Comments on: The Force that Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower

By: Kevin Runnels

Kevin Runnels — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 16:17:13 +0000

Communication is so dependent upon so many things like culture and context; we can barely understand each other. In poetry, when you can step into the mind of someone else and “see” what they are expressing and understand how they are communicating and “think” in a way that you have not thought before, it can take your breath away.

By: John R Ramsden

John R Ramsden — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 10:48:04 +0000

It’s been said that science strives to express subtleties simply, and poetry commonplaces elaborately.

But this seems to be in a third category, where a concept (life) elusive in both science and poetry is expressed allusively.

By: Chris Winter

Chris Winter — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 00:53:27 +0000

A magnificent poem and, as others have said, one with layers to it. I only ever saw the first verse before; but that really resonated with me.

“Nuestras vidas son los ríos, que van a dar en el mar,
que es el morir.”

“Did ya ever stand and shiver
Just because you were lookin’ at a river?”
– Ramblin’ Jack Elliot

By: Joel Grant

Joel Grant — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 23:31:55 +0000

@Morbius – This is actually one of his more comprehensible poems. One of his poems has an image of a fetus tracking the passage of time by painting night and day on the lining of the womb.

In this poem he is just pointing out that time (one of Sean’s areas of study) affects everyone and everything. The flower’s life force is like the poet’s life force; that which causes streams to dry up cause the poet to age and die. And so on.

The idea that the first spark of life (conception) marks the first move towards death was one of his recurring themes.

But he really was obsessed with words and carefully chose the most intense ways of expressing his thoughts. That he is difficult is obvious, but when it comes to random-sounding words, this poem is a piker compared to many of his others. His “Collected Poems” number only about 91 or so, you could read them all in a couple of hours, but spend a very long time trying to wrestle them to ground.

By: Dr. Morbius

Dr. Morbius — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:15:31 +0000

I’ve read this twice now and still have no clue what he’s talking about. Sections of It almost sound like random words stuck together. I’ve read “Do not go gentle into that good night” and it’s brilliant but this … not so much.

By: Al Cibiades

Al Cibiades — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 18:15:39 +0000

Terris: So sad that you cannot see the power and beauty and vision there revealed…

By: Terris Linenbach

Terris Linenbach — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 16:51:22 +0000

Most poetry consists of pretty words that say nothing important. This is no exception.

By: Tevin

Tevin — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:54:41 +0000

I read this poem in high school and it drove me insane. I was convinced then that all poems had one meaning and that everything could be interpreted and figured out. I asked my English teacher, first, what she thought it ‘meant’ and when her take on the poem was not definitive I asked my other favorite teachers what they thought and … suffice to say, nobody gave me the answer I wanted.

I think this is the first piece of art I ever truly wrestled with. Predictably, my interpretation and reading changes as I change; I guess now I’ll have to think about it in the light of thermodynamics!

Thank you so much for sharing this, it really brought back some great memories.

By: hollister uk

hollister uk — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 12:54:27 +0000

The truth is, there is no better time than right now.

By: The force that through the green fuse drives the flower « In the Dark

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower « In the Dark — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 06:50:20 +0000

[...] P.S. This has been among my list of poems to post for some time now, and only today I find that cosmic variance have beaten me to it! [...]