Tuesday becomes Movie Day

Poetry with Blues får nya sommarrubriker. Under fem tisdagar blir det dikter som förekommer i olika filmer.

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The Song of the Hiawatha, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807-1882.

(Förekommer i "Spider-Man 2", 2004. Regi: Sam Raimi. Peter Parker's citat i fet stil.)

Listless, careless Shawondasee! 
In his life he had one shadow, 
In his heart one sorrow had he. 
Once, as he was gazing northward, 
Far away upon a prairie 
He beheld a maiden standing, 
Saw a tall and slender maiden 
All alone upon a prairie; 
Brightest green were all her garments, 
And her hair was like the sunshine. 

Day by day he gazed upon her,
Day by day he sighed with passion, 
Day by day his heart within him 
Grew more hot with love and longing 
For the maid with yellow tresses. 
But he was too fat and lazy 
To bestir himself and woo her. 
Yes, too indolent and easy 
To pursue her and persuade her; 
So he only gazed upon her, 
Only sat and sighed with passion 
For the maiden of the prairie. 

Till one morning, looking northward, 
He beheld her yellow tresses 
Changed and covered o'er with whiteness, 
Covered as with whitest snow-flakes. 
"Ah! my brother from the North-land, 
From the kingdom of Wabasso, 
From the land of the White Rabbit! 
You have stolen the maiden from me, 
You have laid your hand upon her, 
You have wooed and won my maiden,
...

***

From Out of the cradle, endlessly rocking, by Walt Whitman, 1819-1892.

(Förekommer i L.I.E. från 2001. Regi: Michael Cuesta.)

Demon or bird! (said the boy’s soul,)
Is it indeed toward your mate you sing? or is it really to me?
For I, that was a child, my tongue’s use sleeping, now I 
   have heard you,
Now in a moment I know what I am for, I awake,
And already a thousand singers, a thousand songs, clearer,
   louder and more sorrowful than yours,
A thousand warbling echoes have started to life within me,
   never to die. 
O you singer solitary, singing by yourself, projecting me, 
O solitary me listening, never more shall I cease
   perpetuating you,
Never more shall I escape, never more the reverberations, 
Never more the cries of unsatisfied love be absent from me, 
Never again leave me to be the peaceful child I was before
   what there in the night,
By the sea under the yellow and sagging moon, 
The messenger there arous’d, the fire, the sweet hell within,
The unknown want, the destiny of me.

***

The Lake Isle of Innisfree, by William Butler Yeats, 1865-1939.

(Förekommer i Million Dollar Baby, 2004. Regi: Clint Eastwood.)

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.