Week 6 - March 12
Lady
Poverty, Lady Church, Sapienta, Mother Nature and the Harlots
of the Desert
- Messing Around with the White Goddess and Her Friends.
1. Graves:
The White Goddess -- the book does read very queerly" (9)
A Reading from the White Goddess
(30-31 MY PAGE 13)
each take two lines
a. The function
of poetry is religious invocation of the Muse; its use is the
experience of mixed exaltation and horror that her presence
excites" (14)
b. Who am I, you will ask, to warn you that she demands either
whole-time service or
c. None at all? (15)
d. Gleeman vs ollave
i. In
ancient Ireland. the ollave, or master poet, sat next to the
king at table and was privileged as none else but the queen
was, to wear six different colors in his clothes (22)
ii. The gleeman, on the other hand, was a joculator or entertainer
not a priest
e. The reason
why the hairs stand on end, the eyes water, the throat is constrict
ed, the skin crawls and a shiver runs down the spine when one
writes or read a true poem is that a true poem is necessarily
an invocation of The White Goddess, or Muse, the Mother of All
Living, the ancient power of light and lust - the female spider
or the queen bee whose embrace is death. (24)
f. It is 'death to mock a poet, death to love a poet, death
to be a poet.'(455)
A Second
Reading from the White Goddess (45-48MY PAGE 20-22)
each take a stanza from "The Battle of the Trees"
g. Wherever
these heresies survived in medieval Europe the Church visited
them with such terrible penalties that British or Irish poets
who played with them must have derived a dangerous joy from
wrapping them up, as Gwion has done here. in ridding disguises.
(143)
h. But though
we have learned the secret story of the Spirit of the Year,
the Name of the transcendent God still remains hidden. The obvious
place to look for it is among the vowels. (139)
2. God and
the Goddesses - Lady Poverty, Lady Church, Mother Nature, Sapienta
a. How did
medieval writers and readers understand the ontological status
of their goddesses, Did they 'believe' in them, and, if so,
in what manner…
For that matter , why did they such an overwhelming preference
for female
personifications? (3)
A Reading
Lady Poverty
(7 -MY PAGE 5)
Lady Love (10 MY PAGE 7)
Lady Holy Church (14-15 MY PAGE 9)
check out Ecclesia nursing her children (MY PAGE 10)
Mother Nature (105 MY PAGE 19()
check out Mother Nature at her forge (MY PAGE 18)
Sapientia (197 MY PAGE 23)
check Sapientia nursing two philosophers (MY PAGE 27)
3. Small group
workshop
a. Create
your own Lady - she must have something to do with Poetry
for example Lady Personification, Lady Caesura ….
b. In each
other's poems what are you pulled to? what needs work
c. Imagine
what if each poem being "workshopped" was NOT spoken
by the poet, but by a persona Create a persona for it
4. Assignments
a. Based
on poems from The World's Wife
Behind our lullabies the hooves of terrible horses
These myths going round, these legends, these fairytales
I'll put them straight:
"Little Red Cap" (3)
"Miss Sisyphus" (21) do your own Mrs. or Mr. poem
"Medusa "(40-41)
"Mrs. Rip Van Winkle" (54)
"Eurydice" (58-62)
b. Inspired
by Harlots of the Desert
those who have fallen and are penitent are more blessed"
(8)
a brief introduction
to St. Mary of Egypt (27-33) three loaves of bread and a lion
to Pelegia (57-75) if these women can be saved, these stories
affirm, so can everyone (57)
create a persona who has done the unforgivable and now imagine
her/his repentance
5. A Reading
of the Lady poems
Assignment:
Read:
in package with picture of Ogre on front -and bring this packet
to next workshop
"Hansel and Gretel" (3-15)
"Juniper Tree" (42-55
"Vasilisa The Fair" (56-69)
"Donkeyskin" (70-86)
