Talking of limestone brings to mind W. H. Auden's poem In Praise Of Limestone. He writes of ...rounded slopes/With their surface fragrance of thyme and, beneath,/A secret system of caves and conduits... and ...the springs/That spurt out everywhere with a chuckle,/Each filling a private pool for its fish and carving/Its own little ravine whose cliffs entertain/The butterfly and the lizard...
Auden (1907-1973) wrote the poem in May 1948 on the island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples. In it he celebrates the limestone landscape of the Mediterranean - which also recalls for him the karst topography of the Yorkshire Dales near his native English birthplace.
But this poem is not for the faint-hearted. Though memorable, its difficulty is challenging to say the least. Critics have given it many different interpretations - political, psychological, sexual, allegorical.
Auden seems to argue that Mediterranean civilization has, over time, built up layer upon layer like sedimentary beds of limestone; that Mediterranean culture is more sensual and hedonistic, yet also more religious and artistic, than the rationalist, Gothic, northern world; that the physical life of the body is just as important as the life of the spirit.
The English poet Stephen Spender (1909-1995) considered this poem one of the greatest poems of the 20th century.
Auden (1907-1973) wrote the poem in May 1948 on the island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples. In it he celebrates the limestone landscape of the Mediterranean - which also recalls for him the karst topography of the Yorkshire Dales near his native English birthplace.
But this poem is not for the faint-hearted. Though memorable, its difficulty is challenging to say the least. Critics have given it many different interpretations - political, psychological, sexual, allegorical.
Auden seems to argue that Mediterranean civilization has, over time, built up layer upon layer like sedimentary beds of limestone; that Mediterranean culture is more sensual and hedonistic, yet also more religious and artistic, than the rationalist, Gothic, northern world; that the physical life of the body is just as important as the life of the spirit.
The English poet Stephen Spender (1909-1995) considered this poem one of the greatest poems of the 20th century.
No comments:
Post a Comment