Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Thomas Hardy & "A Suicide Poem"

"He had reached the stage in a young man's life when the grimness of the general human situation first becomes clear; and the realization of this causes ambition to halt awhile. In France it is not uncustomary to commit suicide at this stage; in England, we do much better, or much worse, as the case may be."

--Thomas Hardy (from The Return of the Native)

"A Suicide Poem"

alone
in the dark
with a belt
hanging out

Friday, November 4, 2011

Henry Aloysius, Ruler of the Home




"But, in spite of all my troubles, give me leave to eat my supper. For nothing in the world is so shamelessly demanding as a man's confounded stomach. However afflicted he may be and sick at heart, it calls for attention so loudly that he is bound to obey it. Such is my case: my heart is sick with grief, yet my stomach insists that I eat and drink. It makes me forget all I have suffered and forces me to eat my fill."


--Odysseus, from The Odyssey (Book VII, lines 214-221)



"But if there is anything that a man can't conceal it is the craving of an accursed belly, the cause of so much trouble to men. It even prompts them to fit out great ships and sail the barren seas, bringing death and destruction to their enemies."


--Odysseus, from The Odyssey (Book XVII, lines 286-289)