tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8197997520444984778.post2342480649526263363..comments2011-02-21T15:00:23.299-08:00Comments on Seán Haldane - Poetry: Post TwoSeán Haldanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824691046398117311noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8197997520444984778.post-58425566730431007442010-05-12T07:27:02.538-07:002010-05-12T07:27:02.538-07:00A Choiri a chara,
Thanks for these points and the...A Choiri a chara,<br /><br />Thanks for these points and the references - lots to follow up. Graves wrote an essay called Harp, Anvil, Oar, about the possible origins of English metre in Irish. He regretted not knowing Irish. My own knowledge of it is patchy: as a boy I took lessons after school hours from a priest who taught at St Malachy's in Belfast and I had to roll up my coat collar and hide my school uniform ('Inst') for fear of being recognised and beaten up. My teacher was steeped in Donegal Irish and I find I have an affinity for Scots Gaelic which is in some ways close to it. The Gaelic poet I have read most intensely in is Sorley MacLean, from Skye. <br />Candace Pert's book is a key to recent neuropsychology of the emotions. I'll obviously have to write (or lecture if given the chance!) on the neuropsychology of poetry... I have too many ideas on it for this space.<br /><br />Le meas -<br /><br />SeánSeannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8197997520444984778.post-15532492706057301822010-05-08T07:03:06.403-07:002010-05-08T07:03:06.403-07:00Good luck in the election Séan.
I have always bee...Good luck in the election Séan.<br /><br />I have always been fascinated by Graves; especially his analyses on Taliesin's parting of the trees, Amergin's Birth of Song and all the Ogham he resisted until middle-age, because it was his father's area of expert knoweldge.<br /><br />It's a pity he wasn't around to analyse, what I call, Amergin's (titleless) 'prose-poem' - in Trinity's Book of Ballymote Legal codex H.3.18; the one first translated in only 1979 by Celtic scholar P.L.Henry, who first brought it into English in an article: "The Cauldron of Poesy," Studia Celtica #14/15, 1979/1980, pp. 114-128; and two years later Liam Breatnach's translation and analysis: "The Cauldron of Poesy," Ériu #32, 1981, pp. 45-93; followed by Matthews, Caitlin and John, The Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom: A Celtic Shaman's Sourcebook , (Rockport, MA: Element Books, 1994).<br /><br />The Canadian lexicologist and druid-dictionary compiler, Sean O'Tuathail; published a translation in "Cainteanna na Luise," a privately published Canadian Druidic periodical, issues #7 (1985), #17 (1988), and #26 (1990).<br /><br />Have you read it?<br /><br />I first stumbled across the scrupulously scholastic translation by Oregan/Washington Ogham researcher, Eryn Rowan Laurie; who I am very grateful allowed one to access what clearly is, a most important text from the bard hoard. One a traine file must have been introduced to early in the winter semester; a day one foclo starting out with this one, of only the three Amergin texts; would be on a wholly unique course, methinks.<br /><br />It explains; from the point of view of a 7C bard, the essential poetic of an ex-druidic bunch - Graves reckoned British poets should study first, before getting carried away with Hesiod and Homer and losing sight of the earliest dán.<br /><br />http://www.seanet.com/~inisglas/cauldronpoesy.html#poesytext<br /><br />~<br /><br />This would go down well in Oxford, because it claims to answer the age old conundrum. What is Poetry?<br /><br />The other thing I wanted to say, first, before I got carried away; is that there's a fascinating 2004 film called What the Bleep Do We Know!?, that 'combines documentary-style interviews, computer-animated graphics, and a narrative that posits a spiritual connection between quantum physics and consciousness'; in which neuroscientist Candace Pert; who discovered the cellular bonding site for endorphins in the brain, and wrote the 1977 book Molecules of Emotion - in the extended 2006 DVD version, on youtube, in 14 parts; has some very interesting things to say on how our brains work.<br /><br />If you go here and ignore everything up to 1 min 11 seconds; you'll hear something you will already know; but which I didn't and found fascinating. Watching this made me realise how poetry is transparent compared to the exciting Knowledge coming out of Michio Kaku's String Theory, and all the theoretical advances one can contextualize; that seem to have overtaken poetry, but not the study of dán; especially now there's this, relatively new 7C prose-poem by Amergin to whet ourselves on.<br /><br />grá agus síocháin<br /><br />Desmond Swords.Coirí Filíochtahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15137576329670368944noreply@blogger.com