Something has gone weirdly wrong. When I try to copy the entire poem and paste it into my blog, the opening lines are omitted and I cannot get them in. I am afraid it will just have to stand in truncated form. My apologies to John Donne and to all of you.
I guess my Christmas present turns out to be a lump of coal.
11 comments:
Maybe the problem has to do with the source you're copying from. Here's an attempt, and if this works you can copy and paste it:
Let mans Soule be a Spheare, and then, in this,
The intelligence that moves, devotion is,
And as the other Spheares, by being growne
Subject to forraigne motion, lose their owne,
And being by others hurried every day,
Scarce in a yeare their naturall forme obey:
Pleasure or businesse, so, our Soules admit
For their first mover, and are whirld by it.
Hence is't, that I am carryed towards the West
This day, when my Soules forme bends toward the East.
There I should see a Sunne, by rising set,
And by that setting endlesse day beget;
But that Christ on this Crosse, did rise and fall,
Sinne had eternally benighted all.
Yet dare I'almost be glad, I do not see
That spectacle of too much weight for mee.
Who sees Gods face, that is selfe life, must dye;
What a death were it then to see God dye?
It made his owne Lieutenant Nature shrinke,
It made his footstoole crack, and the Sunne winke.
Could I behold those hands which span the Poles,
And tune all spheares at once peirc'd with those holes?
Could I behold that endlesse height which is
Zenith to us, and our Antipodes,
Humbled below us? or that blood which is
The seat of all our Soules, if not of his,
Made durt of dust, or that flesh which was worne
By God, for his apparell, rag'd, and torne?
If on these things I durst not looke, durst I
Upon his miserable mother cast mine eye,
Who was Gods partner here, and furnish'd thus
Halfe of that Sacrifice, which ransom'd us?
Though these things, as I ride, be from mine eye,
They'are present yet unto my memory,
For that looks towards them; and thou look'st towards mee,
O Saviour, as thou hang'st upon the tree;
I turne my backe to thee, but to receive
Corrections, till thy mercies bid thee leave.
O thinke mee worth thine anger, punish mee,
Burne off my rusts, and my deformity,
Restore thine Image, so much, by thy grace,
That thou may'st know mee, and I'll turne my face.
Fritz Poebel,
Thanks.
Maybe someone can explain to me why a Marxist and anarchist gives us this undoubtedly well-crafted, but to my eye dogmatically 17th century Christian poem as a gift. Maybe it's another of Professor Wolff's famous ironies, which I fail to grasp.
I have to admit that I don't have much use for Christmas or for Christianity, so I'm probably missing something here. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
By the way, I am aware who John Donne is and what his signficance in the history of English poetry as well as his influence on certain 20th century poets such as T.S. Eliot. I was an English major and have a Masters Degree in English and Comparative Literature.
An alternative is to copy the poem, or article, to a Word document, change the font size, and re-copy and paste the result to your blog. That is what I did for the Gerard Manley Hopkins poem.
s. wallerstein,
One does not have to believe in the liturgy or doctrines of Christianity in order to appreciate the spirit of Christmas – of forgiveness, fellowship and our shared humanity. That is what I did last night with the Trump supporter whom I helped at the post office. During these polarizing political times, we have to recognize that there is more to people than just their political views, and she was more than just a Trump supporter, however disquieting that was.
I'm not anti-religious.
When I lived in California, my girl friend was a Zen Buddhist and I used to accompany her from time to time to meditate in the Zen Center. As I recall, the Zen center had no sign identifying it. You had to discover where it was by word of mouth. Although Buddhist doctrine did not convince me, I have nothing against Buddhism, besides the fact that meditation is good for your mental health.
Christianity is not so modest. Since I was a small child, I recall Christmas being forced upon me, like colliflower. When I was, maybe 10 or ll, having to sing "Silent Night" in school, I loudly sang "Shepherds quack" instead of "Shepherds quake". The teacher immediately ordered me to go to the principal's office, but I defended myself claiming that as Jew singing Christmas carols offended me. The other Jewish kids supported me and the teacher backed down, but really what irritated me was not the religious element, but having Christmas and all the stupid songs forced on me
24 hours a day.
I went to Jewish school on Saturdays. I was thrown out many times for arguing with the teachers and the rabbis, but one thing I recall was a text explaining Judaism which began with the sentence: "Judaism is a not a proselytic religion".
Zen buddhism is also not a proselytic religion, but Christianity is and that is as irritating as any other mass advertising campaign, be it for a brand of beer, for a detergent or for a religious faith.
Maybe we’re all to some degree victims of our acculturation? I consciously became an atheist at about the age of ten. But I grew up in place which was, by my memory, verging on a theocracy—Scotland in the 1940s and ‘50s. So I wasn’t really surprised to discover a couple of years ago, on listening to a talk by a Scottish professor of religion on the history of Protestantism, that I actually still harboured quite a lot of the socio-religious notions I’d grown up among—I’m thinking of hostility to hierarchy and the like. Borrowing an idea I’ve heard many of my friends use, I’ve taken to referring to myself, should the occasion arise, as at present, as an atheistic Calvinist or a non-practising, non-believing Protestant. I’m neither proud nor ashamed of it—sorry, s.w.. It’s just one of the facts of my life. But I have to say, I also find it a bit odd that it’s still OK to express hostility to Xianity while it’s regarded as bigotry to be hostile to almost every other religion.
I meant to add this:
https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/12/socialist-sunday-school-history-labour-movement
James Wilson,
I express hostility to Christianity because it's part of my life experience, but I am certain that if I had grown up in an Islamic society (with my same personality by some freak of nature or nuture), I'd detest Islam. Islam has all the worst feature of Christianity, but since it has played zero role in my life, I don't go on rants about it.
Because of my contrarian personality, I tend to be critical of whatever doctrine is forced upon me. For example, I was in Sandinista Nicaragua in 1984 working as an interpeter for a group of journalists from the U.S., journalists who supported the Sandinista government 100%. While I decried and still decry the imperialistic aggression of the Reagan administration against the Sandinistas by means of financing the Contras and other acts of sabotage, I was so critical of the 24 hour a day indoctrination about the
virtues of Sandinismo and especially of the great hero Sandino that the journalists with whom I worked began to call me "Nietzsche" and that was before I began to read Nietzsche seriously by the way.
Oh brother!
For once AA has made a good post above which I can agree with. Hear hear!
Merry Christmas to all, even to the blog grinches.
s. wallerstein's playing the Jewish card at 10 has me
laughing!
Anonymous,
Thank you for your comment.
The link below is to a conversation with Congresswoman Debbi Dingell (D) and Congressman Fred Upton (R) of Michigan about the toxic atmosphere in the country today, and what we need to do to overcome it.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/26/politics/debbie-dingell-fred-upton-cnntv/index.html
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