The Literary Corner: Ghostface Killah & Gerard Manley Hopkins
AUDIO By David D. on October 18, 2009 at 4:10 pmIn my past life, I majored in English at Davidson and came across a multitude of poetry. Naturally, I would look for connections between the fathers of poetry and our modern-day Hip-Hoppers. I’ve been able to find a few similarities and parallels that I’m going to show you from time to time.
For our first installment we will look at the similarities between one Gerard Manley Hopkins and Ghostface Killah.
Tale of the Tape
Gerard Manley Hopkins was born in 1844 in England. Hopkins struggled through most of his life to balance his fervent religious values (he converted to Catholicism in 1866) and his homosexuality. Hopkins died after experiencing years of diarrhea and typhoid fever.
Ghostface Killah: Dennis Coles comes from Shaolin or Staten Island as some people refer to it. He is a Muslim who has integrated his religion into his rhymes. He has made many songs about his adventures with the fairer sex. Ghostface is a diabetic. Arguably, his most critically-acclaimed album is Supreme Clientele which features stream of conscious lyrics and non-sequitors galore.
The Link
Gerard Manley Hopkins spent a considerable amount of his poetry career trying to, well, sound fly. One of his main concerns as a writer was the way words sounded. He played around with language in way previously unforeseen in poetry. We loved the way words bounced of the pages, focusing on internal rhymes and sounds to drive his literature.
Arguably his most famous poem that employs his wordplay is “As Kingfishers Catch Fire”:
“As king fishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying What I do is me: for that I came.”
Peep the internal rhyme. These are as much lines to a poem as they are bars. The meaning becomes secondary to the words’ presentation.
Does this sound like anything else to you guys?
Exactly. Supreme Clientele. Do you know what Ghost is spitting on “Nutmeg?” Me neither, but the way the syllables smack into each other only to ricochet off of more rhymes have make Ghost’s verses on that song legendary:
“Scientific, my hand, kiss it
Robotic listed, gotta miss it
You probably missed it watch my dolly-dick it…”
Listen to “Nutmeg” again and you can see distinct similarities with Hopkins’ “Duns Scotus’s Oxford”:
“Towery city and branchy between towers;
Cuckoo-echoing, bell-swarmèd, lark-charmèd, rook-racked, river-rounded;
The dapple-eared lily below thee; that country and town did
Once encounter in, here coped and poisèd powers…”
Look at the string of made-up, conjoined words in the second line. You could almost fit a “Scooby snack Jurassic plastic gassed booby trap” into one of Hopkins’ works and not miss a beat.
Ghost and Hopkins would go on to make more coherent poetry throughout their lives. But they both faced distinct moments in their careers where the words were the poetry. The musicality of assonance and alliteration became the focus of their works.
Thanks for tuning in to the TSS Literary Corner. Check us next time when we take on Wordsworth and Coleridge and their connection to Speakerboxx/The Love Below.
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Posted in AUDIO, EDUTAINMENT, Everything Else, MUSIC, SMOKE BREAK, STRAY SHOTS — Tags: Gerard Manley Hopkins, Ghostface Killah, Poetry, Supreme Clientele
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30 Comments
damn…nice read!
I always hated poetry. It’s always too interpretive lol. I think most poets just sat around doing opium or angel dust, then writing down some gibberish.
fantastic idea. keep em coming…
That’s a great analysis David, both writer’s minds often eschew a flurry of esoteric, which initially may come across as being illogical.
However, the more you read between the lines, the easier it is un-decypher the code, although, that being said is the glass half empty, or half full? Different minds register different intepretations:-
Hopkins writes:-
“As king fishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells”
This relates to a kingfisher, which of course is a bird, diving towards a well, which contains a meal in the form of dragonflies. The kingfisher consumes life and became death, because it took the fire of life from the dragonfly and extinguished it’s flame.
Fire can burn and cause death, but the irony here is that the whole episode unfolded within a rim of a stony well, a well contains water, and water gives life. In actual fact, water is the origin of all life within the universe, here, you have the dissection of two elements ie fire and water, and how they play their part in giving life and taking away life.
Ghostface said:-
“Scientific, my hand, kiss it
Robotic listed, gotta miss it
You probably missed it watch my dolly-dick it…”
Starks is talking about how the science of his mind is penned down by his hand, he has many male and female fans who are in adoration of his swagger and poetical ability. So as a sign of respect, he’ll let you kiss the hand which he uses to pen his rhymes with.
Robotic listed, refers to the system ala the famous Pink Floyd lyric, all in all you’re just another brick in the wall. Or just another statistic within the Matrix. So Starks is saying that he’s gotta miss it meaning got to breakaway from the system because he is more than just another brick in the wall.
You probably missed it, watch my dolly-dick it. He is re-affirming his hetrosexuality with this line, in that yes he may let male fans kiss his hand out of respect, but do not intepret this, that he is soft, he is most definitely, strictly a ladies man, dolly, is short for dolly bird, which of course is a sexually attractive female. Starks is saying that he indulges in intercourse with attractive females, so watch him go.
End.
Man Paw, I know I’m wrong for saying this but you sure can be a Debbie Downer w/those essays. It’s like Greums w/a grasp of the English language.
*dead*
@ Paw … fucking awesome!
both writer’s minds often ESHEW a flurry of esoteric, which initially may come across as being illogical.
if only your interpretations were as flawless as your vocabulary.
@Gotty, I know man, it’s pretty crazy huh, ha ha. ;)
@Arthur, well thanks for pointing that out Mr Spellcheck, please feel free to help yourself to a Mountain Dew from the vending machine. My treat, of course. ;)
LOL
There’s a few of you I’d be afraid to meet in person.
it aint spellcheck … its definition buddy … and esoteric isn’t a noun … so you couldn’t eschew it, even if you were using that word properly …
it aint about being a lame internet grammer-nerd, its about being able to take seriously any sort of literary commentary that badly misuses two words in the first sentence.
awwwww shit…we done got uppity in the comments
lmfao @ gotty’s assessment of paw.
theres some fucking heat in them stray shots yall.
I keep telling yall, you can’t read a Baby Paw post directly. It is like looking into the sun. lol
It’s like Greums w/a grasp of the English language.
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Damn… Now that you think about it.
Y’all are giving both these mofo too much credit
Ironman > Supreme Clientele
negative….supreme clientele is a beter lyrical effort with edgier production.
David, dope concept you have going here. Keep this going. You’re probably going to help someone with an English paper with this series.
Supreme Clientele was lyrically better regarding the stories told on it. Collectively I prefer Ironman’s lyrics and the Cuban linxish vibe it has.
As far as production. As good as SC production is ….Nobody and nothing was fuking with RZA from 93-97 behind the boards….not even a well produced SC album.
Both are classic’s tho..that have stood the test of time.
I like what you’re starting, David. The Stray Shots are fire, too.
and I’m DYING @ Gotty’s comments on Paw.
“It’s like Greums w/a grasp of the English language.”
David, dope concept you have going here. Keep this going. You’re probably going to help someone with an English paper with this series.
————————————————————————-
he may already have!!!! haha. gracias!
dont be a shark aggin.
it aint spellcheck … its definition buddy … and esoteric isn’t a noun … so you couldn’t eschew it, even if you were using that word properly …
it aint about being a lame internet grammer-nerd, its about being able to take seriously any sort of literary commentary that badly misuses two words in the first sentence.
_______________________________________________________________________
Well I guess you put me in my place Arthur (F Murray Abraham).
I hope you can forgive me for being so flagrant with my execution of vocabulary. I guess it must be the nano liquid orbs in the atmosphere that force to behave so capriciously.
Why don’t we make my offering of gratis a can of Mountain Dew and a Snickers bar, deal? Cool, well let’s shake on that, me ole mucker, ciao, ciao, and thanks for being such a good sport.
@David, yeah man, this is a cool feature, keep up the good work, kudos! :)
I just wanna know who pissed in arthur’s cornflakes
maybe im wrong, but was it not until kane and rakim that we started focusing on making multisyllabic rhymes? it seems in poetry thats not important, as well as song lyrics. you hear about internal rhymes and ABAB rhyme schemes in poetry, but not many people were rhyming antidisestablishmentarianism with ” man my shit is savage i carry the rhythm” (dont bite my shit). It seems like that wouldve popularized in english literature before 1985. Now its not popular again as the most popular rappers have rhymes no more complex than swag and gucci rag. just a thought
Cool! I also majored in English at a liberal arts college so I know what you mean. Have you heard of Book of Rhymes by Adam Bradley? He talks about this same type of rhyme, in particular John Skelton from the 15th century and compares him to Fabolous. Shit’s mad old yo!
You should write about how most rap is in iambic pentameter for your next installment, I think non-English majors might enjoy it a bit more.