[lbo-talk] Blake's "London"

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Tue Oct 11 20:25:58 PDT 2011


On 10/11/2011 10:42 PM, Miles Jackson wrote:


> I have to say that Paradise Lost pisses all over this shit. really.

Well, yes. I would certainly agree. But Joanna started with a short poem and the term "perfect," which sort of directed our attention to other more or less "short" poems (with, as Michael noted) perhaps too strong a pull towards "great" as well as "perfect." I think Michael is probably right that the latter might make a better parlor game. PL (if we are talking about perfection) has over time drawn such raised eyebrows as:

Milton's strong pinion now not heaven can bound, Now, serpent like, in prose it sweeps the ground; Angel with archangel in quibble join, And God the Father turns a school divine.

(From memory; punctuation probably way off.)

And come to think of it, for "perfection," the poem I just quoted is surely a candidate. (An imitation of Horace's To Augustus -- addressed to George 2, whose middle name was Augustus.) For example, George II had a German mistress, whom he visited often. He also had a yearning for militaryglory, but the current foreign policy of England involved no war. Augustus Caesar had been praised in Horace's poem for defending his coutnry in wars abroad. Pope writes:

Your country, first, in arms abroad defend.

Perfect because no one would dare to admit to understanding the line: that would be Lese-majesty. He follows Horace closely all the way through but fits it to England 1739.


> Miles
>
> ps. Something tells me this is gonna be a long thread...

Well, parlor games do go on.

Carrol



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