Chamblee54

The Voice Of William Blake

Posted in Uncategorized by chamblee54 on October 15, 2014

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In 1948, Allen Ginsberg was staying in Harlem. Things were not going well in his life. One night, he read “Ah, Sunflower,” by William Blake. He thought the voice of Mr. Blake was reading the poem for him. Later, something similar happened with “The Sick Rose.” Here is a tmi version of the story.

Sixty odd years later, PG is trying to recreate this incident. Instead of reading the work, PG is posting the lines at the feet of dogs. Instead of a Harlem building, with fancy brickwork, PG is in a Brookhaven house. The house was built in 1954. The sky is the same for Harlem and Brookhaven.

Perhaps the strangest bit of synchronicity involves the first paragraph of this text. PG had finished with the meme poem. The third game of the world series was on the tv, seen on a mirror behind the monitor. As PG typed the words “The Sick Rose,” a St. Louis player hit a ground ball. The fielder threw the ball to home plate, and a runner was tagged out. The catcher threw the ball to third base, and the ball got behind the baseman. The runner started to run, and got tripped by the third baseman. Even though he was tagged by the catcher, the umpire ruled that his being tripped made him safe. Is this as weird as hearing the voice of a dead English poet in a Harlem apartment?

Mr. Blake liked to illustrate his own work. Here is what he did for “The Sick Rose.” Whether using dogs is an improvement is a matter for smart people to decide. The text of these poems is copied from the Gutenberg Project. They are happy to get donations.

This is a rerun. The Cardinals are in the baseball post season again. The poem pictures have been redone. The original set was one of the early graphic poems. The techniques have a year of practice behind them. The results should be better.

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  1. Home Churched | Chamblee54 said, on February 18, 2015 at 12:05 pm

    […] as text on several occasions. He also uses public domain works by others, including Walt Whitman, William Blake, and Emily Dickinson. Just because you use a text in a graphic work does not mean that you are […]


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