"The naked and the Nude" by Robert Graves?

Question

i have to read this poem for school, and after reading it, i have no idea what the differences are btwn the nude and the naked, i really dont get any of the poem. the poem is short so can you "translate it" thanx

Answer 1

Easy. Naked means to have all of you, hopes, loves, dreams, hates, fears, exposed. Nude is just the exposure of your physical body.

And by the way, I loved Robert Graves on that old Mission: Impossible TV series.

Answer 2

first the poem, then the translation:
The Naked and the Nude
Robert Graves

For me, the naked and the nude
(By lexicographers construed
As synonyms that should express
The same deficiency of dress
Or shelter) stand as wide apart
As love from lies, or truth from art.

Lovers without reproach will gaze
On bodies naked and ablaze;
The Hippocratic eye will see
In nakedness, anatomy;
And naked shines the Goddess when
She mounts her lion among men.

The nude are bold, the nude are sly
To hold each treasonable eye.
While draping by a showman's trick
Their dishabille in rhetoric,
They grin a mock-religious grin
Of scorn at those of naked skin.

The naked, therefore, who compete
Against the nude may know defeat;
Yet when they both together tread
The briary pastures of the dead,
By Gorgons with long whips pursued,
How naked go the sometime nude!

try these:
http://homes.ukoln.ac.uk/~lispjh/graves/poetry/index.html

http://wps.prenhall.com/hss_master_lit_1/0,7585,655533-,00.html

one person's idea on it:
The difference between being naked and nude
(idea) by DelayedReactionMan (10.2 mon) (print) ? Mon Jun 10 2002 at 3:37:44



The Difference Between Nakedness and Nudity
As Explained by My Seventh Grade Art Teacher, and Remembered by Me Seven Years Later

The following was originally explained to me by my seventh grade art teacher, Mr. Goldman of Kenmore Middle School. It is with great regret that I have not written down these words before, and so they are subject to the vagaries of time and memory. Hopefully the gist remains.

Although both nudity and nakedness involve the unclothed human form, there exists a very important difference between the two terms:

Nudity is the use of exposed flesh in the presentation of art, or in a comfortable form.

Nakedness is the existence of exposed flesh in a form that is either sexual, or embarrassing.

This may seem a bit confusing, so an example will be required...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Say you are taking a bath. Assuming you are not wearing any clothes, you are nude. You are comfortable without any clothes on.

Now say the house catches fire, and flames begin to lick on the doorway. Fortunately your bathroom has a window that you can jump out of to safety. There's only one problem.

Your clothes are on fire.

You grab a bath towel, but suddenly that catches fire as well. The hand towel you reach for suddenly catches aflame as well, leaving you a mere washcloth. Taking what you can get, you dive out of the window.

Unfortunately, just as you dive through a tiny strand of the washcloth catches fire. Fueled by the rushing oxygen of your heroic dive, the washcloth is consumed in seconds.

As you get up you notice that you have just dived out of the window of your house into the front lawn, where several fire-fighters, paramedics, police officers, neighbors, and that punk kid from down the street are all staring at you.

Congratulations. You are now naked.


http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0030-8129(197205)87%3A3%3C443%3ASKCTNC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-1

Answer 3

Is it a figure of speech?? Everybody says it is a naked truth for something plain and explicit. But nobody says it is a nude truth, do they? By the way, nudity is something obscene!!!!