farewell...

it's been fun!
wish the class was tuesday/thursday, but what can you do.
good discussion.
good times.

WOODY!

NO! Not that guy!!! Although that would make for a good Woody Guthrie music video, no? Actually no....

Let me start off by saying that this is exactly the type of music I picture Walt listening to as he is loafing away in the some green pasture.

Music and poetry are very similar.  Lyrics to music are just poems put to a tune.  I remember reading an interview, and I can't what artist said it, but they said they liked to write poetry and decided to give a shot at writing lyrics for a band.  So really they are one in the same.

If you look at Woody's lyrics, without listening to the song it could be considered free verse just like Walt!  But I read through the two songs and I was a little bored.  The lyrics are very simple by themselves.  Put it to a tune though, and the words definitely pop.  Take the line "and your deserts were hot and your mountains were cold" for example, the mix of the harmonica and banjo allow those words to have more of a meaning that just hot and cold weather.  Also's Woody's voice gives the line a certain melody that emphasizes certain words and syllables that also gives more meaning.  In this case, probably just for the melody and tune, he elongates the word cold as the tune goes along.  This emphasizes the hardship the individual went through to travel.

"This Land is Your Land" reminds me of the Preface to LEAVES OF GRASS.  As an artist, Woody could be considered a poet and in the Preface, Walt says, "The American poets are to enclose old and new for America is the race of races.  Of them a bard is to be commensurate with a people.  To him the other continents arrive as contributions...he gives them reception for their sake and his own sake.  His spirit responds to his country's spirit...he incarnates its geography and natural life and rivers and lakes."  He might be talking about the poets, but I as I've said, poets and singers/lyricists are one in the same.

Ok just a little note...

I waaaaaaas going to do the Coen bros post and The Big Lebowski is definitely a favorite, but for some reason I went for Woody.  Sooooooo, I end my post with some wise words from THE DUDE!

Hey there, Allen!

There are many similarities between Allen and Walt.  Rightly so since I read that Allen wanted to be the poet to continue Walt's voice.  First off, the very obvious similarity would be that they both use the free verse form.  Allen's use of free verse seems more like paragraph prose though.  In Part I, the listing of the types of individuals in which he starts with who, are so descriptive and long.  Speaking of the "who", the individuals Allen speaks of, reminds me of Song for Occupations in which Walt lists all the types of jobs he is familiar with.  Not only are both these poets using this form of free verse, but they love lists.  They are listing people/jobs that they are familiar with.  If you really think about it, these are the jobs and people of America.  These are the real people, not just images of what America could be or should, but I think their image of the America person is a reality and shows a vulnerability, especially Allen's description.

Now I'm not sure if this is a similarity or difference, especially because of all the changes Walt made through his different editions of Leaves of Grass.  The way that both poets are trying to get their message across, the words they use, the things they describe are not censored, especially Allen.  The only reason I would think there is a difference is because Walt took multiple lines about people of color out from Song of Occupations as the editions of Leaves of Grass was published.  It doesn't seem like Allen did this, but I haven't researched that.  However, he does not feel the need to censor himself.  Instead he lets it all hang out.  He says, "who let themselves be fucked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists" and "...a vision of ultimate cunt and come eluding the last gyzym of consciousness" and "with dreams, with drugs, with waking nightmares, and alcohol and cock and endless balls."  Speak on Allen! Say what you gotta say!  He definitely could have used less explicit words, but fuck it, those are the words that he needed to use to get his point across.  Yes, they both wrote in COMPLETELY different times, but then tell me why Walt removed those parts about colored people.  I think he was censoring himself.