Stone Hammer

            On Saturday morning I started working out the chords to “Barcelone" by Boris Vian. 

            I finished memorizing the second chorus of “Privé” by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            At around midday I went to No Frills where I bought five bags of red grapes, eight apples, mouthwash, and a pack of rice crackers. In the supermarket there was a woman wearing a festive looking eye mask in addition to her red facemask. She was also talking to herself very loudly. 

            For lunch I had Triscuits with cheddar. 

            I wrote an analysis of the meaning derived from the repetitions that are found in Robert Kroetsch's "Stone Hammer Poem” and uploaded it to Blackboard: 

In Robert Kroetsch’s "Stone Hammer Poem" the repetitions of certain words not only provide emphasis of the meanings of those words but their repeated rhymes also draw associations of meaning between the words and their rhymes. The frequency of the appearance of these words also renders it unnecessary for the rhymes to appear in rhythmic juxtaposition as they would in a traditionally composed rhyming verse poem. The repetitions of "stone" and “maul"; and of their rhymes "gone”, “poem" “bone” and "skull" expose these words as the thematic vital organs of the composition. These words carry through the fragments of the poem to reflect in each one a different piece of loss. For example, the repeated rhyming of “stone" with "gone" creates a sense of loss symbolized by the stone maul. The shards of loss that we find in the poem as we follow these repeated words through it are of lost history, lost people, lost culture, lost land, lost buffalo, lost time, lost family, lost youth and lost livelihood. But also repeating like the echoed banging of a hammer throughout the poem is the ironic persistence of the stone maul itself which although symbolic of loss also becomes the focal point for the maintenance of memories associated with it. The keeping of the maul becomes an ironic symbol for all that is not lost as well as the creation of the new poem inspired by it. 

            I read the Prologue of the “The Lais of Marie France” and from the collection, the poetic story "Milun". Milun is a story of a couple that fell in love by letter and then continued in person. The lady is not named but Milun got her pregnant. Since she could not remain a lady and have a child out of wedlock the child was sent away with a ring and a letter to remind him of where he came from. The lady was forced to marry a lord but she and Milun continued their affair through letters buried in the feathers of a swan. The swan was trained to know that it would only be fed after it flew to either the lady or Milun. Meanwhile their son grew up elsewhere to be a brave and skilled knight who gained a reputation as a jouster named Sans Peer. Milun heard of Sans Peer’s exploits and chose to meet him at a tournament and to challenge him. Milun shattered San Peer’s shield but the Sans Peer unhorsed Milun. When Sans Peer saw under his helmet how old Milun was he didn't want to fight him. Suddenly Milun recognized Sans Peer’s ring and realized he was his son. They travelled together and soon received word that the lord that married San Peer’s mother had died. They went to her and lived happily ever after. 

            I grilled eight pork sausage patties and had one on a bagel with a beer while watching The Count of Monte Cristo. 

            In this story the Duke of Renaldi is on his way with his friend Charcot to marry his love Marguerite when he is abducted. One of the men, posing as a French border guard is Rabat, who takes a fancy to the duke’s ring and steals it. This is part of a plot by the lawyer Charcot and Marguerite’s guardian Uncle Bardet . The will of Marguerite’s father has stated that if Marguerite is unmarried by a certain age then Bardet would inherit his estate. That deadline is now only a few days away. Charcot and Rabat arrive at the Bardet chateau and report to Marguerite that Renaldi has been killed. But on Rabat’s finger Marguerite notices the ring that she gave to her fiancé. She goes to her neighbour the Count of Monte Cristo who was an old friend of her father. The count comes through the window of Rabat’s bedroom and forces him to reveal that Renaldi is alive but has been taken to the Chateau D’if. The Chateau D'if is the island prison where the count spent twelve years in solitary confinement. He tells the story again of how long before he became a count he was falsely charged with treason and thrown into a dungeon where he languished for years without seeing another human. But one day he heard the sound of digging from another cell and he began chipping away at the wall in that direction. Eventually there emerged the old Abbé Faria. They became friends and for the next few years Faria was his teacher. Before Faria died he revealed to Dantes the location of a vast treasure. When the old man passed away and the prison guards wrapped Faria in a shroud, Dantes took the place of the old man and was tossed into the ocean. He freed himself and swam to the Island of Monte Cristo where he found the treasure, used it to buy a countship and used his wealth to be a force for justice. Now the count must again travel to the Chateau D’if, this time to rescue the duke. Unrealistically there is only one guard outside the prison gate, who the count easily overcomes. The halls are empty leading to the office of Lantin, the prison director. The count tries to force Lantin to lead him to the cell of Renaldi but suddenly the guards burst in along with Charcot, who says they’ve been expecting him. The count is taken to a cell but by a convenient coincidence it’s the same cell that he’d occupied years before and the hidden tunnel is still there. The count hides in the tunnel so that when the guard comes and finds him gone he leaves the cell door open as a search of the prison is begun. The count returns to Lantin’s office and this time forces him to free Renaldi. They are trying to fight their way out of the dungeon when Jacopo and Carlo arrive disguised as prison guards to help them escape. On the day of the deadline Bardet and Charcot are celebrating that Bardet will now have ownership of his brother’s estate but suddenly Marguerite walks in with Renaldi to announce that they were married the day before. Renaldi introduces the witnesses, the count, Jacopo and Carlo. Then Bardet and Charcot are arrested. 

            Carlo is played by Canadian born actor Henry Corden, who had a long career of supporting roles in movies and television but his greatest success was doing voices for cartoon characters, especially that of Fred Flintstone which he took over after the original voice, Alan Reed died in 1977. Corden made the Flintstone voice closer to its original inspiration, that of Jackie Gleason’s Ralph Cramden of the Honeymooners. 

            Marguerite was played by Nancy Hale, who co-starred in the TV series “Whirlybirds".