William Blake Month: “A Poison Tree”

I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe;
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I water’d it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with my smiles
And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright;
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine,

And into my garden stole
When the night had veil’d the pole:
In the morning, glad I see
My foe outstretch’d beneath the tree.

(William Blake, “A Poison Tree.”)

(I was concerned that the photo credits would break up the rhythm and impact of the poem, so I’m putting them down here.)

top: Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin, Don Juan ou Si Don Juan était une femme…, aka Female Don Juan, aka If Don Juan Was A Woman (Roger Vadim, 1973).

second from top: Jacqueline Sassard and Stéphane Audran, Les Biches (Claude Chabrol, 1968). Spoiler: one is about to stab the other in the back. Interpret freely and watch for yourself.

third: “Grand Apple Face” by patron saint Sam Haskins. In-camera photo montage before the age of photoshop. Amazing. RIP.

last: “Poisoned with love” by miss- alienation on the d.a.

Music Moment: Clare Quilty, “Snow White”

Dark but delicious.

Clare Quilty – Snow White

Shalom Harlow by David LaChapelle

Now-defunct Charlottesville, VA rockers Clare Quilty have a cool, industrial-cum-punk, girl-fronted sound like Garbage or Snake River Conspiracy. They took their name from the character in the Nabokov novel and subsequent film adapations (in which his part was considerably beefed up) of Lolita. It seems that they parted ways after just a couple albums. I’ll come back to them another day because they had a cool sound and I’m not totally clear on what happened with their breakup (it was news to me when I went to grab their official site link and it was down … then when I cruised the wiki, it said they’d split).

This track, “Snow White,” comes from their second LP, Strong, and at first seems to be about getting murdered during rape, but I think if you listen carefully there’s a case to be made that it’s actually about a twisted relationship, or just some good old-fashioned masochistic consensual sex.

How can I get away from you?
Why must I watch the things you do?
What does it mean that you want a piece,
to my shattered skull and my broken knees?

“Snow White” by Maagda Lenka on deviantart.com

Oh, oh,
Oh, oh,
Snow White
Snow White

How can you say that you want the truth
when the words in which I’ve spoken are far from you?
Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Let’s beat Jack with a candlestick

“Snow White” by Jozy Chen on deviantart

Oh, oh,
Oh, oh,
Snow White
Snow White

Oh, oh,
Oh, oh,
Snow White
Snow White

“Snow White: The Poison Apple” by Cyril Helnwein.

How can I be all the things you want me to
with my twisted neck and my fingers blue
Your voice in my throat, your rage in my pants
my movements suggest an obedient dance

Oh, oh,
Oh, oh,

Oh, oh,
Oh, oh,
Snow White
Snow White

by Courtney Brims

Either way. Love: sometimes it is a poisoned apple.