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That's exactly what I mean - words that we otherwise know are used with completely different meaning, which renders the text unintelligible. I disagree with yo

by omonra 12y ago

That's exactly what I mean - words that we otherwise know are used with completely different meaning, which renders the text unintelligible. I disagree with you completely that 'most educated native speakers' can understand this. By the same token one can say that most native English speakers can solve differential equations :) The definition of strain you mention is #30 in the dictionary - http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/strain http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/strain. Can you cite its use in that meaning in a contemporary newspaper or magazine?

pcrh 12y ago
As to usage of "strain" in music, a quick search lead me to this article from the US dated 16 Feb 2015 [1] "When the trumpets blare and the snares rattle during the opening strain of John Phillip Souza’s The Washington Post March..." I not proposing that Shakespeare is the easiest thing to read, but merely suggesting that it is not as inaccessible as it might first appear. [1]http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/homestead/article10468706.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/h...
pcrh 12y ago
By the way, I found the "Spark Notes" for "If Music be the food of love". It's a dreadful lump when the poetry is gone, but here it is: "If it’s true that music makes people more in love, keep playing. Give me too much of it, so I’ll get sick of it and stop loving. Play that part again! It sounded sad. Oh, it sounded like a sweet breeze blowing gently over a bank of violets, taking their scent with it. That’s enough. Stop. It doesn’t sound as sweet as it did before. Oh, love is so restless! That, despite it's ability to encompass as much as the sea, is impenetrable, to anything, cannot be bought, yet becomes cheap. Even if fleeting, though, love is so varied and rich that it is the highest pinnacle of experience.

by omonra 12y ago

pcrh 12y ago

As to usage of "strain" in music, a quick search lead me to this article from the US dated 16 Feb 2015 [1] "When the trumpets blare and the snares rattle during the opening strain of John Phillip Souza’s The Washington Post March..." I not proposing that Shakespeare is the easiest thing to read, but merely suggesting that it is not as inaccessible as it might first appear. [1]http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/homestead/article10468706.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/h...

pcrh 12y ago

By the way, I found the "Spark Notes" for "If Music be the food of love". It's a dreadful lump when the poetry is gone, but here it is: "If it’s true that music makes people more in love, keep playing. Give me too much of it, so I’ll get sick of it and stop loving. Play that part again! It sounded sad. Oh, it sounded like a sweet breeze blowing gently over a bank of violets, taking their scent with it. That’s enough. Stop. It doesn’t sound as sweet as it did before. Oh, love is so restless! That, despite it's ability to encompass as much as the sea, is impenetrable, to anything, cannot be bought, yet becomes cheap. Even if fleeting, though, love is so varied and rich that it is the highest pinnacle of experience.