Andy Williams (Perry Como) and John Donne (Was: Funny where HP turns up!)

[justcarol67]

Potioncat:
> 
> Andy Williams---but darn if I can remember the tune.(Not surprising, given my lack of singing ability.)

Carol responds:

I can't sing you the tune, obviously, though you can probably find it on I-tunes (sp?) and similar sites, but the melody is catchy and you'll probably remember it if you read the lyrics. From memory, it's something like this:

Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket,
Never let it fade away.
Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket,
Never let it fade away.
the moon may come and tap you on the shoulder,
Some starless night--

And suddenly my memory fades something about "It's easy to forget you want to hold her," but, anyway, you get the idea. Not great poetry, just a harmless little 1950s tune, the kind that housewives used to listen to on the radio as they washed the dishes and did the laundry.

Potioncat:
> 
> I think I should give Donne a try too. I didn't know those rather famous lines were his.
>
Carol:
Absolutely. Be prepared for two John Donnes, though. When I was in grad school, my professors called them Jack the Rake and Dr. Donne (the young man sowing his wild oats and praising his mistresses in rather colorful terms and the doctor of divinity writing metaphysical poetry about God and his own doubts and fears. If you want an example of the stark contrast, try "To His Mistress Going to Bed" (one of the famous lines addresses the beloved as "O my America, my newfound land") 
http://www.online-literature.com/donne/440/
and Holy Sonnets VII ("At the round earth's imagined corners blow/Your trumpets, angels")
http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/holysonnet7.php

You might also like "The Sun Rising," in which he calls the sun "busy old fool, pedantic wretch" for coming in through the windows and disturbing him and his mistress (in the sense of the woman he loves and serves). 
http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/sunrising.php

The Luminarium site has audio versions of some of the poems for anyone who's interested.
http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/donnebib.htm

It's important to bear in mind that he was writing in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century and despite being brilliant was a product of his time, so some of his ideas may grate on modern sensibilities. (I've chosen sites with modern spelling; the original spelling is somewhat eccentric.) Phrases that you'll recognize if you read many of his poems include "for whom the bell tolls" and "no man is an island." 

Carol, who thinks that teenage boys might learn to like poetry if they read Donne's "Songs and Sonnets," many of which are rather risque but lively and imaginative