Housman seems to be a very morbid man. As one reads this poem, an interesting image pops into the brain. Lieutenant-Colonel Mary Jane was a woman who was standing on the station platform at a train station. For some reason or another, Mary Jane fell from the platform and onto the tracks. She seems to have fallen right before a train pulled through the station. At this happening, all Mary Jane could utter was the word "Hallelujah!". After she had said this word, the train pulled through and ran her over; she was chopped up into little pieces. An onlooker responds to the situation by telling Mary Jane that the train has passed, it is gone. Everyone else chants "Hallelujah!" as they gather up the little fragments that remain of poor Lieutenant-Colonel Mary Jane.
As stated above, reading this poem puts a gruesome, yet amusing image to mind. It is very sad for poor Mary Jane to fall onto the tracks in the first place, but to get ran over and smashed into little pieces by a huge train is very disheartening. However, the reaction of the onlookers is just plain wrong. They shout "Hallelujah!" as they pick up the pieces of Mary Jane. One would think that the scene would be utterly disgusting, but they just go about, picking up the pieces of the poor woman who lost her life on that fateful day.
No one knows why Housman composed such a gruesome poem, but it shows that he has a sick sense of humor. As the poem is read, the reader thinks of how unfortunate it was for this young woman to fall onto the tracks from the station platform, and one would find it odd that she shouts out "Hallelujah!" as she falls. However, the mood completely changes when the onlookers chant "Hallelujah!" as they pick up her pieces after the train has hit her. This poem is a very odd one indeed.
But before there was Hallelujah there was Leonard Cohen. ... In fact Hallelujah tormented Cohen for years. ... " The song explains that many kinds of hallelujahs do exist. I say all the perfect and broken hallelujahs have an equal value. ... He says, "it was kind of like a big highlighted neon-green [light], everywhere I looked: 'Hallelujah, hallelujah'"[7]. ...
A former choir member myself, I am accustomed to singing or hearing the Hallelujah chorus every winter during the Christmas season. ... The Messiah concluded with His Yoke Is Easy and the Hallelujah Choruses. The Hallelujah Chorus is one of my favorite pieces of music ever composed. ... One of the most phenomenal aspects of the Hallelujah Chorus is the tradition of the entire audience standing throughout the chorus. ... When King George II heard the words "The Kingdom of this world- he rose to his feet and remained standing throughout the entire Hallelujah chorus. ...
Tonight the A Cappella choir, Choral Union, Women's choir and the SFA Chamber Orchestra all performed the Christmas part of the Messiah. Usually when I hear the Messiah performed, there are only four soloists that sing the whole time. I get sick and tired of hearing just one person per part. In t...
As the popularity of Italian Opera faded, Handel turned to another up-and-coming popular genre, the oratorio. During 1706-1710 Handel lived in Italy and composed his first two oratorios. Over the course of the next few years, he created a series of works that became some of the most popular in all...
"Absolutism is a very cavalier word. Safe is a very dangerous term. Change is a frightening thought. Past and present are like an analogue to the way pain resists language. In other words past is something that refuses to severe its connection with the present. Identity has reduced to be an ambiguou...
The 'Hallelujah' chorus is the most popular part of the composition and has been adapted into modern versions sung by various artists around the world. ... L Block comments that through "Messiah", the listener is invited to journey with the music, down into the depths of depravity and later raised up in the glorious "Hallelujah chorus". ...
The short story "Revelation" by Flannery O'Connor, portrays a story of a woman who thinks she is superior to everyone else and is caught up in the illusion she is living the right way by God. The majority of the story is in a doctor's waiting room where Mrs. Turpin has taken her husband Claud for tr...
