Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Did you ever see this movie? I watched it over the weekend and was reminded just how much I love it. It is Jim Carey being serious, but really good at it. Although to be honest, I thought he did fine in Truman Show (incidentally, my favorite scene in that one is when is wife starts doing the advertisement for the people watching and he's like...who are you talking to? what the hell are you talking about?...so funny). Anyway, Kate Winslett has a perfect American accent, and she gives an amazing performance. The idea behind the movie is really cool and unusual, and more than that, I think the idea behind it is really romantic.

The movie title is based on the Alexander Pope poem Eloisa to Abelard, and it amazes me to no end that people can write such amazing poetry in iambic meter. I guess it must be a skill that you can acquire, but for me to try and do that now would take so much time and so much tinkering. The end result is so cool though when you're reading it out loud and hear the rhythm of the poetry. Anyone know what the opposite of iambic meter is? I'll let you answer in the comments section.

I did want to include a couple of excerpts from the Pope poem. The story behind the poem is that there is a girl who falls in love with her teacher, and before they can really start a romance her family castrates him. Yikes, I know. Anyway, what she pleads for is forgetfulness. Following is one excerpt I thought was pretty cool:

Thou know'st how guiltless first I met thy flame,
When Love approach'd me under Friendship's name;
My fancy form'd thee of angelic kind,
Some emanation of th' all-beauteous Mind.
Those smiling eyes, attemp'ring ev'ry day,
Shone sweetly lambent with celestial day.
Guiltless I gaz'd; heav'n listen'd while you sung;
And truths divine came mended from that tongue.
From lips like those what precept fail'd to move?
Too soon they taught me 'twas no sin to love.
Back through the paths of pleasing sense I ran,
Nor wish'd an Angel whom I lov'd a Man.
Dim and remote the joys of saints I see;
Nor envy them, that heav'n I lose for thee.

and then the one pertinent to, and mentioned, in the film:

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd;
Labour and rest, that equal periods keep;
"Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep;"
Desires compos'd, affections ever ev'n,
Tears that delight, and sighs that waft to Heav'n.
Grace shines around her with serenest beams,
And whisp'ring angels prompt her golden dreams.
For her th' unfading rose of Eden blooms,
And wings of seraphs shed divine perfumes,
For her the Spouse prepares the bridal ring,
For her white virgins hymeneals sing,
To sounds of heav'nly harps she dies away,
And melts in visions of eternal day.

Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven is in the meter that's opposite of iambic. Read the poem and check it out for yourself, but the rhythm is really cool. And you can hear it in the clip that follows. How sad would this world be without James Earl Jones' voice?

"Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!" I love the way Homer says those lines.