I have been finishing a book-length poem called The Twelve-Gated City, after the heavenly Jerusalem that John saw in a vision, in Revelation. Our excerpt today comes the first of 33 dramatic monologues or dialogues. This speaker is Moses, a very old man, near death, on the top of Mount Pisgah, looking across the Jordan to the Promised Land.
I've just finished reading Naomi Wolfe's recent essay in which she insists the old pagan gods that Israel contended with, Baal, Moloch, etc. have returned, and it is they that we are contending with now.
The poem ?
Beautiful
Why ?
Because it flows, one image leads into another image, like the painting itself.
Not once did I have to stop, and ask myself, "Now what does he mean ?
John, if you've not seen Tony's verse translations -- Dante, Tasso, Lucretius -- you might like them. He keeps as much of the original tone, intent, exact meaning, and even grandeur as possible, but he intends always to be clear and render the author's intent precisely. His own lyrics may well be more demanding of his readers in The Hundredfold and now in the forthcoming Twelve-Gated City, but the monologues -- though in very fine blank verse iambic meter -- are meant to sound like natural speech. Blank verse is the form of Shakespeare's plays. It was always regarded among the English poets as best suited to rendering English speech, particularly in long works. It's the form Milton used for Paradise Lost. Done well, it admits of the full range of human expression without ever seeming stiff or forced. Wait till you read/hear some other of these monologues. I think he's done 33 of them for Twelve-Gated City.
I've been dipping into another treasure trove for the accompanying images, in the public domain. There are so many beautiful paintings and illustrations that I've never seen. I particularly like this one.
NO KIDDING? You think you were censored? Hmmm. Substack is regarded as a "hands off" sort of venue. We are still new to it, so I will pay attention. We've purposely reserved comments to paid subscribers because we know that we don't have enough time to fully "moderate" comments to keep out profanity or to play "whack-a-mole" with trolls. (Tony attracts those, as you likely can imagine.) As long as things stay civil, we are fine with all comments.
It is always a great day when we get to read some of your own poetry, Dr. Esolen! This is magnificent, as always. I especially like your choice to render the name of Joshua as it was in the Hebrew, as that cements these thoughts of Moses even more firmly as a prefiguring of the other Yehoshua--the One to come! It is easy to see how Moses' hopes and pleas here are not just proximate hopes for Joshua's leadership of Israel, but also his hope for the future Messiah...a hope which he himself may not even be aware he is expressing. I eagerly look forward to getting my hands on a copy of The Twelve-Gated City, once it is complete!
Thank you for reading so attentively, David. This is an excerpt from a longer dramatic monologue. Tony learned this particular "trade" from close reading of Browning over many years, and of course the poet's art from reading the poets, long and often and closely. We are going to share from The Twelve-Gated City and from The Hundredfold on Fridays during Lent.
Well, it's not website maintenance, as I thought.
It's a Gate Keeper, who sends posts made this time of night/morning for inspection in daylight.
No need now.
No, not now: not a week later.
Here's what happened.
I was responding to your February 16th comment, and my post was up for about 3-4 seconds, and then it literally disappeared right in front of me.
Naturally, I was miffed, as this was the second time this has happened to me.
I fired off a few more comments, all of which did the same disappearing act, and then decided to USPS you.
I kept looking for approximately 18 hours, and none of those posts were up.
Yesterday, thinking the posts were still not up, I indicated again I was going to USPS you.
A few minutes later I found those missing posts.
Someone at Substack had put them back up at some point in time.
My take on all of this ?
I'm a very early, Morning Owl.
It is routine for me to be online from 2:00 AM on.
I think sometimes I'm running into Substack's website maintenance timeframe, and that's where the snafus are.
If Substack was censoring me they would not have eventually posted my posts.
"It's over, and done with, as far as I am concerned.
"Never to smudge and smear the holy Name
As if it were a shekel in your bag –"
Absolutely perfect...Our Culture uses the name of God as a throw-away word and as every part of speech.
How timely.
I've just finished reading Naomi Wolfe's recent essay in which she insists the old pagan gods that Israel contended with, Baal, Moloch, etc. have returned, and it is they that we are contending with now.
The poem ?
Beautiful
Why ?
Because it flows, one image leads into another image, like the painting itself.
Not once did I have to stop, and ask myself, "Now what does he mean ?
John, if you've not seen Tony's verse translations -- Dante, Tasso, Lucretius -- you might like them. He keeps as much of the original tone, intent, exact meaning, and even grandeur as possible, but he intends always to be clear and render the author's intent precisely. His own lyrics may well be more demanding of his readers in The Hundredfold and now in the forthcoming Twelve-Gated City, but the monologues -- though in very fine blank verse iambic meter -- are meant to sound like natural speech. Blank verse is the form of Shakespeare's plays. It was always regarded among the English poets as best suited to rendering English speech, particularly in long works. It's the form Milton used for Paradise Lost. Done well, it admits of the full range of human expression without ever seeming stiff or forced. Wait till you read/hear some other of these monologues. I think he's done 33 of them for Twelve-Gated City.
Oh, my. I will listen to this again and again, and look forward as well to the completed opus!
And I love the pairing with the Church painting. So many rich layers... in the painting and each line of the poem.
I've been dipping into another treasure trove for the accompanying images, in the public domain. There are so many beautiful paintings and illustrations that I've never seen. I particularly like this one.
I just found my phantom 2/17 comments.
Beats me what is happening: no need for USPS.
Maybe someone 'out West' had 2nd thoughts about 'moderating.'
NO KIDDING? You think you were censored? Hmmm. Substack is regarded as a "hands off" sort of venue. We are still new to it, so I will pay attention. We've purposely reserved comments to paid subscribers because we know that we don't have enough time to fully "moderate" comments to keep out profanity or to play "whack-a-mole" with trolls. (Tony attracts those, as you likely can imagine.) As long as things stay civil, we are fine with all comments.
Debra, I'm going to have to USPS you.
That's fine John. I'll keep an eye out.
It is always a great day when we get to read some of your own poetry, Dr. Esolen! This is magnificent, as always. I especially like your choice to render the name of Joshua as it was in the Hebrew, as that cements these thoughts of Moses even more firmly as a prefiguring of the other Yehoshua--the One to come! It is easy to see how Moses' hopes and pleas here are not just proximate hopes for Joshua's leadership of Israel, but also his hope for the future Messiah...a hope which he himself may not even be aware he is expressing. I eagerly look forward to getting my hands on a copy of The Twelve-Gated City, once it is complete!
Thank you for reading so attentively, David. This is an excerpt from a longer dramatic monologue. Tony learned this particular "trade" from close reading of Browning over many years, and of course the poet's art from reading the poets, long and often and closely. We are going to share from The Twelve-Gated City and from The Hundredfold on Fridays during Lent.