Memory is a funny thing,one thing gets linked with another.
As a child i was fascinated by the song Ode To Billie Joe by Bobbi Gentry,partly because its a ’story’ song,something i find it hard to resist,partly because it deals with death,partly because it deals with suicide,partly because it deals with a loss of innocence,but mostly because of the slightly bizarre way the lyrics switch back and forth between the tragedy of Billie Joe’s death and the everyday,almost humdrum lives of the characters in the song.It’s magnificently well written.
Something else which also used to fascinate me as a child was the poem ‘Out-Out’ by Robert Frost.Like Ode To Billie Joe it deals with pretty similar ideas,death,loss of innocence,everyday life continuing no matter what.In it’s own way it’s masterfully written.I first ran across it at school,in English class i was given some other poem to study,Out-Out was on the opposite page of the book,and was far more interesting,so much so,i no longer remember the poem i was meant to be studying and wolfed down the words of Frost instead.
I think part of the reason these are linked to me is that they were amongst the first things i heard/read that deal with death when i was at an age to actually understand the concept properly.Now i can’t hear the song without thinking of the poem.
Anyway,if Frost lights your fire,theres a good deal of his work available online
