Caroline Bergvall
“The Summer Tale” is one of Bergvall’s “Shorter Chaucer
Tales” found in her collection
Meddle
English. In a review published of
Meddle
English published in Jacket 2, Charles
Bernstein called the “Chaucer Tales” “
remarkable Chaucerian vocal insinuations and extensions.”
The Summer Tale (Deus Hic, 1)
Rome is the hem home
of ice cream
and for generations, burgeys and pilgrims ylyk,
this glade folk, in joye and blisse at mete,
have forsaken dessert at the Inn
for the simple plesance
of sitting outside with a takeaway cone.
The last Papa Pope Johannes Paulus Tweye,
a preest holy and gay,
used to have tubs of his favourite flavour, marron glacé,
delivered to his summer residence.
Thanked be God, in wele and habundaunce!
But if his successor, Pope Benedict XVI,
wants to see how Polish ice cream compares
during a viage trip there this wyke week,
Get us som mete and drynke, and make us cheere!
he is likely to be apayed a bit disappointed.
‘For many a pastee hastow,
cakes and ice cream can easily go off
in summer temperatures and can pose
a danger to health, that hath been twies hoot
and twies coold’,
a spokeswyf woman for local health bailiffs
quod to Agence France Press.
‘That’s why we’re banning takeaway sales
on the day many pilgrims pilgrims
will be arriving in Wadowice’.
And that isn’t all that has made it
onto the liste of voided banned items.
Areas that the Pope will visiter,
including the citees of Warsaw and Krakow,
will be dry, with a ban on all licour sales while the Papa
is in toun:
For goddes love, drynk moore attemprely!
Polish Mennes of Lawe seyen the ban is in place
to maintain public order and as a mark of respect for the
pontiff.
No drynke which that myghte hem dronke make,
but there in abstinence preye and wake.
Papa Benedict XVI himself
will be offered both red and white wyn.
‘Deus hic!’ quod he, God is here,
as he attends houses of office stuffed with plentee,
a series of solempne gala sopers,
according to local media voys reports.
Television advertisements for licour
have eek also been banned.
Along with those for contraceptives, lingerie and tampons.
Chaast was man in paradys, certeyn.
‘There is alwayes the risk that the faithful may feel hurt
how many maladyes,
folwen of excesse and of goltonyes!
if programming devoted to the Pope’s visit
wedded to poverte and continence,
to charite, humblesse, and abstinence,
is interrupted by frivolous ads.
The body is ay so redy and penyble’,
the heed of advertising for Telewizja Polska,
the state-run TV network,
told the Associated Press news agency.
BBC NEWS 25 May 2006.
Here is endeth the Summer Tale.
PennSound hosts an entire Bergvall page with audio files of interviews, lectures and additional poems. FYI. For a reading of all the "Shorter Chaucer Tales" of which "Summer Tale" is one, scroll about 2/3s down the page.
Polish ice cream ban for papal visit
Rome is the home of ice cream and for
generations, citizens and tourists alike have forsaken dessert in a restaurant
for the simple pleasure of sitting outside with a takeaway cone.
The last Pope, John Paul II, used to have tubs of his favourite
flavour, marron glace, delivered to his summer residence.
But if his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, wants to see how Polish ice
cream compares during a trip there this week, he is likely to be disappointed.
The southern town of Wadowice, where Pope John Paul II was born, has
banned the sale of takeaway ice creams and cream cakes for the duration of the
visit.
"Cakes and ice cream can easily go off in summer temperatures and
can pose a danger to health," Bozena Okreglicka, a spokeswoman for local
health inspectors told AFP. "That's why we're banning takeaway sales on
the day many pilgrims will be arriving in Wadowice."
And that isn't all that has made it onto the list of prohibited items.
Areas that the Pope will visit, including the cities of Warsaw and
Krakow, will be dry, with a ban on all alcohol sales while the Pope is in town.
Polish police say the ban is in place to maintain public order and as
a mark of respect for the pontiff.
Pope Benedict XVI himself will be offered both red and white wine as
he attends a series of gala dinners, according to local media reports.
In fact, television advertisements for alcohol have also been banned,
along with those for contraceptives, lingerie and tampons.
Even a television advert for a new television has been barred. The ad
featuring a couple appearing to have sex promoting the "multiple
pleasures" of LG Phillips television sets is currently only aired late at
night and will not be shown at all during the Pope's visit.
"There is always the risk that the faithful may feel hurt if
programming devoted to the Pope's visit is interrupted by frivolous ads,"
Zbigniew Badziak, head of advertising for Telewizja Polska, the state-run TV
network, told the Associated Press news agency.
Similar advert bans were put in place when John Paul II visited his
homeland, and many companies have already provided toned down versions in preparation
of this latest papal tour.
Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2006/05/25 11:30:45 GMT
Bergvall wrote in her introduction to Meddle English “I would like to make four points. Four short points
about Middling English. The point about the midden. The point about the
middling. The point about the middle. The point about the meddle. The midden,
the middling, the middle, the meddle.” (The introduction is 15 pages long so if
you are interested in seeing it, let me know and I can scan it.(Upon rereading the intro, I think it's really quite good so I will pull the scanner out of the closet and just do it.))
Bergvall refers to the Summer Tale poetic technique as
“micro code switches” with “code switching” being the shift between languages
and linguistic registers.
Theoretically thinking about this poem takes me in two directions.
1. Could the technique of importing an article directly from a newspaper into a poem be theorized according to Robert Smithson's ideas regarding site and non-site?
2. Might "Summer Tale" be read and discussed in conjunction with Wallace Steven's The Emperor of Ice-Cream?
Wallace Stevens, 1879 – 1955
The Emperor of Ice-Cream
Call the roller of big
cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him
whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent
curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in
such dress
As they are used to wear, and
let the boys
Bring flowers in last month’s
newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the
emperor of ice-cream.
Take from the dresser of
deal,
Lacking the three glass
knobs, that sheet
On which she embroidered
fantails once
And spread it so as to cover
her face.
If her horny feet protrude,
they come
To show how cold she is, and
dumb.
Let the lamp affix its beam.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
