Other Men's Flowers

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covering everything from the repetition of sounds to the repetition of larger ideas and arguments. So it’s not a paradox to say that your repetition can be various. Repeat, but do not be repetitive. First, consider the three R’s — repetition, repetition and repetition. Richard A. Lanham’s authoritative “A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms” lists no fewer than 36 figures of repetition

Jeremy Cooper, no FuN without U: the art of Factual Nonsense, London 2000, pp.89, 114-21 and 221, reproduced p.118 It’s time for a president who cares more about America’s workers than he does about America’s union bosses.” That’s, arguably, a false opposition. But my point isn’t If you’re accustomed to thinking of rhetoric as dealing only with fancy language, think again. Rhetoric is present in the plain style as much as in the high. One of the best-known figures, erotema, the

But what makes Montaigne’s meditation so incisive — and such an urgently necessary fine-tuning of how we think of “curation” today — is precisely the emphasis on the thread. This assemblage of existing ideas, he argues, is nothing without the critical thinking of the assembler — the essential faculty examining those ideas to sieve the meaningful from the meaningless, assimilating them into one’s existing system of knowledge, and metabolizing them to nurture a richer understanding of the world. Montaigne writes: I say ‘so far’, not just because I haven’t read the entirety of the collection, but also because I know that this is something I’ll continue to dip into for several years (even when I’m old and gray and full of sleep, perhaps!) Each time I read ‘Other Men’s Flowers’ I am introduced to a new favourite (old) poem. Other Men’s Flowers is a portfolio of text-based prints by fifteen London artists curated by Joshua Compston (1970-96). It was printed by Thomas Shaw and Simon Redington and published by Charles Booth-Clibborn under his imprint, The Paragon Press. Compston took the title, Other Men’s Flowers, from an anthology of wartime poetry compiled by Field-Marshal Viscount Wavell (1883-1950) of the same title (published 1944). Wavell had derived the phrase from a well-known quotation attributed to French moralist Montaigne (Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, 1533-92), ‘I have gathered a posie of other men’s flowers and nothing but the thread which binds them is my own’ (quoted in Cooper, p.115). Montaigne’s original sentence, published in his Essais ( Essays) in 1580, provided an apparently modest disclaimer, anticipating criticism of the originality of his ideas. For Compston, it provided an apt poetic metaphor for the role of the curator. Other Men’s Flowers was launched at a party on 23 June 1994 in a derelict sawmill close to Hoxton Square, East London, a centre for young British artists at that time. Compston wrote in his press release:Other Men’s Flowers (1944) is a deeply personal anthology com­piled by Archibald Percival Wavell, otherwise known as Field Marshal Earl Wavell, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, CMG, MC. We have on our shelves a copy of the attractively produced ‘memorial edition’, put together two years after his death in 1950, with an introduction by his son, also Archibald. Our volume has an inscription on the flyleaf, which was written by my brother to my husband, and was given to him as a present for acting as an usher at his wedding in 1977. I can­not imagine many young men giving this anthology as a present these days, although I am mighty glad my brother did. Music matters, too. The effects of the tricolon, as of any number of other figures, are in some ways metrical. Think of how clusters of stressed syllables can sound resolute and determined. “Yes we can!” The project has produced an exciting and innovative publication that intrinsically embodies the elegant but underused printing technique of letterpress ... that has allowed and encouraged many hitherto solely image-based artists an opportunity to operate within the realms of ‘copy writing’, providing them with a platform from which to sound off any phrase, slang discovery, polemical essay or related literary form ... the participants produced works that responded to the given brief of a letterpress printed text piece. (Quoted in Cooper, p.116.) These last 30 years in the UK, coping or not coping with national and international responsibilities, it’s been a pleasure and a release to delve into the anthology for words of support and strength and for echoes of fellow-travellers through the ups and downs of life. Right now, with my condition, I find solace.

Wavell was clearly an awkward customer. In his introduction, he apologises for his notes on the poems, saying "'The Notes' are not altogether my fault, the publisher asked for them." But he was far from a bluff fool who kept himself going on the march with a few verses of Kipling. He knew that a key to poetry's success - you might say its departed success - was its memorability, but he also knew that that wasn't its only quality. In 1961, 11 years after his death, TS Eliot wrote, "I do not pretend to be a judge of Wavell as a soldier . . . What I do know from personal acquaintance with the man, is that he was a great man. This is not a term I use easily ..." an example right there) — the little monkeys are everywhere. Lists, in general, work well. Try enumeratio: setting out your points one by one, to give the impression of clarity and command. Some years ago, when writing a gardening article for an achingly right-on newspaper, I used the expression ‘other men’s flowers’. I cannot now remember in what context but I have not forgotten the sub-editor changing the phrase to ‘other people’s flowers’. I had fool­ishly imagined that, even if my readers did not know Montaigne – ‘I have gathered a posie of other men’s flowers and nothing but the thread that binds them is my own’ – they would at least recognize the play on the title of one of the great poetry anthologies of the twentieth century. Some hope. Prose does not scan like poetry. But it shares its effects. One of the most memorable lines in American history, for instance, is the clause in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident.” I have gathered a posy of other men’s flowers, and nothing but the thread that binds them is mine own.So Wavell grew to be a romantic warrior, ruler of India, humorously pulling rank in the depths of war: “My Aides-de-Camp have to listen politely when I quote verse to them – that is a privilege of a Commander-in-Chief”. What did he quote? He was a man of his time though often preferring earlier works: the favourites were Browning, Kipling, Chesterton, Masefield, Keats, Shelley, Macaulay, Scott, but others feature also, including verses by persons unknown. Other Men's Flowers is a portfolio of text-based prints by fifteen London artists curated by Joshua Compston (1970-96). It was printed by Thomas Shaw and Simon Redington and published by Charles Booth-Clibborn under his imprint, The Paragon Press. Compston took the title, Other Men's Flowers, from an anthology of wartime poetry compiled by Field-Marshal Viscount Wavell (1883-1950) of the same title (published 1944). Wavell had derived the phrase from a well-known quotation attributed to French moralist Montaigne (Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, 1533-92), 'I have gathered a posie of other men's flowers and nothing but the thread which binds them is my own' (quoted in Cooper, p.115). Montaigne's original sentence, published in his Essais ( Essays) in 1580, provided an apparently modest disclaimer, anticipating criticism of the originality of his ideas. For Compston, it provided an apt poetic metaphor for the role of the curator. Other Men's Flowers was launched at a party on 23 June 1994 in a derelict sawmill close to Hoxton Square, East London, a centre for young British artists at that time. Compston wrote in his press release: