The Poem Meadow Reads Tony

1
Sorry in advance if this has been discussed and I just missed it. haven't seen. (poem posted in full below)

I finally took time to look up some info about the poem Meadow starts to read to Tony. The take on the "Lord's Prayer"

"our father, who art in heaven, stay there, and we will stay on earth where it's sometimes so pretty ...'''

she says the poem is by Jacque Prevert (1900-77)

some info I found online about Prevert:

He was a French poet and screenwriter associated with surrealism and Pataphysics, and his poems are typically about life in Paris and life after the Second World War. His poems are widely taught in French schools, though in the U.S. and elsewhere many of his works have been deemed inappropriate for high school.
He apparently was an atheist (I guess a requirement for French surrealist) and he's described as rabidly anti-cleric.

Wikipedia definition of prataphysics (i'm hoping I'm not only one who didn't immediately know what this was)

'Pataphysics, a term coined by the French writer Alfred Jarry, is a philosophy dedicated to studying what lies beyond the realm of metaphysics.'

whoa, BEYOND the realm of metaphysics?! I was busy enough dealing with the metaphysical in this episode ...

as to the poem itself, apparently it's considered an 'anti-religious masterpiece' by some.

On first read, I'm thinking a) Tony will be staying on earth for now and b) it's as if Chase wove this in as a counterpoint to all the religious and spiritual themes/messages in the episode (though I don't think it negates those themes at all.)
c) it shows how much Meadow wants her father to stick around, with his earthly flaws at all. not that we all didn't know this -but one thing that struck me about the episode was lack of bedside prayer, father Phil, Carmela going to the hospital chapel.

I didn't even see Carmela holding a rosary or putting a cross on tony (remember Chris had the Pope pin put on him by someone when he was in critical condition?) not that i don't think this an appropriate response, just that it magnifies how much the family is pulling for Tony to stay with them. and of course as smarter people than me have pointed out, it contrasts with all the religious/spiritual themes in the Kevin Finnerty world.

title: Pater Noster (our father)

Our Father who is in heaven
Stay there
And we'll stay here on earth
Which is sometimes so pretty
With its mysteries of New York
And its mysteries of Paris
At least as good as that of the Trinity
With its little canal at Ourcq
Its great wall of China
Its river at Morlaix
Its candy canes With its Pacific Ocean
And its two basins in the Tuileries
With its good children and bad people
With all the wonders of the world
Which are here Simply on the earth
Offered to everyone
Strewn about
Wondering at the wonder of themselves
And daring not avow it
As a naked pretty girl dares not show herself
With the world's outrageous misfortunes Which are legion
With legionaries With torturers With the masters of this world
The masters with their priests their traitors and their troops
With the seasons With the years
With the pretty girls and with the old bastards
With the straw of misery rotting in the steel of cannons.



</p>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p098.ezboard.com/bthechaselounge ... daMaria</A> at: 3/24/06 6:18 pm

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