Lord Byron Was Right

Byron loved his animals. He especially loved dogs. When Boatswain, his beloved Newfoundland, died, he erected a monument with the following words:

Near this spot are deposited the remains of one who
possessed Beauty without Vanity,
Strength without Insolence,
Courage without Ferocity,
and all the Virtues of Man,
...without his Vices.
This Praise, which would be unmeaning
Flattery if inscribed over human
ashes is but a just tribute to the Memory
of Boatswain,a Dog.
--Lord Byron


That is another reason why I love Lord Byron. He may have been "mad, bad, and dangerous to know," but he loved animals. That's enough for me! Besides, Lady Caroline Lamb is the one who said that about him, and she was a fruitcake.

Why Graduate School in Literature Ruins You

It completely alters the way you view the books out there, and what was once acceptable literature suddenly becomes rubbish. At one point in my life, I could go into any book store, and if I didn't curb myself, could end up with stacks of books. Recently, however, I walked into a local Barnes and Noble, stayed for a couple of hours, and finally found one novel and one book by Pope Benedict XVI that met my....um, for lack of a better word...standards.

Quite frankly, the very idea that I might have standards is worrisome to me. I'm a mountain woman, after all. Am I supposed to have intellectual standards?

Yikes. Somebody slap me.

The fact remains that, after spending so much time reading, re-reading, analysing, writing essay after essay, and discussing poetry, classic novels, plays, etc., I can no longer pick up the latest trendy novel and actually take it seriously.

Yep, there was only one William Shakespeare, one Lord Byron, one Geoffrey Chaucer, etc....and, alas, they are not among us in 21st century America!

My Lord Byron...a Misunderstood Poet Today

Anyone who knows me well will already know that I have a Dead Poet Crush on Lord Byron. I'm one of the few women I know who is in love with a man who has been dead for nearly 200 years. His beautiful, poetic countenance graces my living quarters...yes, I actually have reproductions of his portraits hanging in my home! My husband once said that he thought he was going to have to start wearing a Lord Byron mask to bed. That Christmas, I presented him with a Lord Byron mask that I found through the National Portrait Gallery in London! Best of all, it was based on the portrait of Byron clad in his Albanian clothing!

But here is the killer for me...the most anthologized poem by this brilliant, witty man is "She Walks in Beauty." Everyone knows that poem, and I'm pretty sure their dogs know it, too. Incidentally, Byron was an animal lover, and he especially loved his dogs!

Just to refresh your memory, here is the poem in its entirety:

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/she-walks-in-beauty-7/

Nice, pretty little poem, right? So, why is it such a killer for me?

1) It is most definitely not representative of Byron's work; and
2) Most teachers fail to teach it in its true context.

Byron wrote a tremendous amount during his short, thirty-six years here on Earth. Of all the poems to choose to include in anthologies of English literature, why this one? Possibly because it is short...possibly because it is sooooooo romantic. Okay, news flash here, Byron was a Romantic poet, with a capital "R" not a romantic poet. Romanticism focused on imagination, nature, symbolism and mythology, exoticism, etc. Okay, that's the very, very, very simple explanation.

I will tell you exactly what poem made me first fall in love with Lord Byron when I was a young high school kid: "The Prisoner of Chillon." Wow. I don't know exactly what it was about this one that that wrapped itself around my very soul, but I have never forgotten it.

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-prisoner-of-chillon-2/

From the opening stanza, "My hair is grey, but not with years/Nor grew it white/In a single night..." to the final words, "My very chains and I grew friends,/So much a long communion tends/To make us what we are:--even I/Regain'd my freedom with a sigh..." I was caught up, enraptured, in complete love.

As I went on to study him in graduate school, I came to know his satiric wit, and if you ask my opinion, whatever that is worth, his masterpiece is Don Juan. Funny, satiric, beautiful in some places, laugh out loud funny in others. This is the real Byron. I won't post the link here because there are several. Just go to Poem Hunter website and look for it.

Secondly, let me explain how teachers fail to teach "She Walks in Beauty" in its proper context. Byron wrote it as the opening poem for his Hebrew Melodies, a series of poems that he wrote to go with the music of a Jewish composer friend, Isaac Nathan. The poems, as you might surmise from the title, have as their topics a variety of Old Testament stories. It is not about a woman, folks, so stop sighing over it in that way! Beauty...capital "B"...something that artists seek and attempt to put into words, pictures, music the best way they know how!

I could go on and on about Lord Byron. And on. And on. And on. I will suggest, however, strongly, that you check him out on your own...and with these thoughts in mind in order to truly appreciate his genius and wit!

Country Music and William Faulkner

I must start out here by talking about country music lyrics and the great Southern Gothic writer, William Faulkner. Faulkner...wow, where to start with the literature of this son of the South, pride of the the state of Mississippi? Yes, folks, Faulkner's many, many works prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Southerners are the best of the American writers. Let me tell you something...I am a Brit Lit girl all the way...never could really get into the overly self-righteous, sanctimonious, down-right boring and dreary American writers. Brits rule the literary world, quite frankly.

HOWEVER, there are a handful of Southern writers -- Edgar Allen Poe, Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor (Catholic AND Southern...wow! What an anomaly!), Carson McCullers, Tennessee Williams (ironically, a native of Mississippi), and William Faulkner -- who certainly hold their own as great writers, in my opinion. And we ALL know that my opinion is what really counts, right?!

But...back to Willie Boy. His name has become synonymous with THE quintessential Southern author, the bees' knees of Southern writing at its best. Now, I certainly will not disagree with that, but there are some things that truly make me laugh. Let's talk about how Billy Boy's name shows up in the lyrics of numerous country music songs:

Collin Raye, "My Kind of Girl"..."you quoted William Faulkner and Martin Luther King..."

Tim McGraw, "Southern Voice"..."Hank Williams sang it. Number Three drove it. Chuck Berry twanged it. Will Faulkner wrote it..." (incidentally, this is a kick a** song!)

Eric Church, "Love Your Love the Most"..."I'm a fan of Faulkner books" (hey, man! So am I!)

Pam Tillis, "Maybe It Was Memphis"..."Read about you in a Faulkner novel/Met you once in a Williams play..."

Okay, you get the picture. It's that last one that I want to address. If you've ever heard the song, you understand that she meets this guy, has the hots for him, and...wow...it's MEMPHIS and those Southern nights that just blow her away and sweep her off her feet and causes her to fall for this guy.

And folks, if you've EVER read Faulkner and studied any of his characters, you just have to ask yourself what the blue blazes this woman is smoking. Faulkner's books and short stories are fantastic. His characters, on the other hand, have to be the most neurotic, psychotic, borderline personalities you will ever have the dubious pleasure of meeting. Every single time I hear this song, I ask myself which character this guy reminds her of so strongly...one of the Bundrens from As I Lay Dying? The smartest one of that bunch is poor little ol' Vardaman who utters the eternally famous phrase (and the shortest chapter in the book...), "My mother is a fish." Or maybe it's Quentin Compson from The Sound and the Fury. Poor guy is in love with his sister...yes, you read that right, his sister...and, as an honorable Southerner who is brilliant enough to get himself into Harvard (doesn't say a lot about Harvard...), he drowns himself in the Charles River at the end of his first year there. Maybe the winters didn't agree with him? How about the Sutpens from Absalom, Absalom...cold-hearted Thomas, not too bright Henry, or Charles Bon, the playboy from New Orleans? Let's not forget the various members of the Snopes Family who appear in several novels and epitomize "white trash."

Okay, so I could go on and on and on, but you get the picture. The thing is, my advice to anyone who meets a man who reminds her of a character from a Faulkner novel would be to RUN, do not walk, in the opposite direction! That advice also goes to any man who might run into a Faulkner female. They're just as loony, and often meaner than striped snakes to boot.

Ahhhh, Faulkner's South...good thing that's not where we live, huh? Or is it??!!!!

Welcome to The Literary Hillbilly

What is a literary hillbilly, you may ask? Well, I am happy to answer that question. C'est moi! I am not only a product of the great Commonwealth of Kentucky, the Bluegrass State, and the eastern mountains thereof, I am damn proud of it!

Contrary to what many may think of us, many of us do read, and some of us quite extensively. However, we often bring a bit of a different interpretation to our readings of great literature, and we can be quite colorful in putting said interpretations into words.

That is what I am about here...to bring my Appalachian mountain readings of the great works to life!