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But there's going to be a party when the wolf comes home
I have a T-shirt I don't wear much anymore because it is much-washed and the silkscreen process is fragile. I couldn't make it to a concert in Brooklyn in 2005; a fellow-student at Yale brought it back for me. It's this logo in slightly different colors. You can see the relevance. It was one of the nicest things that happened to me in New Haven.
The Mountain Goats don't only write classical songs. But they do title their releases things like Songs for Petronius (1992), Transmissions to Horace (1993), and Taking the Dative (1994), and I've linked a number of their songs over the years because I love them.
"Love Hymn to Aphrodite"
The sky turns orange and colors start swirling
You float downstairs, your body spinning
In perfect circles
"Young Caesar 2000"
When I was twelve years old, they put me on the throne
When I was twelve years old, they made me king
From the ocean south of here to the northern hemisphere
They gave me everything
"Song for Cleomenes"
He was the governor of Agrigentum, which we now know as Sicily
And he stole everything that wasn't nailed down
Took improper advantage of other men's wives
The list goes on
Trust me
Cicero wrote it all down
"Deianara Crush"
And you tell me that Hercules died burning
Consumed by an article of his own clothing
That's something I'd rather not be reminded of
"An Inscription at Salonae"
It was not that long ago
But the memory's kind of dying out, you know?
Like a flower caught in the overgrowth
Falling, falling to pieces
"Against Agamemnon"
I'll be back in half an hour
Watch over the children
I'll be back in half an hour
"Faithless Bacchant Song"
Somewhere in the damn forest
Where the fat pines look like my brother's arms
"On Seneca's Trick Mirror"
And blood will run through the streets of Rome today
And roll across the ocean
"Up the Wolves"
Our mother has been absent ever since we founded Rome
But there's going to be a party when the wolf comes home
John Darnielle just reblogged my poem "Homeric Hymn to Demophoon."
I was in no way expecting that pretty much ever.
The Mountain Goats don't only write classical songs. But they do title their releases things like Songs for Petronius (1992), Transmissions to Horace (1993), and Taking the Dative (1994), and I've linked a number of their songs over the years because I love them.
"Love Hymn to Aphrodite"
The sky turns orange and colors start swirling
You float downstairs, your body spinning
In perfect circles
"Young Caesar 2000"
When I was twelve years old, they put me on the throne
When I was twelve years old, they made me king
From the ocean south of here to the northern hemisphere
They gave me everything
"Song for Cleomenes"
He was the governor of Agrigentum, which we now know as Sicily
And he stole everything that wasn't nailed down
Took improper advantage of other men's wives
The list goes on
Trust me
Cicero wrote it all down
"Deianara Crush"
And you tell me that Hercules died burning
Consumed by an article of his own clothing
That's something I'd rather not be reminded of
"An Inscription at Salonae"
It was not that long ago
But the memory's kind of dying out, you know?
Like a flower caught in the overgrowth
Falling, falling to pieces
"Against Agamemnon"
I'll be back in half an hour
Watch over the children
I'll be back in half an hour
"Faithless Bacchant Song"
Somewhere in the damn forest
Where the fat pines look like my brother's arms
"On Seneca's Trick Mirror"
And blood will run through the streets of Rome today
And roll across the ocean
"Up the Wolves"
Our mother has been absent ever since we founded Rome
But there's going to be a party when the wolf comes home
John Darnielle just reblogged my poem "Homeric Hymn to Demophoon."
I was in no way expecting that pretty much ever.
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Nice! I do not know if it is a brilliant song, but I have always liked Nova Mob's "The Last Days of Pompeii/Benediction."
My uncle, he is an admiral—as for me, I have no trade
My name is Pliny and these are observations I have made
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Nine
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The poem has delighted someone in Delphi waiting for the bus to Athens.
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Prrrt.
Nine
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Prrrrt.
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It made most of my night.
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The title "On Seneca's Trick Mirror," does that refer to a real thing? (I know that now that we have Google we should never ask anyone any questions ever; we should just look and find out, but sometimes it's nice to just have a person tell you a thing and so I am imposing on you! But if you yourself then have to go Google, I will feel bad. Oh hell, I will do a quick search… Okay, all I come up with is the Mountain Goats song, so now I feel justified in asking you. But I will settle for an I-don't-know!)
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I think it's an invention of Darnielle's, but it's a great title. I've assumed it refers to Seneca the Younger, who was the tutor of Nero and later obligated to commit suicide after his alleged complicity in the conspiracy of Gaius Calpurnius Piso. He did write about mirrors in his Naturalaes quaestiones; he says there are two opinions about them, one that they show reflections of the body by a bending of the eyesight, the other that they actually hold images of the body, simulacra, likenesses, like a sort of ghost within the polished surface. He doesn't address it much, but I think it must be the same constellation of beliefs that has vampires show no reflection and ghosts appear as noonday shadows: some external cast of the soul
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This is a great constellation of beliefs, quite compelling. There is a kind of reality, an experiential reality to this, which continues to have force.
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THAT'S THE PART I WAS NOT EXPECTING!
I have grown accustomed to the idea that people who know me will read my work. I have grown accustomed to the idea that people I've never heard of will read my work. I have not grown accustomed to the idea that people I know of—who have no reason to know me—are reading my work right now. This is not the first time I've run across one of my poems reblogged on Tumblr, but it's the first time the person reblogging was a musician whose work I've been enjoying since 2002.
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