Living With Dementia

COURAGE, ANXIETY, DESPAIR
~ ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS ~

Courage, Anxiety and Despair - Watching the Battle (ca 1850)
aka
"Le Courage, l’Anxiété et le Désespoir observent la bataille"
by James Sant (1820 - 1916)

Today's literary connection:

"The Senator was vulgar, almost illiterate, a public liar easily detected, and in his "ideas" almost idiotic, while his celebrated piety was that of a traveling salesman for church furniture, and his yet more celebrated humor the sly cynicism of a country store. Certainly there was nothing exhilarating in the actual words of his speeches, nor anything convincing in his philosophy. His political platforms were only wings of a windmill.”

from the 1935 novel It Can't Happen Here
by Sinclair Lewis (1885 - 1951)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

American writers continue to express concern
that our current president is living with dementia:
News anchor Lawrence O'Donnell: “If we grow weary of making the point of how singularly stupid and possibly clinically demented Donald Trump’s statements are, then we will become part of the normalization process of those statements, which most of the American news media has unwittingly participated in and 14 year olds in this country will think it’s perfectly normal for a president to say those things.” (MSNBC ~ 18 June)

Historian Heather Cox Richardson: "It seems to me long past time to question the 79-year-old president’s mental health."

Columnist Rex Huppke: "Is Trump in mental decline? He sounds far worse than Biden ever did. . . . If Biden's 'mental decline' was concerning, Trump's should be alarming."

I share their dismay. We cannot normalize political inanity.
So here is Batch Four of my awareness - raising
"living with dementia" reminders
[Also posted on The Quotidian Kit]

These perception - checkers may be non - ceremonious, non - likeable, non - literary, devoid of charm -- but not without irony. I have tried to pick examples that emphasize the irony of the pot calling the kettle black -- or the old calling the old old. How ironic that one candidate living with dementia was eliminated, only to be replaced by another candidate living with dementia. We need upward age limits for President, Senate, Congress, and Supreme Court. It is not only embarrassing but also dangerous and wrong to see the world being so badly run by elders way past their prime.

1.

Living with dementia, compounded by sheer cruelty:

Q: Have you called the governor yet or been able to speak to any of them?

A: Um, I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out, I'm not calling him. Why would I call him? I could call him. Say, "Hi, how you doing?" Uh the guy doesn't have a clue so, he's a mess. So you know, I could be nice and call him but, why waste time?

2.

Thinks he's a hero but really a bully, living with dementia:

"The UK is very well protected.
You know why, because I like them, that's why.
That's their ultimate protection."

3.

Living with dementia & The Dunning-Kruger Effect:

"It's a shame, this guy -- I have a guy -- do you ever have a guy that's not a smart person and you're dealing with him and he's not a smart guy."

Yeah, we have that guy.
He is frighteningly unfit to lead the U.S.A.
But there he is, up on Mount Stupid.

4.

A strategy when living with dementia:

"I like to make the final decision
one second before it’s due . . .

5.

Living with dementia and prone to warfare:

" . . . a very bloody war.
They're all bloody,
but this was a really bloody one."

6.

Living with dementia and losing distinction
between the Revolutionary War & the Civil War:

"A lot of wars there was no reason for. You look right up there. I don't know. See the Declaration of Independence. And I say I wonder if you, you know the Civil War always seemed to me maybe that could have been solved without losing 600,000 plus people."

7.

Living with dementia, right down there
at the bottom of the logical reasoning pyramid:

"Stupid AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
one of the ‘dumbest’ people in Congress"

8.

Living with dementia and commenting
inappropriately on people's appearance:

"I actually had breakfast today with a king and a queen
who were beautiful, beautiful people,
central casting I must say, very nice."

9.

Living with dementia and leering:

"I will never say good looking waitress because looks don't matter anymore. You know, in our modern society. She happened to be beautiful, but I won't say that. I won't mention that, but nevertheless a waitress came over. . . . So I want to thank that young, beautiful waitress."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Click here for FIRST batch:
"I Didn't Even Know Anything"
QK & FN

SECOND batch:
"A Very Much Different Country"
QK & FN

THIRD batch:
No Kings Day
QK & FN

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Next Fortnightly Post
Monday, July 14th

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blogs
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com

Fighting Fantasy

THE CONSTANT STRUGGLE
~ ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS ~

[June 7 & June 14]

Or, in my case, born to make literary connections
but getting a much higher response for my political asides,
so here are some more
[Also posted on The Quotidian Kit]
but first, a couple of poetic connections:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Duty

I slept and dreamed that life was Beauty:
I woke and found that life was Duty:
Was then thy dream a shadowy lie?
Toil on, sad heart, courageously,
And thou shalt find thy dream to be
A noonday light and truth to thee

Ellen Sturgis Hooper (1812 - 1848)

&

The Word

Down near the bottom
of the crossed-out list
of things you have to do today,

between "green thread"
and "broccoli," you find
that you have penciled "sunlight."

Resting on the page, the word
is beautiful. It touches you
as if you had a friend

and sunlight were a present
he had sent from someplace distant
as this morning—to cheer you up,

and to remind you that,
among your duties, pleasure
is a thing

that also needs accomplishing.
Do you remember?
that time and light are kinds

of love, and love
is no less practical
than a coffee grinder

or a safe spare tire?
Tomorrow you may be utterly
without a clue,

but today you get a telegram
from the heart in exile
proclaiming that the kingdom

still exists,
the king and queen alive,
still speaking to their children,
—to any one among them
who can find the time
to sit out in the sun and listen.

Tony Hoagland (1953 – 2018)
[see also]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1.

Drone technology,
as described by someone living with dementia:

"I think you're gonna find that it's a very different, uh, warfare out there today. Now, they've introduced a thing called drone. A drone is a little bit different. It makes -- You have to go back and learn a whole new form of warfare, and you're gonna do it better than anybody else." [Photo: Beginner Drone Set]

2.

God's Plan,
as described by someone living with dementia:

"We're gonna have a big, big celebration, as you know, 250 years. In some ways I'm glad I missed that second term where it was because -- I wouldn't be your president for that. Most important of all, in addition, we have the World Cup and we have the Olympics. Can you imagine? I missed that four years and now look what I have, I have everything. Amazing the way things work out. God did that, I believe that too. God did it."

3.

Unbelievable!
-- to someone living with dementia:

"But we've found things that are unbelievably stupid and unbelievably bad with the Department of Government Efficiency. . . . DOGE has installed geniuses with an engineering mindset and unbelievably talented people and computers. I actually asked Elon one time, what's their primary thing, and they have a lot of primary things, all having to do with being smart."

4.

Member of the U.S. Senate Joni Ernst in 2016
standing alongside presidential nominee living with dementia:

Ernest speaks sarcastically of Jesus, right along with the tooth fairy: “I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this earth,” she said. “So I apologize, and I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well. For those that would like to see eternal and everlasting life, I encourage you to embrace my Lord and savior Jesus Christ.”

5.

Living with dementia
and a fourth grade vocabulary,
so that everything is "big and beautiful"
or "mean and nasty" or "REALLY BAD":

“What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He’s playing with fire!”

6.

Is America ready for a president living with dementia?
7.

Meeting agenda
for a person living with dementia:

"We're going up to Camp David. We have meetings with various people about very major subjects."

8.

Living with dementia and delusions of grandeur:

"The U.S could survive without almost anybody
. . . . Except me."

Heather Cox Richardson:
“There is also no doubt Trump continues to demonstrate
that he is more committed to fantasy than reality.”
[emphasis added]

9.

"Political correctness" as misunderstood
by someone living with dementia:

"I watched it very closely and it was amazing the job that the National Guard did. And by the way, the police were working very hard also. But the police are given instructions to be politically correct. I said, no, no, you don't have to be politically correct, you have to do the job."

10.

2024 was a Landslide...for 'Did Not Vote'

Just a reminder: one half of the country
did not vote for the current Republican administration
-- only about one third. Not the same thing.

"Mandate," as misconstrued
by a person, living with dementia:

"I won the election by a landslide. I mean, we have a crack -- and we have a big mandate because of that."

11.

Living with dementia and tilting at windmills:

"The windmills are killing our country, by the way. . . . Even if they're white ones, a beigey white, ones a darker white, ones a lighter white. And then they start to rust after four or five years. And then they start to wear out and nobody takes them . . . Windmills, all over the place, tall ones, short ones, dead ones, they're all dead."

12.

Living with dementia and craving to be king:

"I don't feel like a king. I have to go through hell to get stuff approved. A king would say I'm not going to get this. I -- a king would have never had the California mandate to even be talking to him. He wouldn't have to call up Mike Johnson and Thune and say, fellas, you got to pull this off and after years we get it done. No, no, we're not a king. We're not a king at all."

WE???
Has someone been talking to Queen Victoria?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Click here for FIRST batch:
"I Didn't Even Know Anything"
QK & FN

And SECOND batch:
"A Very Much Different Country"
QK & FN

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Next Fortnightly Post
Friday, June 28th

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blogs
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com

The Gulf of Mexico and Beyond

THE GULF OF MEXICO
~ ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS ~

"I vote we go to the Gulf of Mexico
You and me by the sea
Palm trees call me, oh, that's the place I want to be
Down where the southern breezes blow
On the Gulf of Mexico" (1990)

Song by Alabama
Photo: Florida Keys

Slow Sequence

From Chautauqua and Cattaraugus Counties of upper
New York State rise the Ischua and Tunnungwani [Tunungwant]
Creeks; which, passing the Cornplanter Indian
Reservation, form the headwaters of the Allegheny
River; which winds down through Pennsylvania and
at Pittsburgh runs into the Monongahela and forms
the Ohio; Big O, pushing, moving, moving down,
Cincinnati, Louisville, and Cairo, Illinois,
where it joins the Old Man, the Mississippi;
already wide as the length of an airport, at
St. Louis the Mississippi picks up the Missouri,

Sunrise Across the Wide Missouri

doubles its size, and starts its long slide
down the continent, one thousand miles, past
Memphis, Vicksburg, Natchez, Baton Rouge and
New Orleans, as heavy as pregnancy itself, come
all the long way down, rooted from Idaho to New
York, and now, laden with ships, set sunken in
its vast swampy delta ninety miles south of New
Orleans, canopied with mosquitos, enters the
greasy shallow mud-puddle of the Gulf, rushing
and roiling and dissipating, spreading outward,
washing and swirling around the pillars and the legs
of the ravening multitude of clustered oil rigs.

2 / 3 / 68

by Dan Propper (1937 - 2003)
[See also Samurai & UN]

Did somebody say Gulf of Mexico?

Arbitrary name change,
as described by someone living with dementia:

"We named the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf of America."

Wait, there's more, there's always more.

Here's a SECOND batch of nonsense,
[Also posted on The Quotidian Kit]
just as inappropriate and cringeworthy as before!
1.

Can you say Stepford Wives?
In thrall to someone living with dementia.

2.

Headgear fashion faux pas
by someone living with dementia.

3.

A Cartoon for Fun

Recent urban construction,
as described by someone living with dementia:

"Majestic skyscrapers, the towers that I see . . . and all of the different [unintelligible] I’ve seen a lot of different towers. I didn’t think there’s any version of a tower that I haven’t seen in one form or another."

4.

Insomnia,
as described by someone living with dementia,
completely misunderstanding that
tossing and turning = guilty conscience:

"Mohammad, do you sleep at night? How do you sleep? Huh? Just thinking. What a job. He tosses and turns like some of us, tosses and turns all night, how do I make it even better, all night. It’s the ones that don’t toss and turn, they’re the ones that will never take you to the promised land. Won’t they? But you have done some job. True."

5.

Who's hot & who's not,
as described by someone living with dementia:

"The United States is the hottest country — with the exception of your country, I have to say, right? I’m not going to take that on. No, Mohammed, I’m not going to take that on. Wouldn’t that be a terrible thing if I made that full statement? But I will not do it. You’re hotter. At least as long as I’m up here, you’re hotter" [in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 13, 2025] . . . "Has anyone noticed that, since I said 'I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,' she's no longer 'HOT?' ” [online Friday, May 16].

6.

“…a top of the line, uhh, timberman like...
Like... You know who? Sean... Duffy,”
as described by someone living with dementia:

“He's a great Sean though, I have to tell you but Sean Duffy was the world champion for five years climbing trees and down, up and down, world champion! So that's what you call a serious a lumberjack."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Click here for FIRST batch:
"I Didn't Even Know Anything"
QK & FN

CREDITS
I think we can count
on a steady stream of material for this project.
Above comments taken from:

Occupy Democrats

Speech in Riyadh

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Next Fortnightly Post
Friday, June 14th

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT ~ "A Very Much Different Country"
my shorter, almost daily blogs
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com

I Didn't Even Know Anything

SPEAKING NONSENSE
~ UNCEREMONIOUS, UNACCUSTOMED ~

No! You may not have the rainbow,
not 3 dozen, not 1 dozen -- only 5!

Scarcity vs Plenty,
as described by someone living with dementia:

"I’m just saying they don’t need to have 30 dolls.
They can have three.
They don’t need to have 250 pencils. They can have five."

“In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’
All issues are political issues,
and politics itself is a mass of lies,
evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia.”

George Orwell (1903 -1950)
Politics and the English Language (1946)
I have started a new series of facebook posts, referred to by my friend Tom as my "Wish this was satire, but it's actually the President of The United States quoted verbatim" column! I started brooding about this idea on Easter Sunday, when a facebook friend posted Trump's latest skreed and asked in dismay, "How is the author of this the President of the United States?"

Responses from her readers:

1. "I don’t understand why he being allowed to remain president after an outburst like this. He is obviously psychologically compromised.

2. "Beyond being POTUS, the greatest danger we confront as a nation is the tens of millions who support him. History has now vindicated Hilary Clinton who gave us a sober, mild and respectful definition of who they are."

After reading the entire thread of very thoughtful responses, I started wondering, what is a "sober, mild and respectful" way to call out these repeated disrespectful and totally demented outbursts that so clearly signal "psychological compromise."

I settled on "living with dementia." That's respectful, right? Nicer than "totally demented." And I wouldn't even have to say his name. Everyone knows. Also, in case anyone wants to make a comparison, even on Biden's worst day, he never sounded this disconnected from reality!

Of course, my loyal reader Tom totally gets this approach of publishing verbatim statements that are so absurd in the original that without even so much as an Op-Ed comment, they come off as effective political satire. However, I do worry that no matter how asinine those comments may sound to many, they might sound completely normal to those who support the current administration -- or worse yet, those who might read them and say, "Oh cool. Good idea!" I certainly don't want to do them any favors by posting their nonsense or accidentally colluding in heightening their visibility!

Nevertheless, here is the first batch.
[Also posted on The Quotidian Kit]
May they inform and entertain and outrage:

What it means to be popular,
as described by someone living with dementia:

"If you look at some of these internet people, I know so many of them. Elon is so terrific, but I know now all of them, you know they all hated me in my first term and now they're kissing my ass. You know [mumbling] it's true. All of them. It's true. It's amazing. It's nicer this way."

Inappropriate gossip about "trophy wives,"
from someone living with dementia:

"He retired and he led a beautiful life. He had a wife, I must tell you, it was his second wife. It was a trophy wife. What can I say? I don't like telling you everything, but we're all friends, right? Can we talk? We're all friends. He had a trophy wife."

Change and resistance,
as described by someone living with dementia:

"Change is never easy. And the closer you get to success, the more ferociously those with a interested interest in the past will resist you."

Majoring in journalism,
as described by someone living with dementia:

"You're available. It's a good time to be available. There are some times when it's not so good to be available, but this is a great time. . . . To the journalism majors, of which I've had a lot of problems with, I must be honest. I'm not sure I like them. No, I do. I do. But you're really leading of everything because we need a great and free press."

Bird Flu and Easter Eggs,
as described by someone living with dementia:

"And when I took over, you remember the big thing with eggs? They hit me the first week, 'Eggs, eggs, eggs,' like it was my fault. I said, 'I didn't cause this problem. This problem was caused by Biden. What's the problem with eggs?' And they said, 'They've doubled it,' Well, eggs are down 87% since I got involved. . . . And by the way -- and there were plenty of eggs for Easter, which we just went through. There were plenty of eggs for Easter. They were saying, 'You won't have enough eggs for Easter.' We ended -- our sec -- my secretary did a fantastic job on eggs."

~ A helpful book for children ~

The Declaration of Independence
as described by someone living with dementia:

"Well, it means exactly what it says, it's a declaration. A declaration of unity and love and respect, and it means a lot. And it's something very special to our country."

~ Alcatraz as seen in "Eh, the movies." ~

Alcatraz Prison,
as described by someone living with dementia:

"Well, I guess I was supposed to be a movie maker. We're talking—we started with the movie making and will end. I mean, it—it represents something very strong, very powerful in terms of law and order. Our country needs law and order. Alcatraz is, uh, I would say, the ultimate, right? Alcatraz. Sing Sing and Alcatraz. Eh, the movies. But, uh, it's right now a museum, believe it or not, a lot of people go there. It housed the, uh, most violent criminals in the world, and nobody ever escaped. One person almost got there. But they, as you know the story, they found his clothing rather badly ripped up. And, uh, it was a lot of shark bites, lot of, a lot of problems. Nobody's ever escaped from Alcatraz. And just represented something, uh, strong having to do with law and order. We need law and order in this country. And so we're going to, uh, look at it. Some of the people up here are going to be working very hard on that. And, uh, we had a little conversation. I think it's going to be very interesting. We'll see if we can, uh, bring it back in large form, add a lot. But I think it represents something. Right now it's, uh, a big hunk that's sitting there rusting and rotting, uh, very, uh, you look at it, it's sort of a [?]. You saw that picture that was put out. It's sort of amazing. But it sort of represents something that's both horrible and beautiful and strong and miserable. Weak. It's got a lot of, it's got a lot of qualities that are interesting. And I think they, they make a point. Okay."

CREDITS
I think we can count
on a steady stream of material for this project.
Above comments taken from:

Interview with Kristen Welker~ NBC

Interview with Terry Moran ~ ABC

Commencement Address
at the University of Alabama

My favorite line in one of the above interviews:

"I didn’t even know anything about
what you — we were talking about."

You can say that again!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next Fortnightly Post
Yet Another Batch of Nonsense
The Gulf of Mexico and Beyond
Wednesday, May 28th
Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blogs
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com

Indoor Rocks

INDOOR ROCKS
~ ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS ~

Ellie & Aidan's treasure stash
(one of many)
containing numerous indoor rocks.

Kitti's Courage ~ Forever Rocks
These good luck rocks in my car are souvenirs
from Ben & Sam's sleepover at St. John the Divine
Junior high field trip ~ New York City ~ 2004

For many years now, my friend Jan and I have sustained an ongoing conversation about the role of rocks that come into our lives, sometimes bringing luck and stability, other times discomfort and consternation, but always providing a tactile connection to the universe. We keep them in a pocket, in a drawer, in the car, on the window ledge. If they get lost, we grieve their disappearance, then take up another favorite -- a new one is never far.

Jan's Forever ~ Between Rocks
are from the Word Garden
at the Highlights Foundation Retreat Center
More from Jan:
We Are On A Rock ~ Access ~ Pocket

Literary Connections

Starting with two collections of "indoor rocks"

1. "She is sitting at the desk where Hamnet kept his collection of pebbles in four pots. He liked to tip them out periodically and sort them in different ways. She is peering into each pot, observing that the last time he arranged them, he did so by colour, not size" (245).

Hamnet
by Maggie Farrell


2.
"I have saved two white stones,
whiter than any I have seen,
found in a patch of emerald green,
two white stones have I . . .
All these things I love best
I have kept in this old chest,
sorted and counted hundreds of nights
they all have given me a thousand delights.
Who can say how much they are worth?
For they are the miracles of the Earth."
[click to hear Johnny Whitaker sing: @ 57:15]

from the 1969 movie of The Littlest Angel

These two fictional boys, the Littlest Angel and young Hamnet (based on Shakespeare's real son) share the pastime of sorting and re-sorting their favorite pebbles and rocks (and other assorted items) sometimes by color, sometimes by size. Likewise, the real life Sir Isaac Newton recalls the childhood diversion of searching out pebbles and shells at the seashore. The little brother in Julie Otsuka's story has a souvenir from the sea -- "his lucky blue stone" -- but instead of a treasure box or a series of sorting pots, he keeps everything in his pockets.

3. While living in the Japanese internment camp in Utah, the little brother is given "a small red Swiss Army knife" for Christmas. He "carried the knife with him in his pocket wherever he went. Sometimes, when he was running, he could hear it clacking against his lucky blue stone from the sea and for a moment he felt very happy. His pockets were filled with good things" (92, emphasis added).
When the Emperor Was Divine
by Julie Otsuka

4. “I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” ~ Isaac Newton ~

As does Newton, the next three writers combine the imagery of rocks with that of water. Kingsolver says that love is not the rock, love is the water, because water is stronger. Kind of like scissors, paper, stone. Armin adds romance and language, writing the name of a loved one on a rock in a river. Maclean expands into another dimension: the mystery of the universe. The rocks he describes are "from the basement of time," and "Under the rocks are words." Kind of like "In the beginning was the Word!
5.
"Love is no granite boulder, praised
for its size. It's the water that parts
around it, moving mountains."

by Barbara Kingsolver
from the poem "How to Be Married"
in How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons)


6.
And remember how I wrote your name
On the rocks down by the river Seine

by Armin van Buuren
from the song "Looking For Your Name"

7.

"Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of those rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.”

by Norman Maclean (1902 - 1990)
from A River Runs Through It

8.
And because we all still believe
in Mother Earth and lucky rocks . . .

My Lucky Rock

I said to a squirrel,
“What is that
you are carrying?”
and he said,

“It is my lucky rock;
isn’t it pretty?”
I held it and said,
“Indeed.”

I said to God,
“What is this earth?”
And God said,

“It is my lucky rock;
isn’t it wondrous?”

Yes, indeed.

by Tukaram (c 1598 - 1650)
17th Century Saint and Poet
From what is now the modern-day state of
Maharashtra, India


9.
Not forgetting The Lorax

Next Fortnightly Post
Wednesday, May 14th
Between now and then, read

THE QUOTIDIAN KIT ~ See Lucky Rock & Rocky Road
my shorter, almost daily blogs
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com

Sitting Down to Read Keats

KEATS READING SHAKESPEARE
~ ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS ~

1821 Portrait of John Keats
by Joseph Severn (1793-1879)
Oil on canvas ~ London, National Portrait Gallery

On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again

O golden-tongued Romance with serene lute!
Fair plumed Syren! Queen of far away!
Leave melodizing on this wintry day,
Shut up thine olden pages, and be mute:
Adieu! for once again the fierce dispute,
Betwixt damnation and impassion'd clay
Must I burn through; once more humbly assay
The bitter-sweet of this Shakespearian fruit.

Chief Poet! and ye clouds of Albion,
Begetters of our deep eternal theme,
When through the old oak forest I am gone,
Let me not wander in a barren dream,
But when I am consumed in the fire,
Give me new Phoenix wings to fly at my desire.

John Keats (1795 – 1821)
[More on QK & FN]


To Humbly Assay
Keats has combined techniques from both the Petrarchan and the Spenserian sonnet forms in "On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again." The sonnet is true Petrarchan in that it contains a definite octave and a definite sestet, and the rhyme scheme of the octave follows the traditional Petrarchan pattern: abbaabba. At this point, after the octave, the sonnet taks the traditional "turn," and there is a turn in the technique as well. Rather than choose any of the variable sestet patterns associated with Petrarchan sonnets, Keats switches to the Spenserian sestet rhyme scheme: cdcdee.

The sonnet concludes with another irregularity: the final line is not written in iambic pentameter (as are the first thirteen); it is in iambic hexameter, an Alexandrine appropriately split with a caesura: "Give me new Phoenix sings / to fly at my desire." Though this extra syllable is not characteristic of the Spenserian sonnet, it is characteristic of the 9-line Spenserian stanza which always concludes with an Alexandrine.

The form of any sonnet is related to its content. Of major importance in this sonnet are the apostrophes which begin both the octave ("O Golden-Tongues Romance with serene lute!") and the sestet ("Chief Poet!"). In the octave, Keats introduces the problem to be dealt with, the conflicting merits of Romance and Tragedy. The reference to Romance, in the initial apostrophe, is clear. He addresses Romance, only to bid it "Adieu!" Romance is "golden" and "fair," but the day is "wintry," so he feels compelled to turn to tragedy. The reference to tragedy is not as explicit, but surely "the fierce dispute / Betwixt damnation and impassion'd clay" is the antithesis of anything romantic.

In this sonnet, Keats identifies our human tragedy as Byron does: "we are cooped in clay." Cooped in clay and filled with passions, we only ensure our damnation if we give in to passion. I think this is the "dispute" that Keats refers to. These lines are also his description of the play King Lear, and, though the title says "to Read," the verb has now become "to burn":
Adieu! for once again the fierce dispute,
Betwixt damnation and impassion'd clay
Must I burn through; once more humbly assay
The bitter-sweet of this Shakespearian fruit.
"Burn" is the verb for the comprehension of tragedy, while in earlier lines "melodizing" is the verb of romance. Also, the poet orders Romance to "Leave melodizing." It is Romance not he who is acting, but now he must act. Tragedy does not serenade nor present itself to him -- he must "burn through" it.

The exchange of the common verb read for the startling burn takes on even more significance if we glance ahead to the final image of the Phoenix consumed in fire. Keats has chosen one of the few things we know of that is never subject to damnation. The Phoenix may suffer in death, but not in afterlife. There is no time to punish or damn the Phoenix, for it must live afresh immediately.

The final image in the octave is inescapable in its appeal to our physical taste of bitter-sweet as well as our emotional grasp on the bitter-sweetness of human tragedy. Surprisingly but appropriately, Keats has picked something earthly, something of clay with which to compare the play -- a piece of fruit. This is another surprising exchange for the more common image of the written word as immortal, a fixed monument. Of course, fruit may be immortal in the same sense that the Phoenix is -- their shared cycle of continual regeneration: flowering, ripening, falling to the ground, then beginning again.

In the sestet, the sonnet turns with the Poet's address to Shakespeare. But it is imperative to notice that the apostrophe runs on beyond the exclamation point: "Chief Poet! and ye clouds of Albion." The reference to Albion, the old Celtic and wonderfully nostalgic name for England, is the poet's way of once more including the Romance he denounced in the octave. Shakespeare and Albion, Tragedy and Poetry: he beseeches them both, recognizing that they both are "Begetters of our deep eternal theme."

Still, the reader is inclined to conclude that his vote is finally cast for tragedy. For is not the "barren dream" he wishes to avoid the very Romance he ordered to "be mute"? He wants instead the fire. He wants to "burn through" tragedy and have another chance to "fly at his desire," perhaps this time without threat of damnation. As a Phoenix he will "burn through" the "fierce dispute betwixt damnation and impassioned clay. In this way does the sestet answer the octave.

My favorite painting of King Lear:
Cordelia's Portion (c. 1866)
by Ford Madox Brown (1821 - 1893)
English painter of moral and historical subjects
loosely connected to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

To the left are the malevolent sisters, Goneril & Regan, staring each other down; and kneeling at their feet, the Dukes of Cornwall & Albany, Lear's corrupt sons-in-law. To the right, are the fickle Duke of Burgandy; dear Cordelia, Pure of Heart, whose "love's more richer than her tongue," and the loyal King of France. In the center is King Lear, dejected, misguided; and at his feet, the Map of the Kingdom, divided. In this painting, the Fool is only a minor character. You can see his blue hood if you look closely behind the dark - haired sister. [More on QK & FN]

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