Fear by Charles Simic (7/10/2013)

[Claire]

Fear passes from man to man

Unknowing,

As one leaf passes its shudder

To another.

All at once the whole tree is trembling.

And there is no sign of the wind

[Claire]

So many poems to choose from, but rather than posting a more familiar one I chose this one that might be less known to everyone. Since reading this poem nothing has come close to capturing the essence of fear. When I think about it I just have this vision of a tree slowly beginning to tremble on a calm summer's day - very eerie, but that is why I think it is so beautiful.

[Dhanaraj]

The emotion of fear is excellently captured in the poem. Few lines but the images used are very apt to describe the feeling of fear.

[Shirley]

Sometimes the simplest ones are the best! I like the simplicity of this - leaves you with a vivid picture in your mind's eye.

[Gill]

What a lovely poem . Great image. I don't know about Simic. Has he written a lot of poems?

[Leslie]

Wonderful imagery! And so true about fear being contagious.

[Jenny]

Ah that's beautiful Claire! Thanks for posting!

[Amber]

Nice. ^_^

[[deleted user]]

Very beautiful. The imagery is striking. Whilst I respect long epic poetry, the cleverness with words needed to create such feeling in a few lines is truly impressive

[Alannah]

Wonderful imagery from such a short poem. Like Heather says I also find shorter poems to be more cleverer than the longer ones as you can create so much out of so little.

[LauraT]

I feel the same with sadness ....

[LauraT]

Alannah wrote: "Wonderful imagery from such a short poem. Like Heather says I also find shorter poems to be more cleverer than the longer ones as you can create so much out of so little."

One of the most famopus italian poem is "Autumn", by
Ungaretti Giuseppe. It talks about dying in WWI
Si sta come d'autunno
sugli alberi
le foglie
We stay as in Autumn
on trees
the leaves)

[Dhanaraj]

@ Laura T: I loved the imagery of Giuseppe Ungaretti and the way he used it to describe the life span of a person. Recently I read few interesting things on Giuseppe Ungaretti and Giacomo Leopardi. I had decide to try them. Now that this quote makes me want to read them soon enough.
How is Giacomo Leopardi?

[LauraT]

Dhanaraj wrote: "@ Laura T: I loved the imagery of Giuseppe Ungaretti and the way he used it to describe the life span of a person. Recently I read few interesting things on Giuseppe Ungaretti and Giacomo Leopardi...."

Exactly the opposite of Ungaretti: the one is short and incisive, the other long and "wordy". But I love them both.
Leopardi is one of our most important - and good! - poet. From "L'Infinito" to "A Silvia" or one of his last "La ginestra" are all poems we study almost by heart in school.
Ungaretti belongs to what we call "ermetismo", a poetic trend which, as the title express itself (ermetico=obscure, inscrutable), wanted not to explain things, describe them, but just giving the hint, a glimps ... Many of his poems are extremely short; a part that I've quoted before, the most famous is
Mattina
Mi illumino d'immenso
(Something like
Morning
I Light up with immensity
- I know the translation is horrible!!!!)

[Dhanaraj]

Thanks.......Laura T.

[LauraT]

You're welcome

[Sigourney]

Oh wow, I love this, thanks for posting Claire! I love poems that are really short but powerful.

[Helen]

What a beautifully crafted poem. Simic is new to me - I must go and read some more.

[Patrick]

It's a great example of an effective short poem. Simic has many good poms.