/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.10633359]

I told someone I was messaging on Tinder that I knew what Radishes means in this Wallace Stevens poem. She's expecting my to tell her when we meet IRL. I've been looking everywhere online for a clue but I have no idea.

Please /lit/, save me

#Cy est Pourtraicte, Madame Ste Ursule, et les Unze Mille Vierges
Ursula, in a garden, found
A bed of radishes.
She kneeled upon the ground
And gathered them,
With flowers around,
Blue, gold, pink, and green.

She dressed in red and gold brocade
And in the grass an offering made
Of radishes and flowers.

She said, "My dear,
Upon your altars,
I have placed
The marguerite and coquelicot,
And roses
Frail as April snow;
But here," she said,
"Where none can see,
I make an offering, in the grass,
Of radishes and flowers."
And then she wept
For fear the Lord would not accept.
The good Lord in His garden sought
New leaf and shadowy tinct,
And they were all His thought.
He heard her low accord,
Half prayer and half ditty,
And He felt a subtle quiver,
That was not heavenly love,
Or pity.

This is not writ
In any book.

[Anonymous No.10633471]

>>10633359
Ha, good luck OP, Stevens is hard as balls

[Anonymous No.10633504]

>>10633471
...having said that, you can't have looked far.

On Google Books, the Reader's Companion to Wallace Stevens suggests the specific choice of radishes is because they appear in a medieval painting (of Saint Ursula? Not sure, you'll need to look it up).

Otherwise, radishes are a humble offering, not particularly exotic. See a blog entry called Stevens Textplication 1: Portrait of Ursula.

For bonus points, this offering can be paralleled with Cain's (of cereals, not meat)- which God had no respect for, of course.

[Anonymous No.10633612]

>>10633359

How does one get himself into such a hilarious predicament?

You deserve what you get, OP.

[Anonymous No.10633667]

>>10633359
Cook her dinner with radishes
then fug

[Anonymous No.10633674]

>>10633359
Post her tinder OP

[Anonymous No.10634132]

well you're all useless

does anybody know what any of this impenetrable shit is about?

[Anonymous No.10634137]

>>10633359
George Costanza?

[Anonymous No.10634382]

Ursule was a virgin martyr, her and her 11,000 virgin handmaids were slaughtered by the huns on a pilgrimage to see the pope (or on the way back, I can't remember)
The radish is her virginity, offered to God and rejected (she was slaughtered)

[Anonymous No.10634417]

>treating poetry as something to solve
Try reading for the aesthetic experience.

[Anonymous No.10634467]

>>10633359
Clever way of getting Anons to do your homework

[Anonymous No.10634473]

>>10634132
The only impenetrable thing around here is your girl after you fail to explainto her what the meaning of the radishes is

[Anonymous No.10634656]

>>10633359
Dicks. All the dicks she could have had but have up to stay chaste in adoration of her Lord. About eleven thousand of them as per Apollinaire's estimate. Only to have the Lord Himself bless her with His holy hard-on (Not heavenly love? Not pity either? Subtle!)
That said, you met a person in Tinder who knows who Wallace Stevens is? What's more, a female? And she's invoked the /lit/-est dick reference in literature? Well now.

[Anonymous No.10634696]

>>10634132

Seems fairly obvious to me.

The flowers are the symbol of femininity (flowers look like vaginas)

The radishes are symbol of masculinity (radishes look like penises)

Ursula is trying to keep her mind on "higher things" - that's why she puts only flowers on the altar - and only "frail" ones.

But "here, where none can see" - she makes the offering dictated by more basic demands. She can't ignore these urges but she's a bit ashamed of them.

Radishes and flowers.

SHE WANTS TO GET LAID

And the good Lord "felt a subtle quiver that was not heavenly love or pity".

Because traditional Christianity has always tended to keep sexuality out of sight.

Of course Stevens might be making some super-clever allusion that I don't recognize. But I don't care all that much. The actual imagery seems pretty conclusive.

[Anonymous No.10634701]

>>10634473

nice

she probably browses here

[Anonymous No.10634768]

>>10634132
I literally answered your question you absolute dip

[Anonymous No.10634792]

it's about pusi

thank me later OP

[Anonymous No.10634827]

>>10633359
>She's expecting my to tell her when we meet IRL
I'd rather explain it by way of planting my bulbous radix deep within the fertile folds of your warming spring soil, bb--is what you say to her, anon.