Topical Guide 559
Mark Dorset
Allusion
Reservations Recommended, Chapter 7:
I’m going to change everything, change my life.
Rainer Maria Rilke, “Archaic Torso of Apollo,” translated by Stephen Mitchell:
We cannot know his legendary head
with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso
is still suffused with brilliance from inside,
like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low,
gleams in all its power. Otherwise
the curved breast could not dazzle you so, nor could
a smile run through the placid hips and thighs
to that dark center where procreation flared.
Otherwise this stone would seem defaced
beneath the translucent cascade of the shoulders
and would not glisten like a wild beast's fur:
would not, from all the borders of itself,
burst like a star: for here there is no place
that does not see you. You must change your life.
Music: For the Reservations Recommended Soundtrack Album
Reservations Recommended, Chapter 7:
But you already have, Matthew. You’re someone now. You’re really someone. Someone to fear. Be careful, be careful of this man. He’s not the man he used to be.
Allusion (Backhanded)
Reservations Recommended, Chapter 7:
We’ll be in hiding. We won’t be what we appear to be. Watch out for this man. He’s capable of violence. He will only take so much. There is some shit he will not eat.
i sing of Olaf glad and big
whose warmest heart recoiled at war:
a conscientious object-orhis wellbelovéd colonel(trig
westpointer most succinctly bred)
took erring Olaf soon in hand;
but—though an host of overjoyed
noncoms(first knocking on the head
him)do through icy waters roll
that helplessness which others stroke
with brushes recently employed
anent this muddy toiletbowl,
while kindred intellects evoke
allegiance per blunt instruments—
Olaf(being to all intents
a corpse and wanting any rag
upon what God unto him gave)
responds,without getting annoyed
“I will not kiss your fucking flag”straightway the silver bird looked grave
(departing hurriedly to shave)but—though all kinds of officers
(a yearning nation’s blueeyed pride)
their passive prey did kick and curse
until for wear their clarion
voices and boots were much the worse,
and egged the firstclassprivates on
his rectum wickedly to tease
by means of skilfully applied
bayonets roasted hot with heat—
Olaf(upon what were once knees)
does almost ceaselessly repeat
“there is some shit I will not eat”our president,being of which
assertions duly notified
threw the yellowsonofabitch
into a dungeon,where he diedChrist(of His mercy infinite)
i pray to see;and Olaf,toopreponderatingly because
unless statistics lie he was
more brave than me:more blond than you.
See also:
Allusion; Quotation TG 140, TG 455, TG 462, TG 502, TG 506, TG 532
Music: For the Reservations Recommended Soundtrack Album TG 514, TG 520
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