Today's poem on Penny's Poetry Blog:
The Song-sparrow in November, by Arthur Stringer

Alone, forlorn, blown down autummal hills,
Floats sweetly solemn, fond and low,
One mournful-noted song that fills
The twilight, lonely grown with snow.
[...]

https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-song-sparrow-in-november-arthur.html

#pennyspoems

On Sunday, November 12, 2023 at 8:05:17 PM UTC-5, George J. wrote:
>
> Today's poem on Penny's Poetry Blog:
> The Song-sparrow in November, by Arthur Stringer
>
> Alone, forlorn, blown down autummal hills,
> Floats sweetly solemn, fond and low,
> One mournful-noted song that fills
> The twilight, lonely grown with snow.
> [...]
>
> https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-song-sparrow-in-november-arthur.html
>
> #pennyspoems

Good find, George.

I see your post got your faithful follower NancyGene busy researching the poem, which jis a good thing.

🙂

On Monday, November 13, 2023 at 12:17:37 PM UTC-5, Will Dockery wrote:
> On Sunday, November 12, 2023 at 8:05:17 PM UTC-5, George J. wrote:
> >
> > Today's poem on Penny's Poetry Blog:
> > The Song-sparrow in November, by Arthur Stringer
> >
> > Alone, forlorn, blown down autummal hills,
> > Floats sweetly solemn, fond and low,
> > One mournful-noted song that fills
> > The twilight, lonely grown with snow.
> > [...]
> >
> > https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-song-sparrow-in-november-arthur.html
> >
> > #pennyspoems
> Good find, George.
>
> I see your post got your faithful follower NancyGene busy researching the poem, which jis a good thing.

I see you've got jis on the brain as per usual, Donkey.

Michael Pendragon
“Given the level of illiteracy you generally display, there's a real
chance you don't know what the word (narcissistic) means...”
-- Rob Evans to Will “I-Ain’t-Fat-I’m-Just-Full-Of-Myself” Dockery

George J. wrote:
>
> Today's poem on Penny's Poetry Blog:
> The Song-sparrow in November, by Arthur Stringer
>
> Alone, forlorn, blown down autummal hills,
> Floats sweetly solemn, fond and low,
> One mournful-noted song that fills
> The twilight, lonely grown with snow.
> [...]
>
> https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-song-sparrow-in-november-arthur.html
>
> #pennyspoems

Good find, George.

I see your post got your faithful follower NancyGene busy researching the poem, which is a good thing.

🙂

(Typo corrected)

George J. Dance wrote:
>
> Today's poem on Penny's Poetry Blog:
> The Song-sparrow in November, by Arthur Stringer

> Alone, forlorn, blown down autummal hills,
> Floats sweetly solemn, fond and low,
> One mournful-noted song that fills
> The twilight, lonely grown with snow.
> [...]

> https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-song-sparrow-in-november-arthur.html

> #pennyspoems

Nice pick, G.D.

George J. Dance wrote:

> Today's poem on Penny's Poetry Blog:
> The Song-sparrow in November, by Arthur Stringer

> Alone, forlorn, blown down autummal hills,
> Floats sweetly solemn, fond and low,
> One mournful-noted song that fills
> The twilight, lonely grown with snow.
> [...]

> https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-song-sparrow-in-november-arthur.html

> #pennyspoems

Commentary (for those who need it):

The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature described Stringer's poetry as "undistinguished verse."[8] However, it has also been said that in his poetry "there is maintained a standard of beauty, depth of feeling, and technical power, which in Canada have had all too little recognition."[13] At its time his blank verse drama "Sappho in Leucadia" was called "an imaginative, passionate, artistic work of surpassing quality."[13]

Stringer's chief claim to poetic fame today rests on his 1914 book, Open Water, the earliest book by a Canadian poet to use free verse – and in particular on his preface to that book, in which he "describes the modernist movement as a natural evolution."[1] Louis Dudek and Michael Gnarowski, who reprinted the Open Water preface in their anthology The Making of Modern Poetry In Canada, remarked on it:

This book must be seen as a turning point in Canadian writing if only for the importance of the ideas advanced by Stringer in his preface. In a carefully presented, extremely well-informed account of traditional verse-making, Stringer pleaded the cause of free verse and created what must now be recognized as an early document of the struggle to free Canadian poetry from the trammels of end-rhyme, and to liberalize its methods and its substance.[14]
"Stringer's arguments become even more striking from the point of view of literary history," Dudek and Gnarowski continued, "if we recall ... that the famous notes of F.S. Flint and the strictures of Ezra Pound on imagisme and free verse had appeared less than a year before this, in the March 1913 issue of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse (Chicago)."[14]

from Penny's Poetry Pages, the free poetry encyclopedia:
https://pennyspoetry.fandom.com/wiki/Arthur_Stringer?so=search#cite_note-garvin-13

George J. Dance wrote:

> Today's poem on Penny's Poetry Blog:
> The Song-sparrow in November, by Arthur Stringer

> Alone, forlorn, blown down autummal hills,
> Floats sweetly solemn, fond and low,
> One mournful-noted song that fills
> The twilight, lonely grown with snow.
> [...]

> https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-song-sparrow-in-november-arthur.html

> #pennyspoems

Commentary (for those who need it):

The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature described Stringer's poetry as "undistinguished verse."[8] However, it has also been said that in his poetry "there is maintained a standard of beauty, depth of feeling, and technical power, which in Canada have had all too little recognition."[13] At its time his blank verse drama "Sappho in Leucadia" was called "an imaginative, passionate, artistic work of surpassing quality."[13]

Stringer's chief claim to poetic fame today rests on his 1914 book, Open Water, the earliest book by a Canadian poet to use free verse – and in particular on his preface to that book, in which he "describes the modernist movement as a natural evolution."[1] Louis Dudek and Michael Gnarowski, who reprinted the Open Water preface in their anthology The Making of Modern Poetry In Canada, remarked on it:

This book must be seen as a turning point in Canadian writing if only for the importance of the ideas advanced by Stringer in his preface. In a carefully presented, extremely well-informed account of traditional verse-making, Stringer pleaded the cause of free verse and created what must now be recognized as an early document of the struggle to free Canadian poetry from the trammels of end-rhyme, and to liberalize its methods and its substance.[14]
"Stringer's arguments become even more striking from the point of view of literary history," Dudek and Gnarowski continued, "if we recall ... that the famous notes of F.S. Flint and the strictures of Ezra Pound on imagisme and free verse had appeared less than a year before this, in the March 1913 issue of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse (Chicago)."[14]

Q

On Saturday, November 18, 2023 at 4:10:23 PM UTC-5, George J. wrote:
> George J. Dance wrote:
>
> > Today's poem on Penny's Poetry Blog:
> > The Song-sparrow in November, by Arthur Stringer
>
> > Alone, forlorn, blown down autummal hills,
> > Floats sweetly solemn, fond and low,
> > One mournful-noted song that fills
> > The twilight, lonely grown with snow.
> > [...]
>
> > https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-song-sparrow-in-november-arthur.html
>
> > #pennyspoems
> Commentary (for those who need it):
>
> The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature described Stringer's poetry as "undistinguished verse."[8] However, it has also been said that in his poetry "there is maintained a standard of beauty, depth of feeling, and technical power, which in Canada have had all too little recognition."[13] At its time his blank verse drama "Sappho in Leucadia" was called "an imaginative, passionate, artistic work of surpassing quality."[13]
>
> Stringer's chief claim to poetic fame today rests on his 1914 book, Open Water, the earliest book by a Canadian poet to use free verse – and in particular on his preface to that book, in which he "describes the modernist movement as a natural evolution."[1] Louis Dudek and Michael Gnarowski, who reprinted the Open Water preface in their anthology The Making of Modern Poetry In Canada, remarked on it:
>
> This book must be seen as a turning point in Canadian writing if only for the importance of the ideas advanced by Stringer in his preface. In a carefully presented, extremely well-informed account of traditional verse-making, Stringer pleaded the cause of free verse and created what must now be recognized as an early document of the struggle to free Canadian poetry from the trammels of end-rhyme, and to liberalize its methods and its substance.[14]
> "Stringer's arguments become even more striking from the point of view of literary history," Dudek and Gnarowski continued, "if we recall ... that the famous notes of F.S. Flint and the strictures of Ezra Pound on imagisme and free verse had appeared less than a year before this, in the March 1913 issue of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse (Chicago)."[14]
> from Penny's Poetry Pages, the free poetry encyclopedia:
> https://pennyspoetry.fandom.com/wiki/Arthur_Stringer?so=search#cite_note-garvin-13

I believe you meant to write "imagism." HINT: The wavy read line that appears underneath a word usually indicates that it's been misspelled.

While the above notes may have been cobbled together, by you, from various sources, I would like to know *your* opinion of Mr. Stringer's poetry.

I'd expressed my opinion regarding Mr. Stringer's poem in NancyGene's thread, but shall repost it here, should you care to read and discuss it:

I prefer the second, though both have their share of flaws. Here's a 2023 edit that corrects several of them:

THE SONG -- SPARROW IN AUTUMN

Alone, forlorn, blown down November hills,
Floats sweetly solemn, fond and low,
A mournful-noted song that fills
The lonely twilight, white with snow.

O shower of sound that more than music seems,
O song that some vague sadness of farewell
Leaves crowned and warm with tears! Must all our dreams
Of deepest Beauty thus with Sorrow dwell?

One problem is the uneven meter. One would think that the poet would have been able to sustain the meter for a poem consisting of a meagre eight lines..

A second problem is that the poem is about 50% filler, variously describing the sparrow's song as "forlorn," "sweetly solemn," "fond and low," "mournful-noted," a "shower of sound," "more than music," fraught with "some vague sadness of farewell," about "leaves crowned and warm with tears." All this to express that the sparrow's song sounds sad.

The final question ("Must all our dreams/Of deepest Beauty thus with Sorrow dwell?") is good, if somewhat pretentiously put forward. Edgar Poe better expressed a similar thought with "I could not love except where Death/Was mingling his with Beauty's breath."

Michael Pendragon
“You don't even understand how to use deodorant, Duckery. You can't try to
tell anyone else how the world works.”
-- Orson Wells as CitizenCain to Will Dockery

On Saturday, November 18, 2023 at 4:10:23 PM UTC-5, George J. wrote:
>
> > Today's poem on Penny's Poetry Blog:
> > The Song-sparrow in November, by Arthur Stringer
>
> > Alone, forlorn, blown down autummal hills,
> > Floats sweetly solemn, fond and low,
> > One mournful-noted song that fills
> > The twilight, lonely grown with snow.
> > [...]
>
> > https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-song-sparrow-in-november-arthur.html
>
> > #pennyspoems
> Commentary (for those who need it):
>
> The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature described Stringer's poetry as "undistinguished verse."[8] However, it has also been said that in his poetry "there is maintained a standard of beauty, depth of feeling, and technical power, which in Canada have had all too little recognition."[13] At its time his blank verse drama "Sappho in Leucadia" was called "an imaginative, passionate, artistic work of surpassing quality."[13]
>
> Stringer's chief claim to poetic fame today rests on his 1914 book, Open Water, the earliest book by a Canadian poet to use free verse – and in particular on his preface to that book, in which he "describes the modernist movement as a natural evolution."[1] Louis Dudek and Michael Gnarowski, who reprinted the Open Water preface in their anthology The Making of Modern Poetry In Canada, remarked on it:
>
> This book must be seen as a turning point in Canadian writing if only for the importance of the ideas advanced by Stringer in his preface. In a carefully presented, extremely well-informed account of traditional verse-making, Stringer pleaded the cause of free verse and created what must now be recognized as an early document of the struggle to free Canadian poetry from the trammels of end-rhyme, and to liberalize its methods and its substance.[14]
> "Stringer's arguments become even more striking from the point of view of literary history," Dudek and Gnarowski continued, "if we recall ... that the famous notes of F.S. Flint and the strictures of Ezra Pound on imagisme and free verse had appeared less than a year before this, in the March 1913 issue of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse (Chicago)."[14]
> from Penny's Poetry Pages, the free poetry encyclopedia:
> https://pennyspoetry.fandom.com/wiki/Arthur_Stringer?so=search#cite_note-garvin-13

Well put, George.

On Saturday, November 18, 2023 at 4:57:02 PM UTC-5, Michael Pendragon wrote:
> On Saturday, November 18, 2023 at 4:10:23 PM UTC-5, George J. wrote:
> > George J. Dance wrote:
> >
> > > Today's poem on Penny's Poetry Blog:
> > > The Song-sparrow in November, by Arthur Stringer
> >
> > > Alone, forlorn, blown down autummal hills,
> > > Floats sweetly solemn, fond and low,
> > > One mournful-noted song that fills
> > > The twilight, lonely grown with snow.
> > > [...]
> >
> > > https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-song-sparrow-in-november-arthur.html
> >
> > > #pennyspoems
> > Commentary (for those who need it):
> >
> > The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature described Stringer's poetry as "undistinguished verse."[8] However, it has also been said that in his poetry "there is maintained a standard of beauty, depth of feeling, and technical power, which in Canada have had all too little recognition."[13] At its time his blank verse drama "Sappho in Leucadia" was called "an imaginative, passionate, artistic work of surpassing quality."[13]
> >
> > Stringer's chief claim to poetic fame today rests on his 1914 book, Open Water, the earliest book by a Canadian poet to use free verse – and in particular on his preface to that book, in which he "describes the modernist movement as a natural evolution."[1] Louis Dudek and Michael Gnarowski, who reprinted the Open Water preface in their anthology The Making of Modern Poetry In Canada, remarked on it:
> >
> > This book must be seen as a turning point in Canadian writing if only for the importance of the ideas advanced by Stringer in his preface. In a carefully presented, extremely well-informed account of traditional verse-making, Stringer pleaded the cause of free verse and created what must now be recognized as an early document of the struggle to free Canadian poetry from the trammels of end-rhyme, and to liberalize its methods and its substance.[14]
> > "Stringer's arguments become even more striking from the point of view of literary history," Dudek and Gnarowski continued, "if we recall ... that the famous notes of F.S. Flint and the strictures of Ezra Pound on imagisme and free verse had appeared less than a year before this, in the March 1913 issue of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse (Chicago)."[14]
> > from Penny's Poetry Pages, the free poetry encyclopedia:
> > https://pennyspoetry.fandom.com/wiki/Arthur_Stringer?so=search#cite_note-garvin-13
> I believe you meant to write "imagism." HINT: The wavy read line that appears underneath a word usually indicates that it's been misspelled.

Read more Ezra Pound.

"imagisme" was often used by Ezra Pound and others:

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22imagisme%22&oq=%22imagisme%22&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i10i30j0i15i30l2j0i30j0i10i15i30j0i15i30j0i5i15i30j0i5i10i15i30l2j0i30l2j0i15i30l3.10945j0j4&client=ms-android-tmus-us-rvc3&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#ip=1

> While the above notes may have been cobbled together, by you, from various sources, I would like to know *your* opinion of Mr. Stringer's poetry.
>
> I'd expressed my opinion regarding Mr. Stringer's poem in NancyGene's thread, but shall repost it here, should you care to read and discuss it:
>
> I prefer the second, though both have their share of flaws. Here's a 2023 edit that corrects several of them:
>
>
> THE SONG -- SPARROW IN AUTUMN
>
> Alone, forlorn, blown down November hills,
> Floats sweetly solemn, fond and low,
> A mournful-noted song that fills
> The lonely twilight, white with snow.
>
> O shower of sound that more than music seems,
> O song that some vague sadness of farewell
> Leaves crowned and warm with tears! Must all our dreams
> Of deepest Beauty thus with Sorrow dwell?
>
> One problem is the uneven meter. One would think that the poet would have been able to sustain the meter for a poem consisting of a meagre eight lines.
>
> A second problem is that the poem is about 50% filler, variously describing the sparrow's song as "forlorn," "sweetly solemn," "fond and low," "mournful-noted," a "shower of sound," "more than music," fraught with "some vague sadness of farewell," about "leaves crowned and warm with tears." All this to express that the sparrow's song sounds sad.
>
> The final question ("Must all our dreams/Of deepest Beauty thus with Sorrow dwell?") is good, if somewhat pretentiously put forward. Edgar Poe better expressed a similar thought with "I could not love except where Death/Was mingling his with Beauty's breath."
>
>
> Michael Pendragon

....

On Monday, November 13, 2023 at 2:50:42 PM UTC-5, General-Zod wrote:
> George J. Dance wrote:
> >
> > Today's poem on Penny's Poetry Blog:
> > The Song-sparrow in November, by Arthur Stringer
>
> > Alone, forlorn, blown down autummal hills,
> > Floats sweetly solemn, fond and low,
> > One mournful-noted song that fills
> > The twilight, lonely grown with snow.
> > [...]
>
> > https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-song-sparrow-in-november-arthur.html
>
> > #pennyspoems
> Nice pick, G.D.

Agreed.

On Saturday, November 18, 2023 at 4:57:02 PM UTC-5, Michael Monkey aka "Michael Pendragon" wrote:
> On Saturday, November 18, 2023 at 4:10:23 PM UTC-5, George J. wrote:
> > George J. Dance wrote:
> >
> > > Today's poem on Penny's Poetry Blog:
> > > The Song-sparrow in November, by Arthur Stringer
> >
> > > Alone, forlorn, blown down autummal hills,
> > > Floats sweetly solemn, fond and low,
> > > One mournful-noted song that fills
> > > The twilight, lonely grown with snow.
> > > [...]
> >
> > > https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-song-sparrow-in-november-arthur.html
> >
> > > #pennyspoems
> > Commentary (for those who need it):
> >
> > The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature described Stringer's poetry as "undistinguished verse."[8] However, it has also been said that in his poetry "there is maintained a standard of beauty, depth of feeling, and technical power, which in Canada have had all too little recognition."[13] At its time his blank verse drama "Sappho in Leucadia" was called "an imaginative, passionate, artistic work of surpassing quality."[13]
> >
> > Stringer's chief claim to poetic fame today rests on his 1914 book, Open Water, the earliest book by a Canadian poet to use free verse – and in particular on his preface to that book, in which he "describes the modernist movement as a natural evolution."[1] Louis Dudek and Michael Gnarowski, who reprinted the Open Water preface in their anthology The Making of Modern Poetry In Canada, remarked on it:
> >
> > This book must be seen as a turning point in Canadian writing if only for the importance of the ideas advanced by Stringer in his preface. In a carefully presented, extremely well-informed account of traditional verse-making, Stringer pleaded the cause of free verse and created what must now be recognized as an early document of the struggle to free Canadian poetry from the trammels of end-rhyme, and to liberalize its methods and its substance.[14]
> > "Stringer's arguments become even more striking from the point of view of literary history," Dudek and Gnarowski continued, "if we recall ... that the famous notes of F.S. Flint and the strictures of Ezra Pound on imagisme and free verse had appeared less than a year before this, in the March 1913 issue of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse (Chicago)."[14]
> > from Penny's Poetry Pages, the free poetry encyclopedia:
> > https://pennyspoetry.fandom.com/wiki/Arthur_Stringer?so=search#cite_note-garvin-13
> I believe you meant to write "imagism."

As usual, you were wrong, Michael; both about who wrote "imagisme" and about what they meant to write.

> HINT: The wavy read line that appears underneath a word usually indicates that it's been misspelled.

BTW, Michael, the color is spelled "red" -- don't expect the "wavy read line" to substitute for learning to spell.
>
> While the above notes may have been cobbled together, by you, from various sources, I would like to know *your* opinion of Mr. Stringer's poetry.

It's interesting that you'd seek out opinions on a poem from people you think are mentally retarded (as you claim I am) and haven't read it. At least that explains your choice of online friends; but one does have to ask:
WTF is wrong with you, MIchael Monkey?

>
> I'd expressed my opinion regarding Mr. Stringer's poem in NancyGene's thread, but shall repost it here, should you care to read and discuss it:

No, thank you.

snip

On Sunday, November 19, 2023 at 1:55:15 PM UTC-5, George J. wrote:
> On Saturday, November 18, 2023 at 4:57:02 PM UTC-5, Michael Monkey aka "Michael Pendragon" wrote:
> > On Saturday, November 18, 2023 at 4:10:23 PM UTC-5, George J. wrote:
> > > George J. Dance wrote:
> > >
> > > > Today's poem on Penny's Poetry Blog:
> > > > The Song-sparrow in November, by Arthur Stringer
> > >
> > > > Alone, forlorn, blown down autummal hills,
> > > > Floats sweetly solemn, fond and low,
> > > > One mournful-noted song that fills
> > > > The twilight, lonely grown with snow.
> > > > [...]
> > >
> > > > https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-song-sparrow-in-november-arthur.html
> > >
> > > > #pennyspoems
> > > Commentary (for those who need it):
> > >
> > > The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature described Stringer's poetry as "undistinguished verse."[8] However, it has also been said that in his poetry "there is maintained a standard of beauty, depth of feeling, and technical power, which in Canada have had all too little recognition."[13] At its time his blank verse drama "Sappho in Leucadia" was called "an imaginative, passionate, artistic work of surpassing quality."[13]
> > >
> > > Stringer's chief claim to poetic fame today rests on his 1914 book, Open Water, the earliest book by a Canadian poet to use free verse – and in particular on his preface to that book, in which he "describes the modernist movement as a natural evolution."[1] Louis Dudek and Michael Gnarowski, who reprinted the Open Water preface in their anthology The Making of Modern Poetry In Canada, remarked on it:
> > >
> > > This book must be seen as a turning point in Canadian writing if only for the importance of the ideas advanced by Stringer in his preface. In a carefully presented, extremely well-informed account of traditional verse-making, Stringer pleaded the cause of free verse and created what must now be recognized as an early document of the struggle to free Canadian poetry from the trammels of end-rhyme, and to liberalize its methods and its substance.[14]
> > > "Stringer's arguments become even more striking from the point of view of literary history," Dudek and Gnarowski continued, "if we recall ... that the famous notes of F.S. Flint and the strictures of Ezra Pound on imagisme and free verse had appeared less than a year before this, in the March 1913 issue of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse (Chicago)."[14]
> > > from Penny's Poetry Pages, the free poetry encyclopedia:
> > > https://pennyspoetry.fandom.com/wiki/Arthur_Stringer?so=search#cite_note-garvin-13
> > I believe you meant to write "imagism."
> As usual, you were wrong, Michael; both about who wrote "imagisme" and about what they meant to write.
> > HINT: The wavy read line that appears underneath a word usually indicates that it's been misspelled.
> BTW, Michael, the color is spelled "red" -- don't expect the "wavy read line" to substitute for learning to spell.
> >
> > While the above notes may have been cobbled together, by you, from various sources, I would like to know *your* opinion of Mr. Stringer's poetry.
> It's interesting that you'd seek out opinions on a poem from people you think are mentally retarded (as you claim I am) and haven't read it. At least that explains your choice of online friends; but one does have to ask:
> WTF is wrong with you, MIchael Monkey?
> >
> > I'd expressed my opinion regarding Mr. Stringer's poem in NancyGene's thread, but shall repost it here, should you care to read and discuss it:
> No, thank you.
>
> snip

Penhead is headed for full tilt meltdown phase... danger... danger.. ha ha.