Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.quux.org!news.nk.ca!rocksolid2!i2pn2.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: will.dockery@gmail.com (W.Dockery) Newsgroups: alt.arts.poetry.comments,rec.arts.poems Subject: Re: My Father's House / gjd (for new comments) Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:50:33 +0000 Organization: novaBBS Message-ID: <6dbe3e738b604694022d5656d7f7392a@www.novabbs.com> References: <97db0c3aeb33a7b97dc54cdfd5661e52@www.novabbs.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Info: i2pn2.org; logging-data="1389192"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@i2pn2.org"; posting-account="Vf9CM7g99yqfGvzEHTw0bhrjcIfvzYBBhUuRma0rLuQ"; User-Agent: Rocksolid Light X-Rslight-Posting-User: acd0b3e3614eaa6f47211734e4cbca3bfd42bebc X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 4.0.0 X-Rslight-Site: $2y$10$592aGQkKyR1kqGZIK3mdLOFPMXez8hB1E7tTlhlp3vrIEVqhsYcIO On Tue, 11 Feb 2025 18:28:21 +0000, George J. Dance wrote: > > As noted, I opened this thread mainly to collect comments on the poem > that I found scattered in other threads. Here's one I found foay, in a > thread called "NastyGoon lifts a line". > > On Sat, 8 Feb 2025 1:30:57 +0000, Michael Monkey Peabrain aka > "HarryLime" wrote: >> Let's search for the opening line of Mr. Dance's most well known poem: >> "This is my father's house, although The man died thirteen years ago." >> The search returned a whopping 10 pages of results. > snip > > It sounds like HarryLiar forgot to put quotes around the line; but > that's not relevant here. This one is, though: > >> Here's another example where the father is the speaker's biological one: >> it's the title of a song by Bruce Springsteen. Bruce's relationship >> with his father in the song appears to be a loving one (and one can even >> draw a parallel between the relationship of Little Bruce and his >> biological to one between Grownup Bruce and God). Again, a different >> message, but the Title is *exactly* the same. > > It sounds as if HarryLiar has never heard or listened to the song; > which allows one to evaluate his interpretation of it in context. > In fact, the speaker (who does appear to be Springsteen) and his father > have experienced conflict ("hard things that pulled us apart") and > are estranged (torn "from each other's hearts"). Then one night he > dreams of his father, and resolves to return to the house to reconcile > with him and get closure. > > > I awoke and I imagined, the hard things that pulled us apart > Will never again, sir, tear us from each other's hearts > I got dressed and to that house, I did ride > > > However, it is too late; the father "doesn't live [t]here anymore" > (presumably he's dead), and no reconciliation is possible. > The speaker's and his father's "sins lie unatoned". > https://genius.com/Bruce-springsteen-my-fathers-house-lyrics > >> >> Of course I would never so much as intimate that George Dance lifted the >> title of his poem from Mr. Springsteen. I would not even imply this >> when I think it highly probable that Mr. Dance has some familiarity with >> Mr. Springsteen's song. Since most titles are intended to call >> attention to a poem's topic, there are many poems and songs that have >> the same titles. > > Indeed I 'm familiar with the song; it's actually a favorite of mine. > And I'm happy to acknowledge the similarities between his work > and mine -- both are about a speaker unable to get closure with his > father, because his father is gone -- though the details of the two > works are completely different. And although I did not consciously > think of the song when I wrote the poem, when I did realize the > titles matched I thought it worked very well as an allusion. > > So I don't mind HarryLiar saying that I "lifted" the title from > Springsttenm, provided that he not does to on to claim, a la > NastyGoon, that I "plagiarized" it. An homage to Springsteen, as I used to see mentioned often in the films of Jean Luc Godard, leader of the French New Wave, an all-time favorite filmmaker.