Les Murray - An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow

[David]

I'd like to propose this for general reading.

http://www.lesmurray.org/pm_aor.htm

[Antcliff]

Still struck by the emphasis on dignity.....that the weeping is in a dignified way + (the end) there is a the dignity of "having wept". You might even read it as having dignity as a central theme.

Seth

[OwenEdwards]

This one came up in that essay I mentioned, David. Absolutely crackerjack poem, typical of early Murray in his expression being a little more circumlocutive (he's the reverse Geoffrey Hill).

[David]

Still struck by the emphasis on dignity.....that the weeping is in a dignified way + (the end) there is a the dignity of "having wept". You might even read it as having dignity as a central theme.

Yes, but his religion shines out of it as well, don't you think? We have to recognise it, even if we don't share it.

This one came up in that essay I mentioned, David. Absolutely crackerjack poem, typical of early Murray in his expression being a little more circumlocutive (he's the reverse Geoffrey Hill).

The reverse Geoffrey Hill! That's a great thought, Owen. Must think about that some more, though - isn't GH circumlocutive as well? I haven't read enough of him to be sure.

[Antcliff]

Yes, but his religion shines out of it as well, don't you think? We have to recognise it, even if we don't share it.

Not sure. A common need for weeping comes out.

[David]

Yes, but his religion shines out of it as well, don't you think? We have to recognise it, even if we don't share it.

Not sure. A common need for weeping comes out.

True. I could be reading something into it, rather than reading something in it. I've done that before.

[OwenEdwards]

I suppose that his understanding of our common need for weeping is informed by his faith.

I rather meant by "reverse Geoffrey Hill" that Les becomes easier to read in his later work, where Hill becomes progressively harder til eventually you rather imagine he's working with the Navaho coders to make an unbreachable fortress of semantics.