Part 10 (2/2)
Certainly in those poems the decorative rhythm and the meaning are absolutely one.
With no dancing evolutions, the author of this book has chanted John Brown and King Solomon for the last two years for many audiences. It took but a minute to teach the people the responses. As a rule they had no advance notice they were going to sing.
The versifier sang the parts of the King and Queen in turn, and found each audience perfectly willing to be the oxen, the sweethearts, the swans, the sons, the shepherds, etc.
A year ago the writer had the honor of chanting for the Florence Fleming Noyes school of dancers. In one short evening they made the first section of the Congo into an incantation, the King Solomon into an extraordinarily graceful series of tableaus, and the Potatoes'
Dance into a veritable whirlwind. Later came the more elaborately prepared Chicago experiment.
In the King of Yellow b.u.t.terflies and the Potatoes' Dance Miss Dougherty occupied the entire eye of the audience and interpreted, while the versifier chanted the poems as a semi-invisible orchestra, by the side of the curtain. For Aladdin and for King Solomon Miss Dougherty and the writer divided the stage between them, but the author was little more than the orchestra. The main intention was carried out, which was to combine the work of the dancer with the words of the production and the responses of the audience.
The present rhymer has no ambitions as a stage manager. The Poem Game idea, in its rhythmic picnic stage, is recommended to amateurs, its further development to be on their own initiative. Informal parties might divide into groups of dancers and groups of chanters. The whole might be worked out in the spirit in which children play King William was King James' Son, London Bridge, or As We Go Round the Mulberry Bush.
And the author of this book would certainly welcome the tragic dance, if Miss Dougherty will gather a company about her and go forward, using any acceptable poems, new or old. Swinburne's Atalanta in Calydon is perhaps the most literal and rhythmic example of the idea we have in English, though it may not be available when tried out.
The main revolution necessary for dancing improvisers, who would go a longer way with the Poem Game idea, is to shake off the Isadora Duncan and the Russian precedents for a while, and abolish the orchestra and piano, replacing all these with the natural meaning and cadences of English speech. The work would come closer to acting, than dancing is now conceived.
The King of Yellow b.u.t.terflies
(A Poem Game.)
The King of Yellow b.u.t.terflies, The King of Yellow b.u.t.terflies, The King of Yellow b.u.t.terflies, Now orders forth his men.
He says ”The time is almost here When violets bloom again.”
Adown the road the fickle rout Goes flas.h.i.+ng proud and bold, Adown the road the fickle rout Goes flas.h.i.+ng proud and bold, Adown the road the fickle rout Goes flas.h.i.+ng proud and bold, They s.h.i.+ver by the shallow pools, They s.h.i.+ver by the shallow pools, They s.h.i.+ver by the shallow pools, And whimper of the cold.
They drink and drink. A frail pretense!
They love to pose and preen.
Each pool is but a looking gla.s.s, Where their sweet wings are seen.
Each pool is but a looking gla.s.s, Where their sweet wings are seen.
Each pool is but a looking gla.s.s, Where their sweet wings are seen.
Gentlemen adventurers! Gypsies every whit!
They live on what they steal. Their wings By briars are frayed a bit.
Their loves are light. They have no house.
And if it rains today, They'll climb into your cattle-shed, They'll climb into your cattle-shed, They'll climb into your cattle-shed, And hide them in the hay, And hide them in the hay, And hide them in the hay, And hide them in the hay.
The Potatoes' Dance
(A Poem Game.)
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