Class Notes
Yesterday's class was really interesting, we studied George Herbert's poem: Peace.Stanzas 6 and 7 brought up controversy, and I must say I found it really enjoyable, it's always rewarding to hear so many different opinions about one subject.
A lot of people see me as intolerant and stubborn, too fixed on my own ideas and yes they may be right, but I'm not always like that. At least not with things that I consider very personal and individual i.e.: Death. which is not an easy theme, and I couldn't be that idiot not to respect what other people think about death for it's a subject so individual and so frightening that you can't state what's right or wrong about it. Death Penalty on the contrary is a very complex topic, but we can look for facts about it on history or statistics to shape our point of view. It is a complex theme, but not an individual, personal subject, it can be treated, to some extent in a logic, scientific way, and here is where I can become very stubborn, I love to use facts and data to support my statements. A lot of people only trust on their intuition and I guess there lies the problem...but, I'm deviating from the topic.
Yesterday's topic was PEACE and where to find it, well actually it was the subject from Herbert's poem. George Herbert belongs to the group of poets called "The Metaphysicals" this adjective Was really a joke, it was first used by Dr. Johnson, a commentator on literature (What now we would call a critic) who found these poets too intellectual and scientific, too rational, which indeed, they are.
One of these Metaphysicals was John Donne, who is very famous in England and whose poem For whom the Bell Tolls, is even more famous thanks to Hemingway's book named after it.
For Whom the Bell Tolls
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a pieceof the continent, a part of the main.If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is less,as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manorOf thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me,because I am involved in mankind, and therefore neverSend to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee
Anyway...I'm digressing again!!! Is there a way I can keep my mind focused????I guess no...well, talking about Herbert and his Peace, here is stanza 5, the one I enjoyed the most:
He sweetly liv’d ; yet sweetnesse did not save His life from foes.
But after death out of his grave
There sprang twelve stalks of wheat :Which many wondring at,
got some of those to plant and set.
I guess this one is great, I found so realistic, for it doesn't matter how good you are, or how much effort you put into something, you'll always find enemies and pitfalls on your way.It's part of life! But still, you have to stick to what you are and what you believe and that is going to outlive you and give life and love to the ones that come after you. Probably we will find peace only when we died, or maybe we can find peace here on earth I don't know...but, who the hell knows anyway?
Comments