[Ttha-potm] "The Selfsame Song" TTHA Poem of the Month for July 2009

[Betty Cortus]

Kathie and Rosemarie, I believe you've both hit on the Romantic  
reverberations in Hardy's bird's 'selfsame song" I was thinking about  
in my introduction, particularly these lines from a poet beloved by  
Hardy:

Thou wast not born for death, immortal bird!
   No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
   In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
   Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
   She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
            The same that oft-times hath
Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam
   of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.


This is the kind of Keats at his best that made me a sucker for  
poetry for life as a teenager.

Thanks for great insights
Betty

On Jul 12, 2009, at 2:49 PM, Rosemarie Morgan wrote:

>
>> Reading your message Kathie I had this sudden thought that the  
>> "immortal" bird is indeed immortal.