NationStates Jolt Archive

All of this "debate" over atheism versus theism reminded me of a poem I taught in two of my classes this past term, one that resulted in some very interesting discussion and writing. Tom Disch is better known as a sci-fi and horror author, but he's also quite the poet, and so I present "Ballade of the New God."

Ballade of the New God

I have decided I’m divine.
Caligula and Nero knew
A godliness akin to mine,
But they are strictly hitherto.
They’re dead, and what can dead gods do?
I’m here and now. I’m dynamite.
I’d worship me if I were you.
A new religion starts tonight!

No booze, no pot, no sex, no swine:
I have decreed them all taboo.
My words will be your only wine,
The thought of me your honeydew.
All other thoughts you will eschew
And call yourself a Thomasite
And hymn my praise with loud yahoo.
A new religion starts tonight.

But (you might think) that’s asinine!
I’m just as much a god as you.
You may have built yourself a shrine
But I won’t bend my knee. Who
Asked you to be my god? I do,
Who am, as god, divinely right.
Now you must join my retinue:
A new religion starts tonight.

All that I have said is true.
I’m god and you’re my acolyte.
Surrender’s bliss: I envy you
A new religion starts tonight.
I fully expect this thread will receive fewer than 15 replies, and I'm okay with that. :D

I fully expect this thread will receive fewer than 15 replies, and I'm okay with that. :D

Well, i'll be the first of those to say that it's awesome. :D

I fully expect this thread will receive fewer than 15 replies, and I'm okay with that.
Do you teach in a public institution? I would never recieve such hersey from my English teacher in my procial education! :p

That was a really good poem actually, lol.

Do you teach in a public institution? I would never recieve such hersey from my English teacher in my procial education! :p
I teach at a public university, so I get away with a lot. Hell, the first poem my students had to identify on their final exam was Philip Larkin's "This Be the Verse," which begins:

They fuck you up, your mum and dad,
They may not mean to, but they do.

I love teaching poems with f-bombs in them, because I make my students read them aloud. Some are nervous about it, but others really get into it. :D

Nice poem thingy. No way we could ever read this kind of stuff in my school. Our teachers are far too unimaginative/boring/etc.

I teach at a public university, so I get away with a lot. Hell, the first poem my students had to identify on their final exam was Philip Larkin's "This Be the Verse," which begins:

They fuck you up, your mum and dad,
They may not mean to, but they do.

I love teaching poems with f-bombs in them, because I make my students read them aloud. Some are nervous about it, but others really get into it. :D

lol. I had to read out some of Marylin Hacker's work in a class the other day. I don't know if you're familiar with her?

lol. I had to read out some of Marylin Hacker's work in a class the other day. I don't know if you're familiar with her?
It would be more correct to say I know of her--I've read some of her work, but not an awful lot. It's impossible to keep up with even those few who pass for big names in the world of poetry.

It would be more correct to say I know of her--I've read some of her work, but not an awful lot. It's impossible to keep up with even those few who pass for big names in the world of poetry.

I'll delight you with one of them, then:

First, I want to make you come in my hand
while I watch you and kiss you, and if you cry,
I'll drink your tears while, with my whole hand, I
hold your drenched loveliness contracting. And
after a breath, I want to make you full
again, and wet. I want to make you come
in my mouth like a storm. No tears now. The sum
of your parts is my whole most beautiful
chart of the constellations - your left breast
in my mouth again. You know you'll have to be
your age. As I lie beside you, cover me
like a gold cloud, hands everywhere, at last
inside me where I trust you, then your tongue
where I need you. I want you to make me come.

Reading that kind of stuff out in class was certainly interesting. (Although I didn't read that particular one out, that's just the most confronting i've found.)

Think it's too "obscene" for the forum, maybe?

I fail to comprehend how that can be considered poetry, or rather art.

I fail to comprehend how that can be considered poetry, or rather art.

It's part of a collection meant to be read as a series. It makes more sense reading it in context, although I agree that it's not a particularly good poem in itself.

sigh

im as poetry impaired as i am fancy-wine impaired.

vaguely interesting poem. what was i supposed to get out of it? is there more there than the obvious?

I teach at a public university, so I get away with a lot. Hell, the first poem my students had to identify on their final exam was Philip Larkin's "This Be the Verse," which begins:

They fuck you up, your mum and dad,
They may not mean to, but they do.

I love teaching poems with f-bombs in them, because I make my students read them aloud. Some are nervous about it, but others really get into it. :D

The inclusion of that very poem on an English Literature exam actually caused walkouts and protests in the university in Belfast*, and this was only about ten years ago, not the dim and distant past.

Anyhoo, Tom Disch - better before his breakdown, and his first novel remains unsurpassed by his later works.

* incidentally in the very university where Larkin once worked as a sub-librarian.

Nazz, come work up at BU.

I dub The Nazz to be teh ultimate shiz of teachingness.

The inclusion of that very poem on an English Literature exam actually caused walkouts and protests in the university in Belfast*, and this was only about ten years ago, not the dim and distant past.

Anyhoo, Tom Disch - better before his breakdown, and his first novel remains unsurpassed by his later works.

* incidentally in the very university where Larkin once worked as a sub-librarian.That's a terrific story. Thanks a lot.

Completely hijacking the thread for a sec-- how did things go with the student that was brought up on plagerisim?

that was you, right? (god i hope so otherwise i will look like bigger idiot than I already do...)

Nazz, come work up at BU.
My daughter would love that, as BU is one of the schools she dreams about (and that I can never hope to afford). But Boston is cold, and I don't do cold. Besides, doesn't Derek Walcott still teach the occasional class up there?

Completely hijacking the thread for a sec-- how did things go with the student that was brought up on plagerisim?

that was you, right? (god i hope so otherwise i will look like bigger idiot than I already do...)
Failed her for the class and she has a mark on her transcript indicating academic irregularity.

My daughter would love that, as BU is one of the schools she dreams about (and that I can never hope to afford). But Boston is cold, and I don't do cold. Besides, doesn't Derek Walcott still teach the occasional class up there?
haha...Boston isn't THAT cold...If she wants an actual tour and not one of the bullshit ones, I can show her some of the important places on campus.

that sounds alot creepier than I meant it to...


and yeah, Derek Walcott is still up here. Not a fan I take it?

haha...Boston isn't THAT cold...If she wants an actual tour and not one of the bullshit ones, I can show her some of the important places on campus.

that sounds alot creepier than I meant it to...


and yeah, Derek Walcott is still up here. Not a fan I take it?
You get snow--even if that only happens once or twice a year, it's too cold for me. And I'm a big Walcott fan, as a matter of fact. Omeros is a hell of an effort, even if it has slow spots.

Hey. If he can't create something like this, he's not any "god" I wanna know:

http://img274.imageshack.us/img274/8732/janerussell194333ns.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

:D

It makes more sense reading it in context,
Ah, visual and interpretive art is the best context. *nods emphatically*

Hey. If he can't create something like this, he's not any "god" I wanna know:

http://img274.imageshack.us/img274/8732/janerussell194333ns.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

:D
See, THERE'S context i can handle!! WooT!!!
http://www.websmileys.com/sm/evil/105.gif