Word: poem
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...Night Before Christmas," Dec. 18. First shown in 1974, this cartoon has it all: sour old Scrooges, children in despair, a judicious town mayor, even gift lists returned from the North Pole marked "Not Accepted by Addressee." Narrated by Joel Grey, this adaptation of Clement Moore's famous poem is not recommended for people who fear mice...
...when Mudd turns to Los Angeles, his message shines through. He drags us out the window and into the streets, through a seance a dialogue between William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy, through the tortured wandering, of an artist in his home. The Wordsworth poem. "Lines Written After a Visit to Los Angeles," is an argument between the poet and his sister. Dorothy is resurrected by her brother's tantalizing descriptions of life on earth. She moves from wondering whether she is in Heaven or Hell to wishing she were back among the living, trysting with Somuel Coleridge. While...
...BOOK'S last poem, "Searching for the Queen of Angels," soars the highest but at times falls the flattest. Mudd slips backwards from a love scene into memory, calling the past a "renewal" and detailing the history of the city. The poem start with a cleverly written but inherently dull account of everything from the founding of a city called La Ciudad de Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles to a group of kindergarten students (Mudd remembers) planting black walnuts. The past is a history assignment that needs to be done before government can studied, Mudd says...
...SEARCH for continuity to escape shock. Pastan goes back through Biblical legend tracing Judaic myth and history. Her idea is not to create an identity for herself but rather to find a universal past or one that can be shared with at least other Jews. In a poem somewhat formidably titled "A Short History of Judaic thought in the Twentieth Century," the poet scratches her bead at the intellectual custom of answering a question with a question. If it is forbidden to touch a dying person except to remove him from a burning house. Pastan asks, who can she touch...
Pastan's language is simple even spare. Usually it lends itself well to her subjects-- with complicated imaged and twists of thought there is no need for flowery language. But every so often a poem is skimpy. Because Pastan's only point of view is the poet looking out the voice dues not shift. The only source of excitement is what she sees. When the language becomes too terse, a poem might flop unless read very slowly. Fortunately, there are not many of these...