You’re beautiful
Jun. 13th, 2007 07:44 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
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Bit like pop lyrics , but comes in handy during early days of courting. ;)
You’re beautiful
because you’re classically trained
I’m ugly because I associate piano wire with strangulation
You’re beautiful
because you stop to read the cards in newsagents’ windows
about lost cats and missing dogs.
I’m ugly because of what I did to that jellyfish
with a lolly-stick and a big stone.
You're beautiful because for you, politeness is instinctive, not a marketing
campaign.
I’m ugly because desperation is impossible to hide.
Ugly like he is,
Beautiful like hers,
Beautiful like Venus,
Ugly like his,
Beautiful like she is,
Ugly like Mars.
You’re beautiful because you believe in coincidence and the power of thought.
I’m ugly because I proved God to be a mathematical impossibility.
You’re beautiful because you prefer homemade soup to the packet stuff.
I’m ugly because once, at a dinner party,
I defended the aristocracy and wasn’t even drunk.
You’re beautiful because you can’t work the remote control.
I’m ugly because of satellite television and twenty-four hour rolling news.
Ugly like he is,
Beautiful like hers,
Beautiful like Venus,
Ugly like his,
Beautiful like she is,
Ugly like Mars.
~Simon Armitage
You’re beautiful
because you’re classically trained
I’m ugly because I associate piano wire with strangulation
You’re beautiful
because you stop to read the cards in newsagents’ windows
about lost cats and missing dogs.
I’m ugly because of what I did to that jellyfish
with a lolly-stick and a big stone.
You're beautiful because for you, politeness is instinctive, not a marketing
campaign.
I’m ugly because desperation is impossible to hide.
Ugly like he is,
Beautiful like hers,
Beautiful like Venus,
Ugly like his,
Beautiful like she is,
Ugly like Mars.
You’re beautiful because you believe in coincidence and the power of thought.
I’m ugly because I proved God to be a mathematical impossibility.
You’re beautiful because you prefer homemade soup to the packet stuff.
I’m ugly because once, at a dinner party,
I defended the aristocracy and wasn’t even drunk.
You’re beautiful because you can’t work the remote control.
I’m ugly because of satellite television and twenty-four hour rolling news.
Ugly like he is,
Beautiful like hers,
Beautiful like Venus,
Ugly like his,
Beautiful like she is,
Ugly like Mars.
You’re beautiful because you cry at weddings as well as funerals.
I’m ugly because I think of children as another species from a different world.
You're beautiful because you look great in any colour including red.
I’m ugly because I think shopping is strictly for the acquisition of material goods.
You’re beautiful because when you were born, undiscovered planets
lined up to peep over the rim of your cradle and lay gifts of gravity and light
at your miniature feet.
I’m ugly for saying “love at first sight” is another form of mistaken identity,
and that the most human of all the responses is to gloat.
Ugly like he is,
Beautiful like hers,
Beautiful like Venus,
Ugly like his,
Beautiful like she is,
Ugly like Mars.
You’re beautiful because you’ve never seen inside of a car wash.
I’m ugly because I always ask for a receipt
You’re beautiful for sending a box of shoes to the third World
I’m ugly because I remember the telephone numbers of my ex-girlfriends
and the year Schubert was born
You’re beautiful because you sponsored a parrot in a zoo.
I’m ugly because when I sigh it’s like a slow collapse of a circus tent.
Ugly like he is,
Beautiful like hers,
Beautiful like Venus,
Ugly like his,
Beautiful like she is,
Ugly like Mars.
You’re beautiful because you can point at a man in a uniform and laugh.
I am ugly because I was a police informer in my own previous life
You’re beautiful because you drink a litre of water and eat three pieces of fruit a day.
I’m ugly for taking the line that a meal without meat is a beautiful woman with
one eye.
You’re beautiful because you don’t see love as a competition and you know how
To lose.
I’m ugly because I kissed the FA cup and the held it up to the crowd.
You’re beautiful because of the single buttercup in the top buttonhole of your cardigan
I’m ugly because I said the world’s strongest woman is a muscle man in a
Dress.
You’re beautiful because you couldn’t live in a lighthouse.
I’m ugly for making hand shadows in front of the giant bulb, so when they look up, the captains of vessels in distress see the ears of rabbit, eye of a fox and the legs of a galloping black horse.
Ugly like he is,
Beautiful like hers,
Beautiful like Venus,
Ugly like his,
Beautiful like she is,
Ugly like Mars.
Ugly like he is,
Beautiful like hers,
Beautiful like Venus,
Ugly like his,
Beautiful like she is,
Ugly like Mars.
I’m ugly because I think of children as another species from a different world.
You're beautiful because you look great in any colour including red.
I’m ugly because I think shopping is strictly for the acquisition of material goods.
You’re beautiful because when you were born, undiscovered planets
lined up to peep over the rim of your cradle and lay gifts of gravity and light
at your miniature feet.
I’m ugly for saying “love at first sight” is another form of mistaken identity,
and that the most human of all the responses is to gloat.
Ugly like he is,
Beautiful like hers,
Beautiful like Venus,
Ugly like his,
Beautiful like she is,
Ugly like Mars.
You’re beautiful because you’ve never seen inside of a car wash.
I’m ugly because I always ask for a receipt
You’re beautiful for sending a box of shoes to the third World
I’m ugly because I remember the telephone numbers of my ex-girlfriends
and the year Schubert was born
You’re beautiful because you sponsored a parrot in a zoo.
I’m ugly because when I sigh it’s like a slow collapse of a circus tent.
Ugly like he is,
Beautiful like hers,
Beautiful like Venus,
Ugly like his,
Beautiful like she is,
Ugly like Mars.
You’re beautiful because you can point at a man in a uniform and laugh.
I am ugly because I was a police informer in my own previous life
You’re beautiful because you drink a litre of water and eat three pieces of fruit a day.
I’m ugly for taking the line that a meal without meat is a beautiful woman with
one eye.
You’re beautiful because you don’t see love as a competition and you know how
To lose.
I’m ugly because I kissed the FA cup and the held it up to the crowd.
You’re beautiful because of the single buttercup in the top buttonhole of your cardigan
I’m ugly because I said the world’s strongest woman is a muscle man in a
Dress.
You’re beautiful because you couldn’t live in a lighthouse.
I’m ugly for making hand shadows in front of the giant bulb, so when they look up, the captains of vessels in distress see the ears of rabbit, eye of a fox and the legs of a galloping black horse.
Ugly like he is,
Beautiful like hers,
Beautiful like Venus,
Ugly like his,
Beautiful like she is,
Ugly like Mars.
Ugly like he is,
Beautiful like hers,
Beautiful like Venus,
Ugly like his,
Beautiful like she is,
Ugly like Mars.
~Simon Armitage
no subject
Date: 2007-06-13 06:59 pm (UTC)"You’re beautiful because when you were born, undiscovered planets
lined up to peep over the rim of your cradle and lay gifts of gravity and light
at your miniature feet."
Thanks for sharing!
no subject
Date: 2007-06-13 07:10 pm (UTC)To me the lines you have quoted seemed bit superfluous. In itself it is beautiful but in the context it somehow came across forced. Well anyway, its poetry and perceptions.
Personally I could relate better to--
You’re beautiful because of the single buttercup in the top buttonhole of your cardigan
And yes the chorus is profligate thoughtlessness. For me , at least.
Thanks
no subject
Date: 2007-06-13 08:06 pm (UTC)You’re beautiful because you’ve never seen inside of a car wash.
I’m ugly because I always ask for a receipt
You’re beautiful for sending a box of shoes to the third World
I’m ugly because I remember the telephone numbers of my ex-girlfriends
and the year Schubert was born
but by and large, I'm sadly not sold. The chorus is too icky to even really comment on -- it reminds me of a chant the witches in Macbeth should be saying around their cauldron -- and I don't really buy the concepts of what is ugly versus what is beautiful here because there's no consistent theme to them. Sometimes, the "ugly" example is decidedly more beautiful than the "beautiful" example (which I suppose is Armitage making a social comment), but there's no rhyme or reason to it so it doesn't work for me.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-13 08:28 pm (UTC)Its interesting to note how we carry around the impression of a poet from his/her one poem thats has touched us. Thats the point. To see a poet beyond a poem, that he or she exists outside the propietorship of our most favourite poem. So it is quite understandble if Simon armitage doesnt sell for everyone all the time. Lest he would be an ipod.
Thanks for the comments
cheers
no subject
Date: 2007-06-14 04:43 am (UTC)Interesting, care to elaborate?
And I'll dislike the poem a bit less if I understand that it's purposefully mocking, or at least highlighting , our current ideas of gendered-traits and its intersection with beauty, and our current means of taking in information. If this poem is not so much a "poem" as it is social commentary...well then, that's a bit better.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-14 04:53 am (UTC)This poem got quite a reaction from me. I saw it as a celebration of all the ideas that I so highly dislike, such as the inequalities present in our current gender system, and our culture infantilization of women and the link we've created between that and "beauty," the limiting constraints of social expectations on men's expression of certain humanistic traits, and so on. Plus the actual structure of the poem- the ugly and commercial fragmentation, the reduction of the poem to "sound-bite" status, the unnecessary "chorus"... All of this taken together, along with the strong reaction it produced here, is actually highly effective as a sort of social commentary, or political poem. So if that was his intention (I've unfortunately never heard of him before), then I'd have to say that it was pretty brilliant.
Oh, and I posted below obviously before reading what you wrote up here, so I was still stuck on what I disliked about it.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-16 10:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-13 08:25 pm (UTC)"OMGzzz women are liiike, so delicate, childish, pretty, innocent, fragile and kind and I'm a big clumsy mean logical man! I'm going to go worship the pretty little thing now, and bemoan my mathematical man-mind."
no subject
Date: 2007-06-13 08:36 pm (UTC)Speaking for myself I dont discriminate in my love, be it a feminist or afeminist.
cheers
no subject
Date: 2007-06-14 01:23 am (UTC)Yeah, but it's not.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-14 04:39 am (UTC)It doesn't matter which sex wrote the poem, it's the sentiments of the poem. It's not expressing love for a person, it's objectification at its best. It's the worship of a whole slew of stereotypes, essentially delegating the scientific/worldly/logical role to the man, and the fresh/innocent/kindly role to the woman, and then worshiping that bundle of stereotypes. Of course we know people who "don't fit the stereotype," and that's exactly my point- we're all individuals. "Gender" is a faulty concept in itself, and is, at the very least, not something that's static and inherent to individuals, but a set of reactions to social expectations. But that's another story :P
If you want a poem that I consider really right on, romantic, and with considerable depth and understanding, check out No more Cliches (http://www.panhala.net/Archive/No_More_Cliches.html), by Octavio Paz.
(PS- none of this is meant as an attack on you, I hope you know and I'm sure you're awesome. You do dig poetry, and no one who digs poetry can be that bad :) It's just my issues with the poet)
no subject
Date: 2007-06-14 08:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-13 08:52 pm (UTC)Plus, I think it would be beautiful to be able to live in a lighthouse (http://www.xckd.com/c59.html).
no subject
Date: 2007-06-13 11:12 pm (UTC)It seems rather a "I'm pessimistic and jaded, you're soft-hearted and naive, let me put you on this pedestal and worship you" kind of love-- which does tend to pair with traditional gender roles. Still has some nice lines, though. =)
I'm new here, hi.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-14 04:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-14 05:54 am (UTC)I'm actually going to grad school. Can I visit your lighthouse? ;)
no subject
Date: 2007-06-14 08:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-14 07:12 pm (UTC)Maybe it comes across better in performance, but it sounds really sexist on paper, authorial intent be damned.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-14 01:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-14 01:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-14 08:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-14 02:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-14 03:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-14 08:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-14 08:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-14 08:15 am (UTC)To the lighthouse ladies,
Date: 2007-06-14 04:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-16 10:49 am (UTC)