Hello, everyone.
William Butler Yeats died in 1939 at the age of 73. He was a writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize, as well as being involved in theatre and politics.
Wallace Stevens died in 1955 at the age of 75. As well as winning the Pulitzer Prize for his writing, he was also an insurance executive.
The first text, in terms of themes, touches on the mind, imagination and old age. Think about these ideas in your writing today.
The second text is also about the mind. The concepts of reason and space also feature.
The structure of both texts has a regular number of lines to each paragraph, or stanza. You could keep the same in mind.
The structure of both texts is also highly imaginative and seemingly not quite real. How can you be real, or unreal or surreal in your writing?
Six words to attempt to incorporate into your writing from Yeats: picture, air, truth, remake, pierce, inspired.
Six words from Stevens: beyond, meaning, song, reason, shine, wind.
If you have a copy of The Exercise Book (Manhire, Duncum, Price & Wilkins), turn to "#73: God I felt lonely when I realised you were everywhere" for an additional challenge.
That's all. I hope you are inspired to write today.
An Acre of Grass
by William Butler Yeats
Picture and book remain,
An acre of green grass
For air and exercise,
Now strength of body goes;
Midnight, an old house
Where nothing stirs but a mouse.
My temptation is quiet.
Here at life's end
Neither loose imagination,
Nor the mill of the mind
Consuming its rag and bone,
Can make the truth known.
Grant me an old man's frenzy,
Myself must I remake
Till I am Timon and Lear
Or that William Blake
Who beat upon the wall
Till Truth obeyed his call;
A mind Michael Angelo knew
That can pierce the clouds,
Or inspired by frenzy
Shake the dead in their shrouds;
Forgotten else by mankind,
An old man's eagle mind.
Of Mere Being
by Wallace Stevens
The palm at the end of the mind,
Beyond the last thought, rises
In the bronze decor,
A gold-feathered bird
Sings in the palm, without human meaning,
Without human feeling, a foreign song.
You know then that it is not the reason
That makes us happy or unhappy.
The bird sings. Its feathers shine.
The palm stands on the edge of space.
The wind moves slowly in the branches.
The bird's fire-fangled feathers dangle down.
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Confirmation replies are currently on, but they'll go off when Resource Credits (RCs) get low. Your hivebits command will still go through and you'll get your HBIT.
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Hivebits blends Hive's blockchain and Bitcoin's ethos. Your effort = your reward. Mine HBIT simply with ! hivebits (no space) or ! HBIT (no space), 1-per-day.
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Confirmation replies are currently on, but they'll go off when Resource Credits (RCs) get low. Your hivebits command will still go through and you'll get your HBIT.