The Stare's Nest by My Window -- William Butler Yeats

Guest poem sent in by Matt Chanoff

(Poem #1144) The Stare's Nest by My Window The bees build in the crevices Of loosening masonry, and there The mother birds bring grubs and flies. My wall is loosening; honey-bees, Come build in the empty house of the stare. We are closed in, and the key is turned On our uncertainty; somewhere A man is killed, or a house burned. Yet no clear fact to be discerned: Come build in the empty house of the stare. A barricade of stone or of wood; Some fourteen days of civil war: Last night they trundled down the road That dead young soldier in his blood: Come build in the empty house of the stare. We had fed the heart on fantasies, The heart's grown brutal from the fare, More substance in our enmities Than in our love; O honey-bees, Come build in the empty house of the stare. -- William Butler Yeats

           ("Meditations in Time of Civil War - VI", 1928)

Note:
  stare: starling

The build-up of US troops facing Iraq seems ready to boil over into war,
sometime around Valentine's day.  I was thinking about love and war, and
came across this Yeats, which seems brilliantly about both.  The thing this
poem does for me is not to compare love and war (passion, intensity,
uncertainty, etc.) and not to contrast them either (intimacy vs distance,
hope vs dread etc). Rather, it talks about both in the same terms, meaning
different things by the terms. Look at the second stanza. The text there is
war, but the subtext is love going wrong. Then look at the last stanza.
There, the text is love and the subtext war.

I don't understand the central metaphor. I thought at first that the house
of the stare (starling) had been vacated, and then the bees moved in, and I
was wondering if Yeats was thinking of the bees in terms of their honey or
in terms of their stings, or maybe their military-like organization.  But
the mother birds "bring" grubs and flies, so why is the house empty? And why
are there multiple mothers? Don't know.  Maybe the point isn't so much about
the birds vs bees, but about the collapse of the masonry which lets both in,
and echoes with the barricade in stanza 3.

Anyway, the last stanza is just haunting, and I thought deserved a place on
Minstrels even though Yeats is so well represented already.

Matt

Causa Belli -- Andrew Motion

Guest poem sent in by Steve Axbey , who writes:

A bit late for your series on war poems, but topical nonetheless is the
latest poem by Andrew Motion the Poet Laureate.  (The United Kingdom's
poet laureate I should say).

(Poem #1143) Causa Belli They read good books, and quote, but never learn a language other than the scream of rocket-burn Our straighter talk is drowned but ironclad; elections, money, empire, oil and Dad. -- Andrew Motion

Here's some references, with some commentary
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/2641477.stm#quote
[broken link] http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,871251,00.html

The role of Poet Laureate is an odd one, and I have been unable to
Google out an official definition.  However here's an interview with
Andrew Motion who talks a bit about what he thinks the role is
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/840752.stm

The poem itself I find disappointing - I've thought about it a bit now,
but I'm not at sure I know what he's really trying to say...or is that
just me?

But it must be anti-war, anyway - it says so in all the newspapers :-)

Cheers
Steve Axbey

[Martin adds]

Apparently Steve wasn't the only one disappointed - take a look at
[broken link] http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=3E20FAB8.C94A1B82%40arvig.net&rnum=1

My favourite quote: "Call me old-fashioned but I don't think you can
extensively parody a poem without a guest turn from at least one dear
gazelle."

Amen, say I :)

In Paris with You -- James Fenton

Guest poem sent in by ochemma

(Poem #1142) In Paris with You Don’t talk to me of love. I’ve had an earful And I get tearful when I’ve downed a drink or two. I’m one of your talking wounded. I’m a hostage. I’m maroonded. But I’m in Paris with you. Yes, I’m angry at the way I’ve been bamboozled And resentful at the mess that I’ve been through. I admit I’m on the rebound And I don’t care where are we bound. I’m in Paris with you. Do you mind if we do not go to the Louvre, If we say sod off to sodding Notre Dame If we skip the champs Elysees And remain here in this sleazy Old hotel room Doing this or that To what and whom Learning who you are, Learning what I am. Don’t talk to me of love. Let’s talk of Paris, The little bit of Paris in our view. There’s that crack across the ceiling And the hotel walls are peeling And I’m in Paris with you. Don’t talk to me of love. Let’s talk of Paris. I’m in Paris with the slightest thing you do. I’m in Paris with your eyes, your mouth, I’m in Paris with…..all points south. Am I embarrassing you? I’m in Paris with you. -- James Fenton

           (1993)

This is one of my recent discoveries by James Fenton, currently holding the
Auden chair at Oxford. A poem about Love which rejects sentimentality and
yet, in its simplicity, manages to convey it all the more. I particularly
love the last verse which substitutes ‘Paris’ for love whilst ‘loving’ love
all the while. Fenton’s gentle and light hearted touch sings a sensual and
loving poem.

Marina Furniss-Roe

Links:

  Here's a biography of Fenton:
    http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/litlinks/poetry/fenton.htm

  An excerpt from his book 'Slave to the Rhythm', on the uses of rhyme:
    [broken link] http://books.guardian.co.uk/fentonserial/story/0,12098,819318,00.html

I So Liked Spring -- Charlotte Mew

(Poem #1141) I So Liked Spring I so liked Spring last year Because you were here; -- The thrushes too -- Because it was these you so liked to hear -- I so liked you. This year's a different thing, -- I'll not think of you. But I'll like Spring because it is simply Spring As the thrushes do. -- Charlotte Mew

One of the things I enjoy about love poetry is the thousand subtle
variations played upon every theme, the appeal to universal emotions and
experiences that manage to be at once common to every poem and different in
each one of them.

Today's poem is, indeed, combined out of several common themes and elements.
Where its beauty lies is in the delicate arrangement of those elements, the
simple but precise combination of images and the way they blend into a
complete poem. Even the rather faltering metre and phrasing are a deliberate
and carefully crafted effect, echoing the narrator's 'simple' outlook - as
Shine Kannikkatt put it in his comment to Poem #1084, there is a
  'vulnerability' evident in this and others like Teasdale's works [...]
  poems which remind us of the preciousness of life / small things which
  does have big impacts and 'longing' etc.
that definitely adds to the poem's appeal.

martin

Links:
  Biography:
    [broken link] http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/poetry/charlotte_mew.shtml
    http://www.sappho.com/poetry/c_mew.html

  Minstrels Links:
    Poem #315: Hilaire Belloc, 'Juliet'
    Poem #430: Sara Teasdale, 'Wild Asters'

What One Approves, Another Scorns -- Arthur Guiterman

(Poem #1140) What One Approves, Another Scorns What one approves, another scorns, and thus his nature each discloses. You find the rosebush full of thorns, I find the thornbush full of roses. -- Arthur Guiterman

The combination of a good epigram and good verse is one I can seldom resist,
and while today's poem is hardly earthshattering in its originality, the
delightful way in which it is worded more than makes up for it. It doesn't
really have a 'punchline' in the way "On the Vanity of Earthly Greatness"
([Poem #24], and yes, Guiterman was way overdue to show up again <g>) does -
but it doesn't suffer for the lack. I'm reminded of bits of Piet Hein, and, to
a lesser extent, Stephen Crane. This definitely goes on my list of poems that
are both memorable and quotable.

martin

Links:
  Thanks to H. Paul Lillebo, whose wonderful poetry site provided not just
  today's poem, but a long-sought online biography of Guiterman:
    http://www.newtrix.com/poems/poetbio_e-l.htm#Guiterman

  Someday, this shall be a complete collection of epigrams on Minstrels :)
    [broken link] http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/collections/35.html

martin