Marianne faithful with Warren Ellis CD, ‘ She walks in beauty’.
For some reason. I was educated by the Christian brothers in the school of 18th and 19th century Romantic poets like Coleridge, Wordsworth, Keats, and Shelley. The hapless medical student, John Keats, became a poet, went to Italy, contracted tuberculosis and died at the age of 25. Romantic poetry arose from reflection over the interaction of humans with their environment. Keats said, “I am certain of nothing but of the holiness of the Heart’s affections and the truth of Imagination – What the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth.” This CD lets the lyrics speak for themselves.
Marianne Faithful with Warren Ellis have made a wonderful CD, which is illustrated and has all the words of the poems.
As my niece Allegra says: “Marianne Faithful’s voice is just perfect for these poems and Warren Ellis knows how to keep things from getting soppy. Instead he amps up the eerie tones, which really intensifies the poems.”
I have to included Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats; and, of course, Ozymandias is another brilliant poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
I read Oxymandias and then play Marianne Faithful’s version of Ode to a Nightingale.
Hope you enjoy the excerpts of She walks in Beauty.
This was a wonderful present from Allegra and Serge and Nicky.
Oh, I forgot the card that came with the present to me from Allegra.
In the card Allegra says she is not sure what to make of the card, which is from The New Yorker and it depicts three generations of men looking out to sea in their shorts which they wear at various heights.
The old man is wearing his shorts up around his chest. The middle aged man is wearing his shorts at the waistline, and the young man is wearing his shorts below the waistline with evidence of a crack on his rear.
Now to explain the card is very simple.
The wearing of pants depicts the intelligence or IQ of the individual. Because the older man is wearing his shorts so high, he is the most intelligent. And then the next man, the father of the younger one is wearing his pants at his waist, so he has the next level of IQ. And the young man, unfortunately, has very little IQ at all.
Ian Curr
8 Feb 2023