which for Rome in Rome here seekest,
  And nought of Rome in Rome perceiv’st at all,
  These same olde walls, olde arches, which thou seest,
  Olde palaces, is that which Rome men call.
  Behold what wreake, what ruine, and what wast,
  And how that she, which with her mightie powre
  Tam’d all the world, hath tam’d herselfe at last,
  The pray of Time, which all things doth devowre.
  Rome now of Rome is th’ onely funerall,
  And onely Rome of Rome hath victorie;
  Ne ought save Tyber hastning to his fall
  Remaines of all: O worlds inconstancie!
   That which is firme doth flit and fall away,
   And that is flitting doth abide and stay.
Bellay (and Spenser) claim that the only city that was ultimately able to conquer ancient Rome is ... modern Rome. I found that a striking observation.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: