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Post by tannis on Mar 24, 2009 19:27:26 GMT
Gone to Earth (Powell & Pressburger, 1950) and Hounds of Love (Bush, 1985)Kate Bush - Hounds Of Love - A Classic Album Under Review pt. 4/10 www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSCwnSQLVeQ 6:18-7:44...
"The track itself seems to be heavily influenced by the Michael Powell film, Gone to Earth (1950), a story of a young gypsy girl whose only real companion is this fox cub..."I found a fox Caught by dogs. He let me take him in my hands. His little heart, It beats so fast, And I'm ashamed of running away "They're after us, Foxy..."Superstitious gypsy lives with nature & fox in harmony. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger's weird & wonderful film of a young Shopshire superstitious gypsy Hazel Woods (Jennifer Jones) who is at ease with nature & lives with her pet fox (foxy) & her Father away from the local community, full of Celtic symbolism & myth. This is how she lives until the Minister (Cyril Cusack) comes calling & eventually marry where upon she pursued by the local fox hunting squire Jack Reddin (David Farrer) & try's to resolve her problem by her Mother's book of spells & end's up with the squire only to see the error of her way's & desperately tries to get back to the pastor with her fox in tow, only for a twist of fate to intervene mixed with irony. Nice photography & shot in Technicolour & a haunting music score. Jennifer Jones regional accent enhances her beauty & charm to this film.
Powell and Pressburger's potboiler 'Gone to Earth', in its original form (not as revised and reordered under the helm of Reuben Mamoulian), is a powerful realisation in shimmering Technicolor of both Mary Webb's novel and the savage pull of the forces of nature. Hazel (Jennifer Jones, imported from Hollywood, as you would expect from Selznick's involvement in this film), is an innocent, an animal lover with a head full of fantasy, fairies, and spells. Her father (played beautifully by Esmond Knight), plays the harp while she sings in strange, ethereal tones. Enter the sacred and the profane in the forms of Cyril Cusack as the minister (understated as ever), and David Farrar as the lusty Squire (in his third appearance in P&P films, and in some ways the character is a close cousin to Black Narcissus's Mr Dean). Hazel is desired by them both, but in very different ways, and her naiveté and innocence may well prove to be her undoing. Against the backdrop of country fairs, fox hunts, flowers trodden into the mud, fairgrounds, parish councils, and disapproving parents (Sybil Thorndike, memorable as the parson's mother), this film proves to be a gem. There's a couple of nice roles for Hugh Griffith and George Cole as well. And Jones, despite a sometimes dodgy accent, always seemed to look half her age and inhabits the Shropshire hills perfectly as the ill-fated Hazel, in close company with her pet fox. In many ways. 'Gone to Earth' is as much a potboiler as any Catherine Cookson, but it has enough to keep you watching. www.imdb.com/title/tt0042513/usercomments
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Post by tannis on Apr 12, 2009 20:27:35 GMT
Kate Bush in Hounds Of Love (Gone To Earth)www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KF0FK1JaHUVideo based on the 1950 movie "Gone To Earth" starring Jennifer Jones. It is widely believed that this film, along with "Night Of The Demon", were inspirational to the Kate Bush song "The Hounds Of Love".
Jennifer Jones plays Hazel Woods, a beautiful young English Gypsy girl, who loves animals and in particular her pet fox. She is hotly desired by Jack Reddin (David Farrar), a fox-hunting squire who vies for her affection and pursues her even after her marriage to the local pastor, Edward; suffice to say it doesn't end well for Hazel.
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Post by tannis on Apr 20, 2009 17:27:36 GMT
HOUNDS OF LOVE and HOUND DOGSHound Dogs are bred to chase (or hound) a quarry by sight or smell, or a combination of both these senses. The term 'hound dog' might also describe a macho man whipping up a storm with the ladies. In black slang, a hound dog was a man who has outlived his sexual powers, and Big Mama Thornton's singer shooes him away with a dismissive double entendre: "You can wag your tail, but I ain't gone feed you no more." Big Mama Thornton ft. Buddy Guy - Hound Dogwww.youtube.com/watch?v=5XUAg1_A7IEElvis's hound dog has been released from its meaning in black slang: gone is his phallic tail. It's hard to tell whether Elvis's hound dog is a literal dog that won't hunt - "you never caught a rabbit" - or a metaphoric one, perhaps a woman, who claims to be "high class" but can't perform some simple function - something that TV host and rock-and-roll detractor Steve Allen grasped when he put Elvis on his variety show in tails and made him sing "Hound Dog" to a live basset hound with improbably pendulous ears propped on a pedestal. And it's very possible that Elvis didn't understand the words either.Elvis Presley Steve Allen Show Jul 1956: I Want & Hound Dogwww.youtube.com/watch?v=xypX3lsF2nEPopular Culture: Production and Consumption, C. Lee Harrington, Denise D. Bielby, 2001, p.162.
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Post by tannis on Apr 20, 2009 18:27:09 GMT
HOUNDS OF LOVE and HELLHOUNDSY.B.: Often you do not hesitate in crossing the limits of hysteria. "Running Up That Hill", and even more, "Hounds of Love", are two good examples. K.B.: In "Hounds of Love" there's an energy of despair, yes. It's about someone terrified, who is searching for a way to escape something. My voice, and the entire production, are directed towards the expression of that terror. Guitares et Claviers, "Englishwoman Is Crossing The Continents", Yves Bigot, February 1986www.gaffaweb.org/reaching/i86_gec.htmlHounds of Love is placed within the context of a horror film, Night Of The Demon, strongly suggesting that KaTe's hounds rise up from hell, or from the dark side of human personality, to tear innocence asunder.
Dogs have always been associated with the Underworld, the Moon and the deities, especially goddesses of death and divination. Dogs symbolise the dark side or forces of the human personality, which can rear its head from time to time in life. Since these forces are an integral part of the personality, there is no way we can completely eradicate them. They can, however, be kept under conscious control. Take great care if you want to call upon any of them in your magickal work as many of them are very dangerous!!
Spectral or death hounds, alone or in packs, are a common creature of the north European mythological landscape. The packs are part of a spectral hunt. Aka: Black Dog, Black Angus, Gwyllgi, Spectral dog, Dog of Darkness, Hellhound (from the Norse goddess Hel).
A hellhound is a dog of Hell, found in mythology, folklore and fiction. Hellhounds typically have features such as an unnaturally large size, a black fur color, glowing red eyes, super strength or speed, ghostly or phantom characteristics, and sometimes even the ability to talk. Hellhounds are often associated with fire, and may have fire-based abilities and appearances. They are often assigned to guard the entrance to the world of the dead or undertake other duties related to the afterlife or the supernatural, such as hunting down lost souls or guarding a supernatural treasure. As legend goes, if one happened to see the hellhound three times, he or she will die an abrupt and unseen death. The most famous hellhound is probably Cerberus, the hound of Hades from Greek mythology. Hellhounds are also famous for appearing in Celtic mythology as part of the Wild Hunt. These hounds are given several different names in local folklore, but they display typical hellhound characteristics. The myth is common across Great Britain, and many names are given to the apparitions: Black Shuck of East Anglia (which has its roots in the Norse mythology rather than that of the Celts), Moddey Dhoo of the Isle of Man, Gwyllgi of Wales, and so on. See Barghest. The earliest mention of these myths are in both Walter Map's De Nugis Curialium (1190) and the Welsh myth cycle of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi (ca. 10th-13th century). In Southern Mexican and Central American folklore, the Cadejo is a big black dog that haunts naughty young men who walk late at night on rural roads. The term is also common in American blues music, such as in Robert Johnson's "Hellhound on my Trail".
Robert Johnson - Hellhound On My Trail www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC4M4eQlz5I
Hellhounds are a common monstrous creature in fantasy fiction and horror fiction, though they sometimes appear in other genres such as detective novels, or other uses: ~ In Canto XIII of Inferno (Dante), the damned are chased through Hell by ferocious dogs through thorny undergrowth. ~ In Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, a dog savagely bites Cathy, and Heathcliff's dogs seem as haunted and possessed as their owner: "The herd of possessed swine could have had no worse spirits in them than those animals of yours, sir. You might as well leave a stranger with a brood of tigers!" ~ Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles: Conan Doyle first heard of Dartmoor's "hounds of hell" in March 1901 while on a golfing holiday in Norfolk with his friend, the young journalist Bertram Fletcher Robinson. Fletcher Robinson told the tale of Richard Cabell, a 17th-century squire who'd suspected his wife of infidelity and attacked her in a jealous rage. When she fled across the moor with her faithful hound, Cabell gave chase and eventually killed her. Still by its mistress' side, the hound then turned on him and ripped out his throat before dying itself of the squire's knife wounds. The dog was said to haunt each new generation of the family. ~ The Hound of Death and Other Stories is a collection of twelve short stories by Agatha Christie first published in the United Kingdom in October 1933. ~ Hellhounds appear numerous times in The Omen.
The Black Dog: This supernatural creature is almost always considered to be a dangerous omen, but in rare instances has been helpful to those who see it. Descriptions of the Black dog are often vague, basically because of the deep and lasting fear which it engenders. This ghostly creature's appearance also fills the viewer with a chilly despair and despondency, followed by a decline in vitality. Some say the Black dog is shaggy and the size of a calf, while others say it is no larger than a Labrador dog. All viewers seem to agree that it has huge fiery eyes and makes absolutely no sound. The frightening apparition does not generally attack or chase anyone. It just follows and projects its aura of deadly fear, which is enough to cause some viewers to become very ill afterwards. Not advised to be called for magickal work except for divine justice on those who have escaped punishment.
Cerberus: The great Underworld hound Cerberus (Spirit of the Pit) guarded the entrance to the Greek afterlife, the realm of Hecate, Persephone and Hades. It was a monstrous dog with three mastiff heads, sometimes with the tail of a serpent or a dragon. For the souls of the dead to enter the Underworld, they had to present Cerberus with gifts of honey and barley cakes. It was the job of Cerberus to keep out living humans who may try to rescue their loved ones from the Underworld. He could be used to help contact specific departed souls for information and help.
The Heaven Dog: The 'Heaven Dog' of China is called T'ien Kou [tea-en go]. He is said to be both benevolent and terrible. This celestial dog was said to have descended from the skies and was a terrifying creature. He liked to feed on newborn children and was an omen of destruction and disaster. T'ien Kou could be called upon for protection and exorcism of evil spirits and to help with fidelity.
Hounds of the Wild Hunt: The Wild Hunt or Ride of Death appears in many forms throughout Europe . The Hunt is accompanied by a pack of supernatural hounds. The French had their Grand Huntsmen, the Irish their Hell hounds, the British Celts their Dogs of Annwn or the Underworld. The Hounds of the Wild Hunt were given many names: The Gabriel Hounds, Yeth hounds, the Devil's Dandy Dogs, the Gabriel Ratchets, Whistlers, The Dartmoor Pack or the Wisht Hounds. They are known as the death omen hounds, although they did not cause destruction or chase humans to death. It was said that when they were near they sounded like small dogs but from a distance their cry was deep and, hollow and wild, like the bay of bloodhounds. The hounds were also known as the Hounds of the Hill stemming from the belief that Faeries lived in hollow hills. It is said that because the Christians could not get people to stop believing in these supernatural creatures they changed the name to Hell (Hel's) Hounds and said they hunted down the souls of sinners. Stories say that these Hell Hounds, with their fiery eyes, terrible fangs and savage yelps, would follow the scent of a sinner and never give up until they dragged him or her into the Christian Hell! A few legends tell of a person who has fought against the Wild Hunt, hounds and followers, managing to slay some of them, and holding them at bay until first light. When morning came, there was no sign of bodies, and the Wild Hunt reappeared somewhere else the next night. Although not recommended if called upon for magickal purposes the Hounds can help hunt down those who break spiritual laws. Seeing or hearing the Hounds of the Hunt are an omen of death or misfortune.
Irish Moon Dogs: The Old Irish folk tales said that the gates which lead to Emania, the Moon-land, were guarded by two dogs. For this reason mourners were told not to cry too loudly, otherwise the guardian dogs became disturbed and might attack the soul approaching the gate. One of the dogs was named Dormarth (Death's Door). They may be able to assist in using Moon magick to contact and learn from departed souls.see more: Hounds of Hellwww.andy-ford.com/gothic/hounds-of-hell.aspx
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Post by tannis on Apr 20, 2009 18:27:31 GMT
PHAEDRA: What is it they mean when they talk of people being in "love-"? NURSE: At once the sweetest and the bitterest thing, my child. PHAEDRA: I shall only find the latter half. NURSE: Ha! my child, art thou in love? Of the extant plays of Euripides, the Hippolytus, which took the first prize at its reproduction in 428 B.C., deserves the highest place. Hippolytus knows he is honest (1001); he knows he is sophron, self-controlled; but in the sphere which most sharply tests the self-control of most men, the experience of sex, he has shirked the whole issue; being afraid of the power of love, he has put hatred in its place (664-5).
Phèdre et Hippolyte by Baron Pierre-Narcisse Guérin (1802) In the prologue, Aphrodite declares herself resolved to punish the chaste Hippolytus, bastard son of King Theseus of Trozên and the Amazon, because Hippolytus worships only pure Artemis and refuses to worship Aphrodite. She resolves, therefore, to bring about his death through the very sex that he has scorned, and scorning, has thus offered insult to the mighty Aphrodite. With this design she has put into the heart of Phaedra, the wife of Theseus, a love for her stepson. This Theseus will learn, and then will destroy his son by one of three fatal wishes which Poseidon has promised to fulfill. This will involve the ruin of Phaedra too, but for that there is no help, the goddess caring first for her honor and herself. Presently Hippolytus enters; he lauds his lady Artemis and consecrates to her a garland. An attendant suggests that he should in like manner honor Aphrodite, whose statue also stands at the entrance to the palace. Hippolytus, deaf to advice, persists in ignoring the goddess, and therein lies his offense.FACHBLATT: And why is the album called "Hounds Of Love"? These seem to be two contradicting terms. KATE: No, these are the hounds who chase - symbolically of course - those who fear love, who is frightened to be "trapped" by it. But they aren't really bad hounds, you can see on the cover how gently and nice the "Hounds Of Love" are. Fachblatt Musikmagazin Nr. 11, "Kate Bush Reappeared", Andreas Hub, November 1985www.gaffaweb.org/reaching/i85_fme.htmlI associate love with red The colour of my heart when she's dead Red in my mind when the jealousy flies Red in my eyes from emotional ties Manipulation, the danger signsIn KaTe's Symphony In Blue, love is red, passionate, too hot, too emotional. It has the power to kill the heart and warp the intellect. Eros Vs Thanatos! And the same co-mingling of extremes is present in Hounds Of Love. HOL is full of the hunt. The child is hiding in the dark, hiding in the street, afraid of her pursuer and of what might be. Now love is coming for her, and she's again full of nightmares.
KaTe's hounds are the hounds that chase - symbolically of course - those who fear love, who are frightened to be "trapped" by it. Euripides' Hippolytus is afraid of the power of love, and chooses instead to uphold his vow of chastity and to devote himself to Artemis, virgin goddess of the hunt. However, for his sins against Aphrodite, he becomes her sport and is torn asunder by the bull from the sea.
So, is Kate torn between the hunt and the quarry? Between cupid and the bow? Between Artemis and Aphrodite? ...
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Post by tannis on Apr 21, 2009 2:27:58 GMT
Night of the Demon: The Night of the Hunter (1955)
When I was a child: Running in the night, Afraid of what might be Hiding in the dark, Hiding in the street, And of what was following me...
The Night of the Hunter is a 1955 film noir, Directed by Charles Laughton and starring Robert Mitchum and Shelley Winters. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Davis Grubb. The novel and film draw on the true story of Harry Powers, hanged in 1932 for the murders of two widows and three children in Clarksburg, West Virginia.
The film is set in West Virginia, along the Ohio River. The story takes place in the 1930s. Ben Harper (Graves) is sentenced to hang for his part in a robbery in which two men were killed. Before he is caught he hides the stolen money, trusting only his children John (Chapin) and Pearl (Bruce)—about ten and five years old, respectively—with the money's location. Harry Powell (Mitchum), a serial killer and self-appointed preacher with the word "LOVE" tattooed on the knuckles of his right hand and "HATE" on the knuckles of his left, shares a prison cell with Harper. He tries to get Harper to tell him the hiding place before his execution, but the only clue he gets is a Biblical quotation Harper mutters in his sleep: "And a child shall lead them."
Convinced that Harper told his children the secret, Powell woos and marries Harper's widow, Willa (Winters). Willa is unaware of Powell's motives and is convinced that her marriage will lead to her salvation. Powell questions the children about the money whenever they are alone, but they distrust him and reveal nothing. John especially is suspicious and protective of his sister. One night Willa overhears her husband questioning the children and she realizes the truth. As she lies in bed that night in their attic bedroom with rafters reminiscent of the interior of a church, Powell leans over her and slits her throat.
Powell disposes her body in the lake. Powell finally learns the money's location from Pearl by threatening John, but the children escape with the money and find sanctuary with Rachel Cooper (Gish). Powell eventually finds them, but Rachel sees through his false persona. After a climactic standoff between Rachel and Powell where she protects the children with a shotgun but sings hymns through the night with Powell, he is arrested by the police.
The movie was filmed in black and white, and uses the styles and motifs of German Expressionism (weird shadows, stylized dialogue, distorted perspectives, surreal sets, and odd camera angles) to portray a strange, simplified and disturbing mood, reflecting the sinister character of Powell, the nightmarish fears of the children, the sweetness of their savior, Rachel.
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Post by tannis on Apr 21, 2009 18:27:20 GMT
The covers to RUTH and HOL seem to represent Artemis, or Diana. And the lyric sheet cover to HOL shows KaTe in perpetual sleep, remaining young forever. This image might suggest an identification with Endymion, the setting sun with which the moon is in love, or with the sleeping Diana/Selene, thus combining sun and moon, masculine and feminine, light and dark.
Sleeping Diana Watched by Two Fawns, Arnold Bocklin, 1877 Artemis – ancient Greek goddess (Roman name Diana) of hunt, daughter of Zeus and Leto, twin sister of Apollo. Artemis was always a virgin and eternally young, with no interests beyond hunting. Like her brother, her weapon was the bow. Her arrows inflicted sudden death without pain. She was vindictive and there were many who suffered from her anger.Artemis turned Actaeon into a stag and he was chased down, torn to pieces, and killed by his own hunting dogs. According to one myth, She did this because Actaeon saw Her naked while she was bathing in a stream near Orchomenus. Artemis, as a virgin goddess, was so pure that She allowed no man to see her. In another myth, She did this because Actaeon boasted he was a better hunter than even Artemis Herself.The Death of Actaeon by Titian, painted in 1559 to 1575 Diana and Endymion. In later times Romans began to associate the goddess Diana (Greek Artemis, goddess of the hunt and of the Moon) with Selene (Titan goddess of the moon), who, unlike Diana, was not so famous for her chastity.Diana by Talbot Hughes (1904) Diana/Selene was taken with Endymion, a beautiful youth who tended his flocks on Mount Latmos.Endymion by Briton Riviere (c.1870) When Selene saw Endymion, she fell violently in love and seduced him. She asked Zeus to give Endymion immortal life. Zeus complied, but in doing so put the youth into perpetual sleep, remaining young forever. Every night, Selene visited him where he slept. Selene and Endymion had fifty daughters called the Menae.Diana and Endymion by Walter Crane (1883) The mytheme of Endymion being not dead but endlessly asleep, which was proverbial (the proverb - Endymionis somnum dormire) ensured that scenes of Endymion and Selene were popular subjects for sculpted sarcophagi in Late Antiquity, when after-death existence began to be a heightened concern. Some believe that he was the personification of sleep, or the sunset (most likely the last one as his name means "to dive in" [Greek en in, and duein dive), which would imply a representation of that sort.
The myth of Endymion was never easily transferred to ever-chaste Artemis, the Olympian associated with the Moon. In the Renaissance, the revived moon goddess was Diana, and the Endymion myth was attached to her. Pliny the Elder mentions Endymion as the first human to observe the movements of the moon, which (according to Pliny) accounts for Endymion's love.Diana with her Hunting Dogs Beside Kill by Jan Fyt (Flemish, 1611-1661) The Roman Diana also shared the tripartite character of the Greek Artemis. In heaven she was Luna (the moon), on earth Diana (the huntress-goddess), and in the lower world Proserpine; but, unlike the Ephesian Artemis, Diana, in her character as Proserpine, carries with her into the lower world no element of love or sympathy; she is, on the contrary, characterized by practices altogether hostile to man, such as the exercise of witch-craft, evil charms, and other antagonistic influences, and is, in fact, the Greek Hecate in her later development. The statues of Diana were generally erected at a point where three roads met, for which reason she is called Trivia (from tri, three, and via, way).
Hecate was Goddess of the moon, death and magic. And the JCB photograph of KB on the cover to Running Up That Hill seems to ride on the back of The Magician tarot card...see more: JIG OF LIFE: Where Three Roads Meetkatebush.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=houndsoflove&action=display&thread=1723&page=2Famous Archers: APOLLO & ARTEMISkatebush.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=houndsoflove&action=display&thread=1714&page=2
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Post by tannis on Aug 19, 2009 22:27:31 GMT
The Hound of Heaven The Hound of Heaven is a 182 line religious poem written by English poet Francis Thompson. The poem became famous and was the source of much of Thompson's posthumous reputation. It was included in the Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse (1917). It was also an influence on J. R. R. Tolkien, who read it a few years before that.
'The name is strange. It startles one at first. It is so bold, so new, so fearless. It does not attract, rather the reverse. But when one reads the poem this strangeness disappears. The meaning is understood. As the hound follows the hare, never ceasing in its running, ever drawing nearer in the chase, with unhurrying and imperturbed pace, so does God follow the fleeing soul by His Divine grace. And though in sin or in human love, away from God it seeks to hide itself, Divine grace follows after, unwearyingly follows ever after, till the soul feels its pressure forcing it to turn to Him alone in that never ending pursuit. —The Neumann Press Book of Verse, 1988The Hound of Heaven Francis Thompson (1859–1907)
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled Him, down the arches of the years; I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears I hid from Him, and under running laughter. Up vistaed hopes I sped; And shot, precipitated, Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears, From those strong Feet that followed, followed after. But with unhurrying chase, And unperturbèd pace, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy, They beat -- and a voice beat More instant than the Feet -- "All things betray thee, who betrayest Me."
I pleaded, outlaw-wise, By many a hearted casement, curtained red, Trellised with intertwining charities; (For, though I knew His love Who followèd, Yet was I sore adread Lest, having Him, I must have naught beside.) But, if one little casement parted wide, The gust of his approach would clash it to : Fear wist not to evade, as Love wist to pursue. Across the margent of the world I fled, And troubled the gold gateways of the stars, Smiting for shelter on their clangèd bars ; Fretted to dulcet jars And silvern chatter the pale ports o' the moon. I said to Dawn : Be sudden -- to Eve : Be soon ; With thy young skiey blossoms heap me over From this tremendous Lover-- Float thy vague veil about me, lest He see ! I tempted all His servitors, but to find My own betrayal in their constancy, In faith to Him their fickleness to me, Their traitorous trueness, and their loyal deceit. To all swift things for swiftness did I sue ; Clung to the whistling mane of every wind. But whether they swept, smoothly fleet, The long savannahs of the blue ; Or whether, Thunder-driven, They clanged his chariot 'thwart a heaven, Plashy with flying lightnings round the spurn o' their feet :-- Fear wist not to evade as Love wist to pursue. Still with unhurrying chase, And unperturbèd pace, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy, Came on the following Feet, And a Voice above their beat-- "Naught shelters thee, who wilt not shelter Me."
I sought no more that after which I strayed, In face of man or maid ; But still within the little children's eyes Seems something, something that replies, They at least are for me, surely for me ! I turned me to them very wistfully ; But just as their young eyes grew sudden fair With dawning answers there, Their angel plucked them from me by the hair. "Come then, ye other children, Nature's -- share With me" (said I) "your delicate fellowship ; Let me greet you lip to lip, Let me twine with you caresses, Wantoning With our Lady-Mother's vagrant tresses, Banqueting With her in her wind-walled palace, Underneath her azured daïs, Quaffing, as your taintless way is, From a chalice Lucent-weeping out of the dayspring." So it was done : I in their delicate fellowship was one -- Drew the bolt of Nature's secrecies. I knew all the swift importings On the wilful face of skies ; I knew how the clouds arise Spumèd of the wild sea-snortings ; All that's born or dies Rose and drooped with ; made them shapers Of mine own moods, or wailful or divine ; With them joyed and was bereaven. I was heavy with the even, When she lit her glimmering tapers Round the day's dead sanctities. I laughed in the morning's eyes. I triumphed and I saddened with all weather, Heaven and I wept together, And its sweet tears were salt with mortal mine ; Against the red throb of its sunset-heart I laid my own to beat, And share commingling heat ; But not by that, by that, was eased my human smart. In vain my tears were wet on Heaven's grey cheek. For ah ! we know not what each other says, These things and I ; in sound I speak-- Their sound is but their stir, they speak by silences. Nature, poor stepdame, cannot slake my drouth ; Let her, if she would owe me, Drop yon blue bosom-veil of sky, and show me The breasts o' her tenderness ; Never did any milk of hers once bless My thirsting mouth. Nigh and nigh draws the chase, With unperturbèd pace, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy ; And past those noisèd Feet A Voice comes yet more fleet -- "Lo ! naught contents thee, who content'st not Me."
Naked I wait thy Love's uplifted stroke ! My harness piece by piece Thou hast hewn from me, And smitten me to my knee ; I am defenceless utterly. I slept, methinks, and woke, And, slowly gazing, find me stripped in sleep. In the rash lustihead of my young powers, I shook the pillaring hours And pulled my life upon me ; grimed with smears, I stand amid the dust o' the mounded years -- My mangled youth lies dead beneath the heap. My days have crackled and gone up in smoke, Have puffed and burst as sun-starts on a stream. Yea, faileth now even dream The dreamer, and the lute the lutanist ; Even the linked fantasies, in whose blossomy twist I swung the earth a trinket at my wrist, Are yielding ; cords of all too weak account For earth with heavy griefs so overplussed. Ah ! is Thy love indeed A weed, albeit an amaranthine weed, Suffering no flowers except its own to mount ? Ah ! must -- Designer infinite !-- Ah ! must Thou char the wood ere Thou canst limn with it ? My freshness spent its wavering shower i' the dust ; And now my heart is as a broken fount, Wherein tear-drippings stagnate, spilt down ever From the dank thoughts that shiver Upon the sighful branches of my mind. Such is ; what is to be ? The pulp so bitter, how shall taste the rind ? I dimly guess what Time in mists confounds ; Yet ever and anon a trumpet sounds From the hid battlements of Eternity ; Those shaken mists a space unsettle, then Round the half-glimpsed turrets slowly wash again. But not ere him who summoneth I first have seen, enwound With glooming robes purpureal, cypress-crowned ; His name I know, and what his trumpet saith. Whether man's heart or life it be which yields Thee harvest, must Thy harvest-fields Be dunged with rotten death ?
Now of that long pursuit Comes on at hand the bruit ; That Voice is round me like a bursting sea : "And is thy earth so marred, Shattered in shard on shard ? Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest me ! "Strange, piteous, futile thing ! Wherefore should any set thee love apart ? Seeing none but I makes much of naught" (He said), "And human love needs human meriting : How hast thou merited -- Of all man's clotted clay the dingiest clot ? Alack, thou knowest not How little worthy of any love thou art ! Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee, Save Me, save only Me ? All which I took from thee I did but take, Not for thy harms, But just that thou might'st seek it in My arms. All which thy child's mistake Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home : Rise, clasp My hand, and come !" Halts by me that footfall : Is my gloom, after all, Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly ? "Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest, I am He Whom thou seekest ! Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest me."The Christian alternative rock band Daniel Amos wrote a song titled Hound of Heaven on their 1978 album Horrendous Disc that is based on the Thompson poem.
Daniel Amos - Horrendous Disc - Hound of Heavenwww.youtube.com/watch?v=yHzP20QJhCs
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Post by tannis on Aug 23, 2009 19:27:10 GMT
The Hound of Heaven & The Hounds of Love "It's in the trees! It's coming!"KaTe says that when she was writing Hounds of Love she came across a line about hounds and the whole idea of being chased by love as something terrifying. The imagery of being hunted by love made a marked impression on her.KT: "When I was writing the song I sorta started coming across this line about hounds and I thought "hounds of love" and the whole idea of being chasing by this love that actually gonna... when it get you it just going to rip you to pieces, [raises voice] you know, and have your guts all over the floor! So this very sort of... being hunted by love, I liked the imagery, I thought it was really good." Radio 1, Classic Albums interview: Hounds Of Love, aired January 26, 1992 gaffa.org/reaching/ir85_r1.html
KT: "It's the sense of the 'hounds' of love: the hound symbolically representing that force. You're terrified of it so you run, but it keeps coming after you, and you're terrified that when it catches you, it's going to hurt you." Hot Press, "The Private Kate Bush", November 1985gaffa.org/reaching/i85_hp.html...in HOL there seems to be more of a death-fear, a fear of being swallowed up and taken apart by the ravenous and glorious force of love... So could the inspiration for Hounds of Love have been Thompson's poem, "The Hound of Heaven"? And is Hounds of Love really about the ecstasy and inebriation of God's divine love hunting the separated spirit? ... Being born again Into the sweet morning fog. D'you know what? I love you better now..."How do you know what will happen tomorrow? For your life is like the morning fog -- it's here a little while, then it's gone..." (James 4:14).Take my shoes off And throw them in the lake, And I'll be Two steps on the water...Thompson's father, Dr Charles Thompson, was a homeopathic doctor who had converted to Roman Catholicism. His mother, Mary, was a governess, who had previously failed in her attempt to become a nun. He entered the Catholic school of St Cuthbert's, Ushaw College in Durham, where he excelled in Latin, English and Greek. In 1877 he failed his studies for the priesthood. On the advice of his father he spent the next six years studying to be a surgeon at Owens medical college, but he was to fail the medical examinations three times. In 1878 he entered his name on the register of the Manchester royal infirmary, where he studied anatomy, with dissection classes. He continued writing poetry, and in April 1888 had one of his poems published in Merry England, a minor Catholic literary magazine. It was around this time, 1879, that he became addicted to opium. From 1885/88 Thompson spent the majority of his time as a homeless vagrant in the Dockland area of London. He died at the age of 47 in 1907, when his reputation as a poet was at it's height. His poem, The Hound Of Heaven - describing the pursuit of a human soul by God's love - was to sell over 50,000 copies.
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled Him, down the arches of the years; I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears I hid from Him, and under running laughter. Up vistaed hopes I sped; And shot, precipitated, Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears, From those strong Feet that followed, followed after. But with unhurrying chase, And unperturbèd pace, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy, They beat -- and a voice beat More instant than the Feet -- "All things betray thee, who betrayest Me."
Francis Thompson’s most famous poem ‘The Hound of Heaven’ is a compelling mystic vision of a soul running from the grace of God: In "Hounds of Heaven" Francis Thomspon described with an almost terrible power, not the self's quest of adored Reality, but Reality's quest of the unwilling self. He shows to us the remorseless, untiring seeking and following of the soul by the Divine Life to which it will not surrender: the inexorable onward sweep of "this tremendous Lover," hunting the separated spirit, "strange piteous futile thing" that flees Him "down the nights and down the days." This idea of the love-chase, of the spirit rushing in terror from the over-powering presence of God, but followed, sought, conquered in the end, is common to all the mediaeval mystics: it is the obverse of their general doctrine of the necessary fusion of human and divine life, "escape from the flame of separation." ~ Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness, Evelyn Underhill, 1961, p.135
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Post by tannis on Aug 23, 2009 20:27:14 GMT
The Hound of Heaven: Hounds of Love & Eat The Music Eat The Music and Hounds of Love can be added to KaTe's thanatological passion! ... Eat The Music is like a pack of Love-Hounds going in for the kill... Rip them to pieces... and have your guts all over the floor!There is a similarity between Eat The music and Hounds Of Love, isn't there? Except in HOL there seems to be more of a death-fear, a fear of being swallowed up and taken apart by the ravenous and glorious force of love - whereas in ETM there is a feeling of the greater ecstasy within all the 'splitting open.' Hounds Of Love seems to somewhat arrive at that feeling in the end, though. Yes, Rosa, I agree! Hounds Of Love does seems to deal with a "death-fear" and a loss of self to intimacy. In HOL, the protagonist's fears of intimacy evoke in her mind bloodsports and childhood paranoia. However, as you say, Hounds Of Love also seems to arrive at a feeling of ecstasy within the 'splitting open', as expressed in Eat The Music. There's a neat expansion of the HOL chorus, and the protagonist cries "Don't let me go! Hold me down!", like she's ready for the hounds of love to 'rip her to pieces with sticky fingers and have her guts all over the floor!' ... Split me open With devotion You put your hands in And rip my heart out..."According to one report published on Friday it seems that the assassin cut the woman's heart out and carried it away, and if he did not carry away the other parts of the body, it was supposed that he was either disturbed or that he forgot them in his hurry to escape. That he cut the heart out from below instead of cutting through the diaphragm does not, as some argue, show that he is an ignorant person..." The Observer, (London), 18 Nov 88, p5.www.casebook.org/dissertations/dst-yostheart.htmlIn the 1999 book Paradox, author Richard Patterson suggested that Francis Thompson was Jack the Ripper: "Francis Thompson had a violent childhood, doomed medical school training, and a continual fascination with death. Thompson’s life and verse reflect his downward drug induced spiral into vagrancy. In 1888 Thompson was suicidal, and in possession of a dissecting scalpel. He was living near the murder scene in the West India docks, and he had been homeless man for three years. During the murders, he was seeking out a prostitute for whom he had a fancy. Upon meeting Thompson she vanished and he became delirious all during the very time of the Whitechapel murders."
KT: "When I was writing the song I sorta started coming across this line about hounds and I thought "hounds of love" and the whole idea of being chasing by this love that actually gonna... when it get you it just going to rip you to pieces, [raises voice] you know, and have your guts all over the floor!" Radio 1, Classic Albums interview: Hounds Of Love, aired January 26, 1992 gaffa.org/reaching/ir85_r1.html
In 1889 Thompson wrote the short story "Finis Coronat Opus" (Latin: "The End Crowns the Work"). It features a young poet sacrificing women to pagan gods, seeking hell's inspiration for his poetry in order to gain the fame he desires. Thompson is alternatively seen as a religious fanatic or a madman committing the actions described in his story.
Pictures of Crippin Lipstick-smeared. Torn wallpaper. Have the walls got ears here?
Thompson, addicted to opium, which is known to produce hallucinations, sent amongst his writing to Alice and Wilfrid Meynell a poem titled ‘The Ballad of the Witch Babies’. Never published, it concerned a lusty young knight who roams the midst laden darkness hunting down and disemboweling women.
"And later, when they analysed, They found a little one inside."
Patterson has an elaborate theory that the murders were committed on certain Catholic saints feast days, and that there is a religious connection that hasn’t been looked at before. He has other “evidence,” including Thompson joking in a letter that he needs to start shaving with a razor rather than the dissecting scalpel he usually uses, and there are some amazing handwriting similarities between him and the Ripper.Split 'em open With devotion You put your hands in And rip their hearts out...see more: Jack the Ripper: A Suspect Guide - Francis Thompson www.casebook.org/suspects/ft.html www.geocities.com/darkly_burning/ Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (Part 10) www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYnPTrI2K5U&feature=related 6:22...
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Post by tannis on Sept 17, 2009 4:27:24 GMT
Like "Running Up That Hill," the second song, "Hounds of Love," concerns awkwardness in intimate relationships. Both tunes are sung by Bush in an accessible pop style and are structured around reasonably conventional instrumentation. "Hounds of Love" replaces the rat-a-tat snare rhythm of "Running Up That Hill" with a more emphatic, complex beat and uses a cello to create a steady melodic flow--another avoidance of the fragmentation found on The Dreaming.
The lyrics of "Hounds of Love" suggest that a regression in Bush's emotional development is taking place. The song's first lines ("When I was a child / Running in the night / Afraid of what might be / Hiding in the dark / Hiding in the street / And of what was following me / Now hounds of love are hunting") indicate that the roots of her difficulties lie far in the past. Though Bush realizes her peril is much less than that of a fox run to ground by hounds, she cannot bring herself to abandon social conventions for love. Were Bush's lover to take her "shoes off and throw them in the lake," she would be "two steps on the water" in pursuit of them. The watery imagery foreshadows the motif that provides the basis for the second side, "The Ninth Wave." Here, as later, the water is a primordial ooze in which the individual enters a presocial state. On side 1 Bush is not yet ready to enter that realm, although she knows that avoiding her primal emotions is foolish, at once complaining "I don't know what's good for me" and realizing "I need love." On Record, Simon Frith and Andrew Goodwin (1990, pp.458-459).
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Post by tannis on Sept 27, 2009 20:27:14 GMT
When I was a child: Running in the night, Afraid of what might be Hiding in the dark, Hiding in the street, And of what was following me...
I was afraid of the dark when I was a child. Children think that something may be hiding in the dark, when nothing is really there. Or they think the chair is a bear, when it is really a chair. Sometimes even grownups feel that way, but not so often as children do. ~ Put Your Mother On the Ceiling: Children's Imagination Games, Richard De Mille, 1967, p.145.
Are not most of us afraid to look at ourselves? We might discover unpleasant things, so we would rather not look, we prefer to be ignorant of what is. We are not only afraid of what might be in the future, but also of what might be in the present. We are afraid to know ourselves as we are, and this avoidance of what is is making us afraid of what might be. We approach the so-called known with fear, and also the unknown, death. The avoidance of what is is the desire for gratification. We are seeking security, constantly demanding that there shall be no disturbance; and it is this desire not to be disturbed that makes us avoid what is and fear what might be. Fear is the ignorance of what is, and our life is spent in a constant state of fear. ~ Commentaries on Living: from the notebooks of J. Krishnamurti, Volume 2, Jiddu Krishnamurti, 1967, pp.74
64. Running in the Night
by Chris, eight, failing and confused at school, and confused by parental behaviour at home too. This boy's panic is less than that so apparent in Stories 12 and 14 (pp.40 and 41). He is no longer terrified by ghosts like the little boy who cannot understand the frightening things of the world, nor chased by persecutors. He starts off "walking not running" but he is still driven to escape...something, which seems to be connected with the insecurity of unexplained events, adult secrets, adult mistrusting and adult mixed emotions.
The boy lived down here, but he went down there, so he turned wrong way to get to the school, the boy didn't know how to cross, all the footpath.
The boy came back, and the mother said, "You're late," and the mother gave the boy a smack. He lived in the street, walking not running. He left 9 o'clock, and he was late, and come back home at four o'clock, and he tried when it was in the night, he sneaked out the window, and ran out, and when light turned red, he ran out across the road, and the mother was looking for the boy, and the mother forget he went home yesterday, and the mother went down the school, and the mother found the boy.
The boy feeled sorry for the mother. He was going to go home, so the mother went straight away. The father didn't come home till two days, because he had two stitches in his head, because crashed it in his car, with a great big rock.
The mother didn't even know, because the father didn't tell the mother, because the father didn't want to, and then the mother would hate the father, because she'd wonder why he'd have stitches, because she don't care if they had crashed.
When they take the stitches out, it still goes open again, he just goes to bed and waits till he gets fixed up by the doctor. The boy just cared. And when he cared, well, in the night time, again he ran out.
The boy didn't like the mother, because the mother didn't let the boy play in school where all the playmates coming out.
~ What Happens to Children: The Origins of violence. A Collection of stories told by disadvantaged children who could not write them, Valerie Yule, 1979, pp.105-106.
The basic form of night-courtship is for the young man to visit his beloved and pass the night with her in bed. Sexual intercourse is not supposed to take place. In Norway it is called 'night-running', in Sweden 'frieri' (night courting); in New England 'tarrying' or 'bundling'; in Germany 'probenächte', in Holland 'queesten', in Britain 'sitting-up' and 'running in the night', and 'courting on the bed'. ~ Love in Action: The Sociology of Sex, Fernando Henriques, 1961, P.174.
The ideal norm - the chaste bride and the groom who had sown a few wild oats - of northern European peasant societies, seems to have been typical only of middle and upper classes: among the mass of the people a different picture emerges. A number of courting customs runs counter to this ideal norm. Known as 'night running' in Norway, 'night courting' in Sweden, 'proving night' in Germany and in Britain as 'running in the night,' they involve sexual play, and in most cases intercourse. ~ Peoples of the Earth: Andes, Evans-Pritchard, 1973, p.10.
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Post by tannis on Sept 28, 2009 1:27:27 GMT
THE HOUNDS OF LOVE
'She holds in her hand, by a leash, swift and eager hounds that strain at the leash : white are they, strong are they, long-limbed, long-eared — crimson- tipped are their ears : Hounds of Hell are they called. 'Now, loosing the leash, she frees them: swiftly over the earth the Hounds of Hell pursue. Not on the hills hunt they ; not in the forests ; but among the dwellings of men — eager and strong. 'This is Danu that sits throned in wonderful raiment and soft shining jewels ; her hounds are the hounds of Love : Desire, Lust, and Longing ; their preys are the hearts of men, wounded with love. 'Cruel is she, this Danu ! Her soul hungrily devours the hearts of men wounded with love ; and none among men satisfy her for ever — the torn bodies of men are nothing to her...' ~ The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Graunia, John Redwood Anderson (1950)
The hounds of love, which I set upon you to hunt you with a frenzy of zeal greater than that which I have given to those to whom I have promised love, are the verses that I have shaped for you. ~ Studies in Irish Literature and History, James Carney (1956)
And the hounds of love after you! The pain and the glory! — who will separate these two? ~ Irish Stories and Plays, Paul Vincent Carroll (1958)
The Hounds of Love by Dallas Kenmare, 1965
I love you too dearly, my love — I dare not unleash the hounds, so wild, so beautiful, that clamour in my heart, I must be very quiet, holding a close, firm rein, lest these fierce, these glorious ones escape. . . . I must be still, so still, my love — you must not see the joyous storm that threatens to invade. Yet, oh, these glorious ones, these hounds of love, hunting and haunting the wild lands of the heart — would I not fly with them over the mountains, into the clouds, into the furthermost recesses of the soul, surrendered, free at last!
A Fellow Mortal by John Masefield, 1967
I found a fox, caught by the leg In a toothed gin, torn from its peg, And dragged, God knows how far, in pain.
Such torment could not plead in vain, He looked at me, I looked at him. With iron-jaw teeth in his limb.
'Come, little son,' I said, 'Let be. . . Don't bite me, while I set you free.'
But much I feared that in the pang Of helping, I should feel a fang In hand or face. . . but must is must. . . . And he had given me his trust.
So down I knelt there in the mud And loosed those jaws all mud and blood. And he, exhausted, crept, set free, Into the shade, away from me;
The leg not broken . . . Then, beyond, That gin went plonk into the pond.
The table's ground is now the lasting world Whereon the fleeing dice become stone hares: A race of frisky mockery unfurled For the aesthetic hawk who (looking) cares ... But in the movement of this dotted earth That dealt is by such accurate leaps and bounds Runs the brave hare who is the line of mirth Upon the grim face of a pack of hounds: The hounds of love who make her game of skill Too truthful and too lagging for the kill. ~ from The Will of Eros: Selected Poems 1930-1970, Parker Tyler, 1972, p.49.
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amy
Reaching Out
Posts: 108
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Post by amy on Oct 22, 2009 16:11:52 GMT
"The track itself seems to be heavily influenced by the Michael Powell film, Gone to Earth (1950), a story of a young gypsy girl whose only real companion is this fox cub..." I watched this film the other day. It's like a combination of the videos of Wuthering Heights (the red dress version) and The Red Shoes. I couldn't watch it without constantly thinking of Kate. Jennifer Jones even looks like her. Not the usual standard of Powell and Pressburger but enjoyable if only to tick off similarities to Kate and her work.
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