The poetry that inspired Jeff Buckley

Aimee Ferrier

Sun 1 October 2023 21:15, UK

Voices as incredible as the one belonging to Jeff Buckley don’t come around too often. Unfortunately, after releasing one record, Grace, Buckley, with all his potential, was taken away too soon. At the age of 30, the singer went for a swim from which he never returned, drowning in the Mississippi River.

Yet, his legacy lives on as one of the most influential artists to emerge from the 1990s, and his music is widely celebrated today for its emotional and lyrical complexity. Not only did Buckley possess an otherworldly voice, but he was also an extremely gifted guitar player and writer, with all his talents combining to create a masterful body of work.

Even when Buckley was covering other artists’ songs, such as ‘Lilac Wine’, ‘The Other Woman’ and ‘Hallelujah’, he imbued the pieces with his own distinctive style. Yet, his penchant for covers wasn’t a reflection of an aversion to writing. Buckley knew how to pen a stunningly poetic track, with songs like ‘Lover, You Should’ve Come Over’ and ‘Morning Theft’ suggesting that even if Buckley didn’t have the vocal pipes he was gifted with, he’d get by just fine as a writer.

Buckley took inspiration from many different writers and musicians when writing his own songs. Musically, Buckley looked back to folk artists like Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and, of course, his own father, Tim Buckley, from whom he was estranged. Elsewhere, he loved the work of Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the rich tones of Nina Simone, and Led Zeppelin, calling Robert Plant “my man”.

However, when it came to his literary inspirations, Buckley had an extensive book collection, which he no doubt looked to for ideas when writing his lyrics. He owned a lot of poetry, with Rainer Maria Rilke proving to be a particular favourite. Not only did Buckley own Dunio Elegies, Rilke on Love and Other Difficulties: Translations and Considerations Poems from the Book of Hours, but he also owned his epistolary collection Letters to a Young Poet.

Buckley was also a fan of the classic American poet Walt Whitman, owning Leaves of Grass and From the Soil. Of course, no poetry collection is complete without copies of Arthur Rimbaud’s A Season in Hell and Illuminations, alongside some Charles Baudelaire – Buckley-owned Paris Spleen. The singer also owned the Selected Poems of confessional poet Anne Sexton and modernist writer T.S Eliot.

Check out Buckley’s complete poetry collection below.

The poetry that inspired Jeff Buckley:

Dunio Elegies – Rainer Maria Rilke

Poems from the Book of Hours – Rilke

Rilke on Love and Other Difficulties: Translations and Considerations – Rilke

Leaves of Grass – Walt Whitman

From This Soil – Whitman

The Odyssey – Homer

Early Work, 1970-1979 – Patti Smith

You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense – Charles Bukowski

Selected Poems of Ezra Pound

The Complete Lyrics – Hank Williams

A Haiku Journey: Basho’s Narrow Road to a Far Province – Matsuo Basho

Paris Spleen – Charles Baudelaire

The Captain’s Verses – Pablo Neruda

Selected Poems – T.S. Eliot

A Season in Hell and Illuminations – Arthur Rimbaud

Writing and Drawings – Bob Dylan

Ode to Walt Whitman – Federico Garcia Lorca

New Poems: 1962 – Robert Graves

Fear of Dreaming: The Selected Poems – Jim Carroll

Selected Poems of Anne Sexton – Anne Sexton

Selected Poems – John Shaw Neilson

Selected Poems: Summer Knowledge – Demore Schwartz

The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara – Frank O’Hara

Poems – Pier Paolo Pasolini

Space: And Other Poems – Eliot Katz

Tim Buckley Lyrics

But now, like a whispering in dark streets,

rumors of God run through your dark blood.

- “To the younger brother” by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy, from Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God

GR : confidence, contrasts, hope and other big words 

sources below the cut:

Square Mile: George Russell: "I'm ready to fight." // Russell admits he's not wasy to work with // // Ready for Takeoff with George Russell // The Telegraph: Why George Russell believes he is ready to win the world title // F1: George Russell is destined for the top - just ask Alonso //The Telegraph // Oh Ana by Mother Mother // Alex Albon appraises George Russell's Mercedes move after replacing him at Williams // The next Hamilton? Autocar meets F1 prodigy George Russell // Hadestown, Come Home with Me // The Race // Criminal by Britney Spears // Roland Barthes: A Lover's Discourse: Fragments // Audre Lorde, “From the House of Yemanjá”, The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde // --- // High Performance Podcast //--- // Hilary Mantel: Wolf Hall // Primadonna by Marina and the Diamonds // Icarus Interlude by Zayn // --- // Try by P!nk // C.S. Lewis // --- // --- // Rainer Maria Rilke tr. by Anita Barrows from The Book of Hours // man I don't fking know anymore, it's from an article after Jeddah 23

Jason (from the Greek Iásōn, “healer”) Peter Todd (from the German Tod, “death”) - I hope you find your way out of that grave.

dc comics + The Oresteia, Aeschylus / Lady Windermere’s Fan, Oscar Wilde / Grief Lessons: Four Plays [tr. Anne Carson], Euripides + Batman v1 #385 / Batman: The Cult #3 / For Example, Mary Oliver / Batman: Legends of The Dark Knight #100 / Batman: Under the Red Hood / Eight, Sleeping at Last / Red Hood and the Outlaws: Rebirth / Batman: Urban Legends #10 + ? / On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong / Red Hood and The Outlaws #25 / Slay the Princess / pinterest + Batman #422 / Batman #424 + Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, Rainer Maria Rilke + Batman #428 | A Death in the Family / @/metamorphesque, tumblr / American Teenager, Ethel Cain / Anecdote of the Pig, Tory Adkisson / interpretations of A Death in the Family + The Oresteia, Aeschylus / Nightwing: Secret Files and Origins #1 + the Haunting of Bly Manor + Red Hood and the Outlaws #23 / @/petrichara, tumblr / I Didn't Apologize to the Well, Mahmoud Darwish / Infinite Crisis: Secret Files + pinterest / Ruin and Rising, Leigh Bardugo / Red Hood and the Outlaws #26 / The Cruel Prince, Holly Black / pinterest / Red Hood: The Lost Days / Sue Zhao / Red Hood: The Lost Days part II + Red Hood: The Lost Days #4 / I See Boats Moving, Fernando Pessoa / Oedipus the King, TV Tropes / @/devilsmoon, tumblr / Red Hood: The Lost Days + Speeches for Dr Frankenstein, Margaret Atwood / Saving June, Hannah Arrington + embroidered patch / Slay the Princess / unaligned, @/hamletmaschine + Batman: Under the Red Hood / Batman: Under the Red Hood + Batman and Robin #11 + South and West: From a Notebook, Joan Didion / The Good Fight, Ada Limón / Batman: Under the Red Hood / Grief Lessons: Four Plays, Euripides [tr. Anne Carson] / Batman: Under the Red Hood / Slay the Princess / Under the Red Hood / Slay the Princess / @/sainticide, twitter / The Truth About Grief, Fortesa Latifi + Batman: Under the Red Hood / Batman: Under the Red Hood / Ten Legs, Eight Broken, mandana on tiktok / War of the Foxes, Richard Siken + Under the Red Hood + Batman #428 | A Death in the Family / The Unabridged Journals Of Sylvia Plath, Sylvia Plath / Under the Red Hood + Batman #428 | A Death in the Family / @baitmeat, tumblr + Batman: Under the Red Hood (Deluxe Edition) / Origin Story, Desireé Dallagiacomo / Vive, Vive, Traci Brimhall / The Dogs I Have Kissed, Trista Mateer + Batman: Under the Red Hood + Three Jokers / Red Hood and the Outlaws Rebirth #9 / @/sainticide, twitter + Red Hood and the Outlaws #10 / Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve, Taylor Swift / ? + Robin 80th Anniversary 100 Page Super Spectacular / Ep. 4: Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth -- 'Sacrifice and Bliss', Joseph Campbell / White Knight #7 + Heaven, Mieko Kawakami / Forest Fire, Mitski / Red Hood and the Outlaws Vol. 2 #9 + Batman Annual #25 + Free Will Astrology, Rob Brezsny / Letter XV, @/lucidloving / Red Hood and the Outlaws Vol 1: REDemption / briscoepark + The Civil War, Anne Sexton [compiled by @/lovejoyparadox here] / @/soapstore, tumblr + I Await the Devil’s Coming, Mary MacLane + Claire C. Holland / @/havingrevelations, tumblr / Meditations in an Emergency, Cameron Awkward-Rich + Deathstroke #34 / Grief Lessons: Four Plays by Euripides [tr. Anne Carson] + Red Hood and the Outlaws

Khaire, my Lady 💜

Credits:

From 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra' by Friedrich Nietzsche / 'Diana' by Augustus Saint-Gaudens / Quote fragment from Christine Feehan / Quote fragment from Angela Carter / 'Fount' by Dan Hillier / From 'Dream of the Divided Field: Poems; Paradise, Lost' by Yanyi / 'Into the woods' by Adrian Cox / From 'The Book of Hours' by Rainer Maria Rilke / Artemis in Wonder Woman: Historia (2021) / Quote fragment from Rainer Maria Rilke

i am afraid to say the stronger word

virginia woolf, the letters of virginia woolf vol. 3 / andriy naboka, black & white / margaret atwood, pre-amphibian / pavana / pinterest / rachel mennies, the naomi letters / @night-rooms / rainer maria rilke, book of hours: love poems to god / normal people / vita sackville-west, excerpt from a letter to virginia woolf / annalaura_art on twitter / @slugspoon /

from "the book of a monastic life" in rilke's book of hours: love poems to god (trans. anita barrows and joanna macy)

“The hour is striking so close above me,

so clear and sharp,

that all my senses ring with it

I feel it now: there is a power in me

to grasp and give shape to my world.”

Poem from Rilke’s Book of Hours

Anaïs Nin, from a letter to Henry Miller featured in “A Literate Passion: Letters of Anaïs Nin & Henry Miller, 1932-1953″ Florence and the Machine, from “Free” Rainer Maria Rilke, from "Ich bete wieder, du Erlauchter", Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God Arthur Rimbaud, from “Eternity” Franz Kafka, from Letters to Milena

Portrait de la jeune fille en feu, written and directed by Céline Sciamma "Allegory of Charity" (detail) by Francisco de Zurbarán "The Great Fire of London" (detail) by Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg "A Lighthouse on Fire at Night" (detail) by Joseph Wright of Derby

mark strand, from seven poems // brynne rebele-henry, from self-portrait as a broken venus statuette // soraya chemaly, from rage becomes her: the power of women’s anger // audre lorde, from sister love: the letters of audre lorde & pat parker // anne carson, from plainwater: essays and poetry // caitlyn siehl, from cut // dan pagis, from dead apocalyptic poems // rainer maria rilke, from rilker’s book of hours // katie maria, from the memory of a memory // mieko kawakami, from heaven 

To the Setting Son - Leona Kingscholar Web Weave

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“Honestly, most of your life's decided for you from the moment you're born. There's no point in workin' hard.” 

-  Leona Kingscholar (School Uniform, Home Screen Lines)

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Twisted Wonderland is produced by Aniplex and Walt Disney Japan

Character Design and Story by Toboso Yana

Twisted Wonderland - The Manga: Book of Savanahclaw is illustrated by Suzuka Oda

twst - the manga / ??? / twst - the manga / raven leilani, “luster” / heather havrilesky, “ask polly: help, i'm the loneliest person in the world!” / sk osborn, “a hunger like no other” / twst - the manga / rainer maria rilke, “rilke's book of hours: love poems to god” / twst - the manga / olivia laing / twst - the manga / twst - the manga / rosanne cash, “bittersweet” / twst - the manga / sylvia plath, “the journals of sylvia plath” / anon / twst - the manga / patti smith, “woolgathering”

Shigaraki & Unholy hands Margaret Atwood, from “Owl And Pussycat, Some Years Later”, The Door / Guillaume Apollinaire, from Aubade (tr. by Donald Revell); Alcools: Poems, 1913 / Rainer Maria Rilke, The Book of Hours

"I find you there in all these things I care for like a brother. A seed, you nestle in the smallest of them, and in the huge ones spread yourself hugely. Such is the amazing play of the powers: they give themselves so willingly, swelling in the roots, thinning as the trunks rise, and in the high leaves, resurrection"

— Ranier Marie Rilke, The Book of Monastic Life poem 22, from The Book of Hours

I want to give you love.

Does one love his father?

Or does one turn

as you turned from me, your face hard,

away from my empty helpless hands?

Succession / Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God

"I want to mirror your immensity. I want never to be too weak or too old to bear the heavy, lurching image of you.   I want to unfold. Let no place in me hold itself closed, for where I am closed, I am false. I want to stay clear in your sight. I would describe myself like a landscape I’ve studied at length, in detail; like a word I’m coming to understand; like a pitcher I pour from at mealtime; like my mother’s face; like a ship that carried me when the waters raged.

You see, I want a lot. Maybe I want it all: the darkness of each endless fall, the shimmering light of each ascent.   So many are alive who don’t seem to care. Casual, easy, they move in the world as though untouched.”

(Rainer Maria Rilke, Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God)

(Abel speaks.) I am not. The brother did something to me that my eyes didn’t see. He veiled the light. He hid my face with his face. Now he is alone. I think he must still exist, for no one does to him what he did to me. All have gone the same way: all are met with his rage, beside him all are lost. I sense my older brother lies awake as if accused. Night offers itself to me, not to him.

Rainer Maria Rilke, from “The Book of a Monastic Life” in Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, trans. Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy