The Great Lover - Rupert Brooke

THE GREAT LOVER

I have been so great a lover: filled in days
So proudly with the splendor of Love's praise,
The pain, the calm, and the astonishment,
Desire illimitable, and still content,
And all dear names men use, to cheat despair,
For the perplexed and viewless streams that bear
Our hearts at random down the dark of life.
Now, ere the unthinking silence on that strife
Steals down, I would cheat drowsy Death so far,
My night shall be remembered for a star
That outshone all the suns of all men's days.
Shall I not crown them with immortal praise
Whom I have loved, who have given me, dared with me
High secrets, and in darkness knelt to see
The inenarrable godhead of delight?
Love is a flame: -we have beaconed the world's night.
A city: - and we have built it, these and I.
An emperor: -we have taught the world to die.
So, for their sakes I loved, ere I go hence,
And the high cause of Love's magnificence,
And to keep loyalties young, I'll write those names
Golden forever, eagles, crying flames,
And set them as a banner, that men may know,
To dare the generations, burn, and blow
Out on the wind of Time, shining and streaming....

These I have loved:
White plates and cups, clean-gleaming,
Ringed with blue lines; and feathery, fairy dust;
Wet roofs, beneath the lamp-light; the strong crust
Of friendly bread; and many-tasting food;
Rainbows; and the blue bitter smoke of wood;
And radiant raindrops couching in cool flowers;
And flowers themselves, that sway through sunny hours,
Dreaming of moths that drink them under the moon;
Then, the cool kindliness of sheets, that soon
Smooth away trouble; and the rough male kiss
Of blankets; grainy wood; live hair that is
Shining and free; blue-massing clouds; the keen
Unpassioned beauty of a great machine;
The benison of hot water; furs to
touch;
The good smell of old clothes; and other such-
The comfortable smell of friendly fingers,
Hair's fragrance, and the musty reek that lingers
About dead leaves and last year's ferns....
Dear names,
And thousand others throng to me! Royal flames;
Sweet water's dimpling laugh from tap or spring;
Holes in the ground; and voices that do sing:
Voices in laughter, too; and body's pain,
Soon turned to peace; and the deep-panting train;
Firm sands; the little dulling edge of foam
That browns and dwindles as the wave goes home;
And washen stones, gay for an hour; the cold
Graveness of iron; moist black earthen mold;
Sleep; and high places; footprints in the dew;
And oaks; and brown horse-chestnuts, glossy-new;
And new-peeled sticks; and shining pools on grass; -
All these have been my loves. And these shall pass,
Whatever passes not, in the great hour,
Nor all my passion, all my prayers, have power
To hold them with me through the gate of Death.
They'll play deserter, turn with the traitor breath,
Break the high bond we made, and sell Love's trust
And sacramental covenant to the dust.
Oh, never a doubt but, somewhere, I shall wake,
And give what's left of love again, and make
New friends now strangers . . . .

But the best I've known
Stays here, and changes, breaks, grows old, is blown
About the winds of the world, and fades from brains
Of living men, and dies.

Nothing remains.
O dear my loves, O faithless, once again
This one last gift I give: that after men
Shall know, and later lovers, far-removed
Praise you, " All these were lovely"; say, "He loved." 

Cultural Appropriation

Dr. Jessica Metcalfe (who is a Turtle Mountain Chippewa from North Dakota):
states that when we don Pocahontas costumes or " dress up...  for Halloween or for a music video, then you stop thinking of us as people, and this is incredibly dangerous because everyday we fight for the basic human right to live our own lives without outsiders determining our fate or defining our identities."

I have real trouble with this extension of an old tradition -- costumes, and claiming we do not recognize the originators of a specific item as a whole group. [That is my italics in her quote, by the way.]

The idea that we take these because of an imbalance in the power structure in the underlying societal fabric is  flawed, in my opinion.

If there was no mixing of cultures and ideas the whole literary tradition will collapse. Was Shakespeare wrong to write about the Italian family traditions of the Montagues and Capulets in Romeo and Juliet, which is based on an old Italian folk tale.
A piece of drama since been adapted for Latinos in New York, (West Side Story,) or Baz Luhrmann's 1996 MTV-inspired Romeo + Juliet about gangs in L.A.

I completely agree that there has been  misuse of cultural imagery by colonial powers, but I think too many people throw around this sociological theory as if it is profoundly correct when a little more insight is required to understand what is really going on and the amount of deliberately negative stereotyping that is implied.

Cult Movies

Last year I read a book on Cult Movies. Very interesting and of course, made my mind race for what I would choose.
I tried to write to the author but my email returned undeliverable.
However, I kept the email with my choices and post it now for any friend's curiosity.


Hello {name deleted},
I enjoyed your book on cult movies, and as you rightly pointed out in the Intro, we all react by going :"Never, how could he choose that one, or why isn't <My Life Part III>, etc listed".

I did feel it was lacking on some great foreign language ones, or British ones from the '60s.

My feeling for a cult movie would be one I would enjoy being stranded on a desert island with and have an electricty source for the portable video player!
The following films would never bore me and remind me of the society I was stranded from:

"Z"
Women in Love
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
Andy Warhol's Frankenstein
Diva
2001:A Space Odyssey
Morgan, A Suitable Case for Treatment
Alfie
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Little Big Man
Run, Lola Run

michael lavalette
Bedford, Nova Scotia

>from an old geezer who has loved movies from childhood with cowboy & Indian fanatasies.. who also had the luxury of seeing Roy and Dale and Trigger in real life + Gene Autry and Champion the wonder horse when they did world tours in the '50s.
Loved Astaire, Don O'Connor, Marx Brothers at mignight showings when I was a student.
To living the swinging London of the Sixties and enjoying North America in the last quarter of the C20th.
I have always been a part of a movie loving family and circle of friends.<
thanks for an interesting book.