(no subject)

Well, well, well.

As a result of junomagic's post, I found myself looking for the words to Swinburne's Dolores - you know, 'oh splendid and sterile Dolores, Our Lady of Pain." I shan't repost it, given that it's very much TL:DR, in my view, though I was charmed to discover that this is the origin of 'noble and nude and antique', as well as the hoary old 'from the lilies and languors of virtue/ to the raptures and roses of vice' (though actually I see Swinburne as more in the lilies and languors camp, however vicious). The sort of poem which consists of quotations interspersed with padding.

However: thanks to the wonders of Wikipedia, I have come across a parody of Dolores; not only is it the funniest poem I have ever read about a squid or octopus, but I think I might have found the origin of squidporn. It also rather deflates Swinburne.

( Entirely SFW, but may cause spluttering )

† Mind you, the only other one I can recall is The Kraken, and though I am very fond of Tennyson it's hardly a barrel of laughs.

A more serious Swinburne link

I've just found this essay on Swinburne by A E Housman, that most acerbically perceptive classical textual scholar (oh, and he wrote some poetry, too). It's long, but very perceptive, and it has some fascinating things to say about Swinburne's merits and demerits, including quite a lot about his prosody. It also manages to be remarkably snarky and yet finish on a fair, even affectionate note.

To take three of his most impressive and characteristic poems, the three which I have mentioned last, Dolores, and Ilicet, and The Triumph of Time: there is no reason why they should begin where they do or end where they do; there is no reason why the middle should be in the middle; there is hardly a reason why, having once begun, they should ever end at all; and it would be possible to rearrange the stanzas which compose them in different orders without lessening their coherency or impairing their effect.

*sigh*

Decided to buy some Doctor Who. Remembered that Play.com is supposed to be cheaper, and noted with delight that it's about 60% cheaper than the list price and that they deliver to Europe for free. Put DVDs in basket, attempted to pay. Spent ten minutes trying to give address (before working out that they didn't like the hyphen, the backslash or the umlaut). Finally got to check-out basket- at which point the website cheerfully informed me that the items 'weren't available for delivery to Europe.'

*Sulks* Oh well, at least - thanks to the wonders of VPN - I got to watch Time Crash, which was silly but absolutely lovely. Of course, the sight of Peter Davison in the cricket garb was what got me trying to buy DVDs in the first place, but... we'll not go back over that.

Cricket! Celery! "You were my Doctor" *grins in a hopelessly silly manner*