Comments on: Presidents’ Day poetry

By: Karmi

Karmi — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 13:38:40 +0000

neo

..having to refresh the blog before new comments will show. I hope that other people aren’t having that happen, too. It’s new for me.

That has been terrible for me. Seems it was sdferr who brought it up a day or two ago—which is when is also started for me. Even clicking on Recent Comment in that section wouldn’t go to the comment…just to the top of post. Then scrolling down to last comment I would still have to do a refresh to get the recent comment.

Not as bad this morning but still issues…

By: AesopFan

AesopFan — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 05:35:35 +0000

@ Gringo > “Like Faulkner says, the past isn’t past.”

But we must learn to be unburdened by what has been.
Whatever.

I never memorized “Oh Captain” but did appreciate its melancholic irony.

I DID memorize “Nancy Hanks” in 7th grade and rather liked it, since she died before he became famous and I could picture her, if she came back as a ghost and could speak, wanting to know.
Now, I believe that those who have passed beyond the veil are perfectly well aware of what’s going on down here, and some of them are appalled.
Washington and Lincoln for sure.

“Surreal” is the right description for Wakoski’s poem, but it kinda grows on ya.
I do wonder about the giraffe.

Ogden Nash is my favorite poet.
(Doggerel is a sure-fire hook.)
Most likely from much-too-early exposure
(and I still have my first book).

By: Gringo

Gringo — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 05:06:39 +0000

My sister recited Whitman’s “Oh Captain, My Captain” at a Memorial Day ceremony that was held on the lawn in front of the town hall. When she was in 8th grade?

The town hall was named for the family that paid for the construction of the building. That family’s first ancestor in the town was a Revolutionary War hero, who was mentioned in David McCullough’s 1776. A family member was my Sunday School teacher in 4th grade. Another family member recently did some work on a friend’s 300 year old house. Like Faulkner says, the past isn’t past.

By: neo

neo — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 04:24:06 +0000

R2L:

Yes, I’ve been on the phone with the host and they supposedly corrected that problem. But they said it would take up to 2 hours for the correction to be fully functional. So hopefully the problem will go away by about 12:30 AM Eastern time.

It’s frustrating to keep having these glitches. I keep thinking if it continues I should change hosts, but that’s a big undertaking, and there’s no guarantee there won’t still be problems now and then.

I’ve also been having a new problem on my phone, having to refresh the blog before new comments will show. I hope that other people aren’t having that happen, too. It’s new for me.

By: R2L

R2L — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 04:20:07 +0000

Neo, FYI:
in trying to go to the next post on Margret Brennan, I am now receiving an error message as:
This site can’t provide a secure connection
thenewneo.com uses an unsupported protocol.

ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH
Unsupported protocol
The client and server don’t support a common SSL protocol version or cipher suite.

I had a different error a little while ago about too many redirects to get to your site.
Then a few minutes later it worked again.
??????

By: huxley

huxley — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 02:15:29 +0000

Here’s a surreal dream poem about George Washington. I’ve always loved this poem.
________________________________

George Washington

Wearing a green silk dress
I drove to California with a giraffe who looked like George
Washington.
The roads were long
and covered with ivory boxes.
We stopped at a filling station for gas and found that the next
hundred miles of road would be dangerous.

I left notes for you in every ivory box we passed.
The gold clasps did not open
properly.
I wrote letters to you
and fastened them with gold clasps.

But my green dress wore out long before I reached California.
The giraffe abandoned me at the first zoo.
I kept calling INFORMATION and asking for George Washington,
but his phone service had been shut off
in Washington. New York. LA. and
Palm Beach.

“We can connect you with the new president,” said the operator.
“It won’t do any good,” I answered.
“I must reach George Washington. No one else will do.”
So I left more notes for you in the ivory boxes.
I kept saying, “Let me know where you are.”
I travelled all the roads in the country.
I left notes everywhere.
I sent you letters with gold catches unclasped.
I telephoned every place I could think of.
My giraffe left me after finding a zoo.
My green silk dress wore out,
I have no clothes.
Please tell me
what I am doing–riding over the same dangerous 100 miles
everyday,
leaving letters in ivory boxes.
They all bear your name.
Please tell me what I’m doing?
Why?
Sometimes I do remember reading in the paper over 200 years ago
that you died–I must know
you’re dead
by now.
Please tell me what I’m doing,
George Washington.
Please tell me what I’m doing,
–for my own good.

–Diane Wakoski, “The George Washington Poems” (1967)

By: MollyG

MollyG — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 01:57:52 +0000

“Oh Captain, My Captain” is certainly a much better poem than the one I am about to share, but it does recall this sort of doggerel:

LINES ON A SICK GYPSY

There we leave her, there we leave her,
Far from where her swarthy kindred roam,
In the scarlet fever, scarlet fever,
Scarlet fever convalescant home.

[cited by X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia, eds., An Introduction to Poetry]

By: TommyJay

TommyJay — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 01:55:57 +0000

Way back when, we got the internet and the web, and other newer technologies came out. One that caught my attention was the availability of free literature in electronic format. The University of Virginia had one such depository and I downloaded some hopefully interesting content.

There was a biography on Ben Franklin. I looked that the preface and a little bit of Chap. 1. It was the most abysmal hagiography I’d ever seen. Completely unreadable IMO. Limited and sparse factual detail buried in blather.

By: Bof

Bof — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 00:04:01 +0000

George Washington was a gentleman,
A soldier and a scholar;
He crossed the Delaware with a boat,
The Potomac, with a dollar.
The British faced him full of joy,
And departed full of sorrow;
George Washington was a gentleman.
His birthday is tomorrow.

When approached by fellow patriots,
And asked for his opinion,
He spoke in accents clear and bold,
And, probably, Virginian.
His winter home at Valley Froge
Was underheated, rather.
He possessed a sturdy Roman nose,
And became his country’s father.

His army was a hungry horde,
Ill-armed, worse-clad Colonials;
He was our leading President,
And discouraged ceremonials.
His portrait on our postage stamps,
It does him less than justice;
He was much respected by his wife,
The former Mrs. Custis.

He routed George’s scarlet coats;
(Though oft by Congress hindered)
When they fortified the leeward side,
He slashed them from the windward.
He built and launched our Ship of State,
He brought it safe to harbor;
He wore no beard upon his chin,
Thanks to his faithful barber.

George Washington was a gentleman,
His birthday is tomorrow.
He filled his country’s friends with joy,
His country’s foes, with sorrow.
And so my dears, his grateful land
In robes of glory clad him.
George Washington was a gentleman.
I’m glad his parents had him.

~Ogden Nash

By: SHIREHOME

SHIREHOME — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 23:59:08 +0000

I had to memorize “Oh Captain, My Captain”, 11th grade I think (maybe Senior YR – it was a Looooog Time ago). Then, the Teacher (student Teacher actually), had us analyze it. Early intro to Lincoln. I like it.