Word: poetic
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...respect, at least, both Lou Reed and Patti Smith represent a single tradition in popular music-that of the talking singer. Both like to patter over a light drum beat or bass line, in the manner of a Jim Morrison. For Smith this practice masquerades as high poetic art; for Reed it seems to be more a product of his declining vocal resources. His last album, Take No Prisoners-a live, double-record set-consisted mostly of Reed chattering with and occasionally insulting his audiences...
...engagements should be a success for France's mission civilisatrice. In telling the story of Alceste, a man torn between hatred of the world's deceit and flattery and his own love for a deceitful, flattering widow named Célimène, Molière pressed poetic comedy and satiric wit to the edge of tears. Le Misanthrope is his bittersweet masterpiece. In a comedy of manners, Alceste's notion of telling the truth himself on all occasions and correcting the chicanery of the age clearly marks him as a crackpot bound for grief...
...Agenin project modern, realistic feeling at the expense of classical eloquence. During his tirades against mankind, Beaulieu runs through the Alexandrines and casts caesuras to the winds. But he builds sympathy by the low-key, unstylized way he plays the love scenes. Agenin, too, is better at intimacy than poetic elegance. She is a wonder, though, at dispensing petits fours and nasty court gossip to a fine pair of dandies whose wigs make them resemble Bert Lahr playing the Cowardly Lion. When she leans back and says lovingly to poor, scoldy Alceste, "How boring you are!" while deliciously wriggling...
...calls for changes in rowing speed and power at strategic moments in the race. Occasional "Power Tens" are yelled out to gain a decisive edge with ten all-out strokes; the coxswain's comments range from the factual "Great--we gained ten feet with that Ten" to the more poetic "Give me a Ten that'll make the coach weep...
...islands are as delightful to the philologist as they are to the bird watcher or plant stalker. All Hawaiian place names have meanings, poetic or factual. Maui's Waianapanapa, site of a 120-acre, stream-laced state park, is "glistening water." There are lao (valley of dawning inspiration), Kapilau (sprinkle of rain on leaves), Lanilili (rippling surface) and Waiakoa (waters used by warrior). Kaanapali is "rolling cliffs." It is comforting when boating off Wailea to know that the "waters [are] governed by Lea," goddess of canoe making. Lahaina is "land of prophecies...