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« Oh Captain My Captain (?) | Main | Now It's Official »
January 25, 2005

A Poem About Nothing [Ace]

Over at The New Vintage, Jessica has posted Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night."

Which, I have to say, I never really liked.

But it reminds me of a poem I like very much. I don't think this has anything like the message of Dylan's poem, and it's a bit of downer; maybe that's why I like it more.

Anyway...

Acquainted With The Night

by Robert Frost.

I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain - and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.
I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
O luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.

Just to Prove I'm All Man Update: Here are the first few paragraphs of Mickey Spillane's One Lonely Night, hitting similar notes as the poem.

You gonna call Mickey Spillane a homo?

You gonna say that to Mike Hammer's face?


NOBODY ever walked across the bridge, not on a night like this. The rain was misty enough to be almost fog-like, a cold gray curtain that separated me from the pale ovals of white that were faces locked behind the steamed-up windows of the cars that hissed by. Even the brilliance that was Manhatten by night was reduced to a few sleepy, yellow lights off in the distance.

Some place over there I had left my car and started walking, burying my head in the collar of my raincoat, with the night pulled in around me like a blanket. I walked and I smoked and I flipped the spent butts ahead of me and watched them arch to the pavement and fizzle out with one last wink. If there was life behind the windows of the buildings on either side of me, I didn't notice it. The street was mine, all mine. They gave it to me gladly and wondered why I wanted it so nice and all alone.

There were others like me, sharing the dark and the solitude, but they were huddled in the recessions of the doorways not wanting to share the wet and the cold. I could feel their eyes follow me briefly before they turned inward to their thoughts again.

So I followed the hard concrete footpaths of the city through the towering canyons of the buildings and never noticed when the sheer cliffs of brick and masonry diminished and disappeared altogether, and the footpath led into a ramp then on to the spidery steel skeleton that was the bridge linking two states.

I climbed to the hump in the middle and stood there leaning on the handrail with a butt in my fingers, watching the red and green lights of the boats in the river below. They winked at me and called in low, throaty notes before disappearing into the night.

Like eyes and faces. And voices.

I buried my face in my hands until everything straightened itself out again, wondering what the judge would say if he could see me now. Maybe he'd laugh because I was supposed to be so damn tough, and here I was with hands that wouldn't stand still and an empty feeling inside my chest.

From A pretty cool Mike Hammer site, that had just the opening quote I was looking for.

posted by Ace at 01:08 AM
Comments



Dude, are you turning fag on us?

Posted by: Allah on January 25, 2005 01:14 AM

dude your not even at sundance and your already gaying it up

Posted by: amish on January 25, 2005 01:15 AM

You guys are silly. That poem's metal, man.

I could see if I put up a poem about daffodils and unicorns. But this is about walking around at night with a guilty conscience.

You know the sort of guys who'd call that poem gay? The sort of guys who make a big deal about standing all the way down at the farthest urinal but then can't help sneaking a peak.

Posted by: ace on January 25, 2005 01:18 AM

If you remove the poem Allah and me will pretend it never happened. You need to do somethin manly fast.you need to go buy some hookers and wrestle a bear or something. or try to pull a bus with you penis like these guys:

http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=315

Posted by: amish on January 25, 2005 01:21 AM

Philistines!

Posted by: ace on January 25, 2005 01:24 AM

You guys are silly. That poem's metal, man.

http://www01.vaio.ne.jp/tomosang/i/jpeg3/rock1/rob.jpg


yes very metal

Posted by: screaming for amish on January 25, 2005 01:32 AM

hahahahaha...

touche

Posted by: ace on January 25, 2005 01:33 AM
The sort of guys who make a big deal about standing all the way down at the farthest urinal but then can't help sneaking a peak.

Dude, all I'm peeking at is you standing there at the urinal, your nose buried in a copy of "The Collected Works of Robert Frost," sobbing like a bitch.

Posted by: Allah on January 25, 2005 01:34 AM

im sure you guys have already seen this but what the hell -ace may need a reminder.

http://maddox.xmission.com/c.cgi?u=real_men

Everytime you think about posting some poetry-think to yourself-what would Gregory Peck do?

Posted by: amish .xmission on January 25, 2005 01:38 AM

Part of the problem is that ace is distancing himself from the original poem, which isn't by Dylan--the nasal, almost unbearbly unlistenable poet of a spoiled and ridiculous generation (they produced Babs "Weepy" Boxer, after all)--but Dylan Thomas, the Welsh poet who was such a manly two-fisted drinker that he drank himself to death in NYC in 1953 at the age of 39.

Bob Dylan (nee, Zimmerman) has not had the good grace to bow out at an early age.

Posted by: Sean M. on January 25, 2005 01:38 AM

no-the problem is Ace posted a poem that looked like it had to do with something about feelings

we are men. Men dont have feelings. Unless you count pain. Physical pain...none of that girlie emotional kind.

Posted by: frankenamish on January 25, 2005 01:42 AM

Yeah, I hate to interrupt this pajama party just before you ladies change into your nighties and start the pillow fight, but I have a very important announcement:

CHRIS MATTHEWS IS AT SUNDANCE!!

That's right, Ace, you could actually meet the Sultan of Spit himself. Please please please bring me an autograph - I promise I'll be good, and I won't break the blog while you're gone.

Posted by: John from WuzzaDem on January 25, 2005 01:59 AM

Five words:

Chris Matthews.

Like a Viking.

Posted by: ace on January 25, 2005 02:18 AM

Amish and Allah,

As Ignatius J. Reilly would say, "You need to get some theology and geometry in your lives."

Don't try to out-hetero me. I'm so straight I stab a fork into my thigh whenever I see Charlton Heston's ass in Planet of the Apes, just so I'll associate Heston-ass with pain.

Posted by: ace on January 25, 2005 02:21 AM

Whenever I hear one of these macho contests I'm reminded of a line from Strangers With Candy: "having a girlfriend is so gay!"

Posted by: Yaron on January 25, 2005 02:42 AM

Yaron,

The Strangers With Candy feature film is premiering at Sundance on Saturday, and I will, I think, have cadged full all-access credentials by then.

I. Am. So. There.

NOW BOW!!!

Posted by: ace on January 25, 2005 02:44 AM

Hooray for One Lonely Night (the book, that is)! And for anyone who isn't completely fond of commies, permit me to recommend this little treasure from that book.

Posted by: Guy T. on January 25, 2005 07:53 AM

Crow: Well, my, my monster is silent as tomorrow. He kills in the night. He has been acquainted with the night.

Joel: Sounds like your monster reads Frost, too.

Crow: Oh, yeah, and he sprays it like icy death from his bloody stumps!

Tom: Oh, right. Well, mine is called Gorblat and he was spawned from the giant mutant hellbeast, and comes to Earth every so often to kill. He must drink the blood of the innocent to live! Ha ha ha!

Joel: Every so often?

Tom: Uh, yeah, you know, whenever he needs to.

(From mst3kinfo dot com.)

Posted by: jamie r. on January 25, 2005 09:51 AM

You need to watch Rodney"I'd like to tame YOUR shrew" Dangerfield in Back to School to get the appropriate feeling for the Dylan Thomas poem. Then think about him being dead. A little too much f*cking perspective as the Spinal Tappers might say.

Posted by: skinbad on January 25, 2005 11:07 AM

Ummm... Hammer may not have been the ideal choice to support your Viking-like qualities, Ace. It's worth noting that as a general rule, when women offer themselves to Mike....

He shoots them. "It was easy."

Meanwhile, Velma, (the "good girl" who clearly wants to schtup Hammer) keeps getting shunted off -- ostensibly because Mike wants to wait until they're married, but come on...

Now really, this may have more to do with the pre-feminist mores of the late 40s and early 50s, or with Mr. Spillane's strongly held religious beliefs, but compared to other paperback PIs of the period (such as Richard Prather's hilarious Shell Scott), Mr. Hammer seems to be doing less slicing than his name would imply.

Posted by: WarrenM on January 25, 2005 12:10 PM

I think Allah and Amish are on to something here with Ace and his Robert Frost fetish. Don't you see? Ace is taking the road less travelled.

That road? The Hershey Highway.

And it has made all the difference.

Posted by: senator philabuster on January 25, 2005 12:28 PM

You're all a bunch of sick filth.

That's why I'm here.

Posted by: lauraw on January 25, 2005 12:35 PM

Coincidently, someone read the same Frost poem at a New Year's party i attended (from memory). It was a real "upper" but i like the poem anyway. (Another thing, personal pet peeve when people quote "road less traveled" out of context (any context) he never said the road less traveled is more arduous.

Posted by: Petitedov on January 25, 2005 11:51 PM
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