Althouse: Rosebud.

June 11, 2008

Rosebud.

8 comments:

Triangle Man said...: When I was young I watched Citizen Kane on TV solely because of a reference to "Rosebud" I saw in Mad Magazine.; 6/11/08, 8:53 AM
Bissage said...: Q: What’s worse than a lobster on your piano?

A: Aphids on your rosebud!

(Glad to see someone’s practicing good hygiene.); 6/11/08, 9:39 AM
Amexpat said...: When I was young I watched Citizen Kane on TV solely because of a reference to "Rosebud" I saw in Mad Magazine.
William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davis didn't appreciate the Rosebud reference when the film came out.; 6/11/08, 9:48 AM
BowlsRus said...: Of course they didn't - unlike the reporter in the movie, WR Hearst and Marion Davies knew what it meant.; 6/11/08, 10:00 AM
Chip Ahoy said...: When the page opened the title showed before the photo loaded. In that moment I fully expected to see a sled.; 6/11/08, 1:08 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: ^^^

Hearst's pet name for his favorite portion of Marion Davies' cuerpo?; 6/11/08, 1:14 PM
blake said...: Anyone else think "Rosebud" is a cheap shot in what's otherwise a brilliant movie?; 6/11/08, 2:43 PM
LutherM said...: A Rosebud in the snow
http://www.mardecortesbaja.com/snow%20citizen%20kane%20rosebud.jpg

An Old Story

I

It was roses, roses, all the way,
With myrtle mixed in my path like mad.
The house-roofs seemed to heave and sway,
The church-spires flamed, such flags they had,
A year ago on this very day!

II

The air broke into a mist with bells,
The old walls rocked with the crowds and cries.
Had I said, “Good folks, mere noise repels—
But give me your sun from yonder skies!”
They had answered, “And afterward, what else?”

III

Alack, it was I who leaped at the sun,
To give it my loving friends to keep.
Nought man could do have I left undone,
And you see my harvest, what I reap
This very day, now a year is run.

IV

There’s nobody on the house-tops now—
Just a palsied few at the windows set—
For the best of the sight is, all allow,
At the Shambles’ Gate—or, better yet,
By the very scaffold’s foot, I trow.

V

I go in the rain, and, more than needs,
A rope cuts both my wrists behind,
And I think, by the feel, my forehead bleeds,
For they fling, whoever has a mind,
Stones at me for my year’s misdeeds.

VI

Thus I entered Brescia, and thus I go!
In such triumphs, people have dropped down dead.
“Thou, paid by the World,—what dost thou owe
Me?” God might have questioned; but now instead
’Tis God shall requite! I am safer so.

"The Patriot" Robert Browning; 6/11/08, 4:11 PM