Post by Juliet on Nov 26, 2002 1:25:36 GMT -5
You must read this play at once. It's certainly among the best modern plays I've ever read, perhaps unmatched in graceful poetry, wit, and ironic, ascendant romantic glory.
Christopher Fry has been compared to Shakespeare, and while I'd normally bristle at such a comparison, I find myself pressed to agree. He isn't a Shakespearean copy; his plays are in verse, but they have the spryness and humor of modernity, paired with their part classical, part contemporary rhythm. But his poetry is masterful, his metaphors and one liners sparkling, and the play in whole a glowing masterpiece. And yes, it is one of the least sappy, and yet most romantic things you will ever read.
For a taste:
"Such white doves were paddling in the sunshine
And the trees were as bright as a shower of broken glass
Out there, in the sparkling air, the sun and the rain
Clash together like cymbals clashing
When David did his dance. I've an April blindness.
You're hidden in a cloud of crimson Catherine-wheels."
And that's only on the sixth page!
A little further, for his wit:
"What after all, is a halo? It's only one more thing to keep clean. "
And a personal favorite: "I only passed one small girl in a shady ditch telling the beads of her daisy chain."
In short, I haven't the rhetoric to speak for this book, there is simply too much wonder in it to copy out . Go out now, read it, and then come back here so we can discuss it together.
~Juliet~
Christopher Fry has been compared to Shakespeare, and while I'd normally bristle at such a comparison, I find myself pressed to agree. He isn't a Shakespearean copy; his plays are in verse, but they have the spryness and humor of modernity, paired with their part classical, part contemporary rhythm. But his poetry is masterful, his metaphors and one liners sparkling, and the play in whole a glowing masterpiece. And yes, it is one of the least sappy, and yet most romantic things you will ever read.
For a taste:
"Such white doves were paddling in the sunshine
And the trees were as bright as a shower of broken glass
Out there, in the sparkling air, the sun and the rain
Clash together like cymbals clashing
When David did his dance. I've an April blindness.
You're hidden in a cloud of crimson Catherine-wheels."
And that's only on the sixth page!
A little further, for his wit:
"What after all, is a halo? It's only one more thing to keep clean. "
And a personal favorite: "I only passed one small girl in a shady ditch telling the beads of her daisy chain."
In short, I haven't the rhetoric to speak for this book, there is simply too much wonder in it to copy out . Go out now, read it, and then come back here so we can discuss it together.
~Juliet~