Saturday, February 6, 2010

Elegy

This winter I find myself kept indoors more than usual for this time of year, and so I have been looking at old books I've collected but not really read.

The poem below comes from a 1937 hardback
anthology I have titled "Three TONY'S SCRAPBOOKS", a gathering of tidbits of philosophy, poetry, humor and trivia by folksy Depression-era radio personality Tony Wons. It collects three previous volumes that sold well. You can learn more about Tony Wons from a 1932 TIME magazine article that is archived here.

I can find no information on the author of the poem, Leonard Snyder, who most likely wasn't an acclaimed writer in any genre. Ordinary fans of the radio show sent in their thoughts and writings, and Wons used them sometimes. Perhaps Snyder was one of them.

I've chosen images found on the net (credited below) to illustrate the poem. It's a simple poem, reminiscent of Poe but without his brilliance. Still, I liked it and share it here.
__________________________

ELEGY


I have looked at dead men's eyes


Whose awful majesty

Held nothing, yet I saw therein

An endless mystery.



A dead man's lips are pale and cold

And changeless as of stone,

And yet they strangely seem to say

To find peace...go alone.

--Leonard Snyder













______________________________________________________

Related
: Johnny Metro's great freaky-geeky blog Midnite Media recently posted the words to the an old dark English ballad titled "The Unquiet Grave." Read it here.

Top image: Statuary closeup found at
Flickr account of Sandman1973.

Image second from top: Plasticized, skinned body from the BODIES exhibition--Picture source here.

Image, bottom left: Mexican mummy, picture source here.

Image, bottom right: Detail of statuary photo found at Flickr account of martins.nunomiguel

4 comments:

Laura said...

I liked it too! :)

((Hugs))
Laura

Max the drunken severed head said...

Laura-- Thanks! I'm glad you liked it.

Olive Monkey-- WTF?

Okay, after visiting your blog, I think I finally figured out what you're talking about. You've started a blog to recognize other blogs, and folks are supposed to leave nominations for an award from you in your blog's comments. Am I right?

Took awhile to figure that out--there is so little at the blog you started.

I've never been thanked for being a blog before, but thank you for the thank you, I guess.

So--did you like the poem? The pictures?

Remind me sometime to send you a banana daquiri, Olive Monkey!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the link-back, Max. I really enjoyed this poem, too. Short and dark, you can't beat that.

I've also been browsing a lot of old books lately, although not in physical form. My wife purchased a Kindle for me as a Christmas gift, so I've been downloading quite a few public domain oddities, which is why that little Dark Ditty that I posted came from. I hope to post more in the future. It's a dose of the freakery along with the beatnikery...and that's what I'm all about.

--J/Metro

Meowlissa said...

Very cool! Thanks again for sharing these linkeees with me :)

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