Jesus and The Doctor.

As we were discussing "The Second Coming" in class, Dr. Talmage and I were privately discussing the notion of the second coming being detrimental to some people. I then shared part of my theory about the poem, but alas I got cut off before I could fully explain myself. So, I'm going to attempt to explain it here.

Yeats was an atheist who had been raised with a christian background, as we learned in class the other day. Therefore he would be familiar with Christian beliefs and 'lore', if you will. Since the majority of Europe was also well versed in christian 'lore', it would be a perfect subject to make a point with. For an atheist, the second coming would/will be a terrible time. Basically, this man, the "son of God", will drop out of the sky one day and take all of his friends out of the world, and then, quite literally, all hell breaks loose. While he is a savior to Christians, he will also be a harbinger of death to the rest of humanity.

I drew a big parallel here to the Doctor from the popular BBC show "Doctor Who". In the episodes "The Pandorica Opens" and "The Big Bang", the world's oldest and most secure prison in the world, a box hidden under stone henge called the "pandorica", is opening. The box is said to contain the most feared being in the universe--something so terrible that it could just drop out of the sky one day and rip apart entire civilizations. The Doctor willingly goes to try to stop whatever being is going to escape, only to find that it is a hoax. The pandorica is empty and all of the races he has ever thwarted in the past imprison him inside of it. This makes the viewers, and the Doctor, contemplate his actions over the course of the TV series. The Doctor always appears, makes friends and protects them, and stops evildoers. However, from the perspective of the evildoers, they are doing right and he is the evil one for thwarting their plans. He is the destroyer of worlds, usually for the common good, but he brings destruction nonetheless.

All of the same could be said about Christ and the second coming. I would draw the argument out even further, but I'm exhausted.

So, what did we learn this week? Ben will use any excuse to talk about Doctor Who? Nothing? The purpose of stonehenge is to hide the most secure prison ever? All good answers. Tune in next week… seriously, just do it.

P.S. I commented on Nick Hampton's "Poetry=Art"

The Second Coming [Again]

There is something that I want to look at a little further. I know we kept following a lot of the faith-based explanations of The Second Coming, but there were some things that Samantha was saying that I really thought were good. I like the idea of the more political side to the poem. The line that says “Mere anarchy is loosed upon the earth” and other things that sounded more like military implications made us think that. I couldn't remember anyone really sharing thoughts on that, so I would love to hear more about that.

Commented on Susan's

Musings at Midnight

Unfortunately you will not be enlightened by my views on the point of poetry, because that post decided to delete itself. Since that train of thought has now completely left me, I decided to read “The Waste Land” and blog about something in that. I have no idea if this will make any sense, because the only thing keeping me awake is chai tea and Nutella, but here it goes.
In lines 401-422, T.S. Eliot’s way of closing out the poem intrigued me. “Datta, Dayadhvam, Damyata” mean “give, sympathise, control” as the handy footnotes explain. The lines that interest me most are 402-409:
“My friend, blood shaking my heart
The awful daring of a moment’s surrender
Which an age of prudence can never retract
By this, and this only, we have existed
Which is not to be found in our obituaries
Or in memories draped by the beneficent spider
Or under seals broken by the lean solicitor
In our empty rooms.”
I do not know for sure to what T.S. Eliot is referring, but I know in my own life this struck a chord. It reminded me of my relationship with God. The fearfulness when you are hesitating to surrender your whole life to Christ, then the daring when you decide (rationally or abruptly) to give Him complete control. In the world’s eyes this is foolish, and is seen as a rash act that no amount of rational recompense can retract. (alliteration=fun:]) However, these moments of surrender- bowing to God’s will- are the moments in which true joy and peace are experienced. These are that make life worth living. Yes, it’s dangerous and not advisable if you want a safe life, but this is when God is truly free to fulfill His purpose for you. These times of complete humility and brokenness before Christ, when He takes the broken vessel that is you and shapes it into something beautiful, and fills it with His power… these are important moments in your life; however, they rarely have any impact on those around you. It will not be something people write in your obituary, nor will it be a memory others have of you. It’s not something you can pass on to those left behind; it’s something truly personal- giving yourself to God.
The next two parts reflect this journey, I think. “Dayadhvam” is speaking of each person in his own chains (sympathizing with one another) but the key brings freedom. Then, “Damyata” is referring to a joyful and obedient vessel. So, surrender comes first, then freedom, and then because of that freedom we are to be obedient.
Mark 8:34 “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
So… surrender, exchange chains of sin for bondage to Christ, and obedience.
This was an amazing picture in my head that I did not expect to find in “The Waste Land.” Who knows, I might be reading it all wrong; I guess we’ll see in class tomorrow!
P.S. commented on Tori’s “Like a lost falcon”

Left with no hope......

The first stanza of Yeat’s Second Coming brings up a picture of man lacking something utterly important to his being – “The Falcon cannot hear the falconer.” Moreover, this imagery is carried throughout the rest of the stanza – examples of this include: the negative phrases “innocence is drowned,” “lack conviction;” and also the only “fullness” being attributed to those who are the “worst.” Through Yeats’ word choices, the reader begins to join in the story. Not only is he hearing of the falcon being without a falconer, but he himself beings to personally feel the inadequacy and incompleteness of the world that is being described.

Now, it is the beginning of the second stanza, Yeat’s is audience is left wondering. He must offer some resolution, so what does he do? This stanza brings up an idea normally associated with hope, the “second coming,” but instead of elevating such a thing as divine and resolute, instead of the great exuberance with which it began, the second stanza quickly fades into the despair of the first.

“Hardly are those words out/ When a vast image of Spiritus Mundi/ Troubles my sight…”

This idea of the second coming is fearful, it “troubles.” Moreover, the “beast” of the second coming has a stare just as merciless as the hopeless fate of the falcon in the first stanza.

So we now move into the third stanza. Now, there is some sort of resolution to these lines, but it is of a rather peculiar sort. The situation does not change, the stanza begins, “the darkness drops again..,” but the difference here is that the speaker now “knows.” Whereas the first two stanzas were “pitiless,” “blank,” “anarchy,” now there is some order coming into sight. The speaker sees the end of a previous age, the “twenty centuries” that were “vexed to nightmare by a mocking cradle” and the beginning of a new one, the age of the “rough beast.” It is interesting though the somber and almost gloomy tone which the author takes towards this beast, towards this ‘thing’ that is going to replace the old, anarchical, hopeless age. This beast does not swoop in, or overthrow, rather he (almost begrudgingly it would seem) “slouches toward Bethlehem to be born.”

Why is a slouching, rough, pitiless thing the only resolution offered in this poem? What is this beast?

I commented on Nick Hampton's "Poetry=Art"

Second Coming of What Exactly?

When I first started to read the Second Coming, I intentionally thought, "Oh this is about the Second Coming of Christ".  I should have learned by now that poetry titles are very misleading. So here I was going through this haunting piece of poetry, with only vague clues to what it could mean.

"A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
    A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
    Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
    Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds."


While reading this, I paused. My first thought was that Yeats had to be describing some type of beasts from Revelations or Daniel. Then I noticed though it was not describing, any one of those beasts. No this was a reference of description toward a Sphinx. (Lightbulb moment). The Sphinx in Egypt popped into my mind. Ok, so what does the Sphinx represent? Well, honestly I can't tell you exactly what it meant for ancient Egyptians...but I would like to take a crack at what it was. The Sphinx was a modern marvel and accomplishment for those ancient Egyptians.  It was also was a suspected place of cultic solar worship. 


With this I wondered  if the beast in the poem could this represent the modern technology and false religions of Yeats day? Then after reading a few blogs from my colleagues, I felt maybe this beast represents humanity in whole. If it represents us in our corrupt immoral state, and what we have seemed to accomplish through all our modernity. The destruction and slaughter of ourselves. That we are the merciless beast bringing on the plagues and tribulations of the Second Coming upon ourselves. That we are bringing upon the end of the world possibly?   


Maybe I'm off my rocker here (Which is highly possible lol). But this is what I took from the poem, or the most interesting parts.


So there it is, my first blog of the semester! Good luck everyone can't wait to see what this season brings!
P.S. commented on Kelsey Parrish's Post.

Comment on Bethan's

Technical difficulties...
Sailing to Byzantium was my favorite too. I wish we would've had time to talk about it in class :( It made me dread growing old and becoming a cat lady. According to Yeats, the world believes that the young get to live life to the fullest while the elderly sit back and watch, longing to be youthful  again. The thought of being "trapped inside a decaying body" is pretty depressing. No wonder the speaker wanted to leave a city filled with young people who reminded him everyday of what he could never be again!

break the chain

well it's a new semester, and a new season for blogging. I, like many of you, am excited to start posting again...

First I would just like to get a few things off my chest. I feel like as a class we have started out slow. I think we could all do a better job of opening up to Yeats and the upcoming wasteland. I know for me it was hard to get an idea of what the poem consisted of and felt somewhat limited to what I could take from class on tuesday. While for most of the class I felt as if we were going in circles, I do think towards the end of class we touched on a few main points. The idea of change, which is for the worst in Yeats' eyes, is apparent in that the normalcy of history has began to unravel. We can see from the transition of the poem that it is fluxuating to a point of instability. Hopefully, by not having a pretense of a certain background other than the one of Yeats, we can understand this poem that was written in a rather difficult time..

p.s I commented on anna rhodes post

Poetry=Art

I am not a person who does a very good job with poetry (mainly because I don't understand it.) However, during our discussion Tuesday, I began to realize that using poetry can help convey things a lot better than prose.

The way that Will described poetry was great. He pointed out the fact that poetry takes a lot of work from the poet/"artist" and is so much more than just words like prose. Thanks to the way poets make their art, poetry moves readers in ways that prose just can't. For example, poetry evokes emotional response through it's rhythm and flow. If we were to take poetry out of its context and form, we would not be able to understand all that poet was attempting to get across.

The point is, poets use many techniques besides just their writing skills to pass their ideas, and even though I personally may not be able to see everything that is being shown, the poet has put in a ton of work to find the right way to express themselves.

PS. I posted on Susan's Language of the Gods.

Forgot to add whose post I commented onZZZ

Commented on his beloved's...still dont know who that is:)

Poetry: The Language of the Gods

Towards the end of class on Tuesday we spoke about why poetry is so important and so much deeper than just a normal novel or essay on a topic. While everyone was discussing all I could think about was Dr. Mitchel last semester telling us that believed that in Heaven everyone would speak in poetic form because poetry just had to be the language of the gods due to the impact only a few words can have in comparison to paragraphs of crap. In just a few lines, a poem can relay multiple meanings and do so beautifully! I can't wait to continue with our honors talks in class and blogs this semester! God bless!

-Susan

P.S. I posted on Joshua Spells "The Slouching World"

“My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me.
Speak to me. Why do you never speak? Speak.
What are you thinking of? What thinking? What?
I never know what you are thinking. Think.”
I think we are in rats’ alley	115
Where the dead men lost their bones.

After our discussion in class about understanding poetry and what makes poetry good, it got me thinking. What is it about poetry that speaks to me? Why do I love T.S. Eliot's poems so much? And what is it about the section above that resonates so deeply within me?

I'm not exactly sure that I could give someone bullet points explaining what this section means. Even if I were able to, I could not do it with any great confidence that I was right. Does this mean that the ambiguity of this poem should render it meaningless? Not necessarily.

The dialogue in the lines above seem vaguely familiar, as if I had said them before myself. The lines that follow are haunting, packed with such meaning and horror. It seems like a graphic allusion to war, and I almost get the feeling that I am in a trench in the aftermath of WWI.

Now perhaps that's not what T.S. Eliot was trying to convey, but the raw language gives me that image. I think it's very true that if a poem is any good, it doesn't need a bunch of foot notes.

Commented on Tori's.

Ancient Egypt Rises Again?

The first time I read through the Second Coming, I like most everyone else thought that the poem was about the second coming of Christ. The more I read it, the more I realized that it seemed to be bashing Christianity as a whole. I may be completely out in left field here but if I am then just disregard what I'm about to say.

Yeats grandfather and great-grandfather were both prominent members in the early church of Ireland. Yeats' father was an atheist that believed that Christianity was a fable or a myth. This would give Yeats an excellent background in Christianity but at the same time leaving him room to despise it.

The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

After reading this for about the seventh time I understood it to say that the best of people lack a conviction about Christianity. On the other hand though, the people that are the worst are full of zeal and intensity about it.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;

He's still bashing Christianity talking about the second coming of Christ at this point. When the topic comes up though, something from Spiritus Mundi(Spirit of the World) seems to rise out of nowhere. This is troubling to his sight. It seems as if he finds it unattractive.

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

Fine I'll say it, it sounds like a sphinx to me. The exact purpose of the Spinx is unknown but most people seem to associate it with the defense of the pharaoh. Who is one of the most important characters in the ancient Egyptian religion.

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

This cradle seems it scream baby Jesus to me. Not in a positive way though. Yeats seems to be blaming the cause of all the bad things that have happened on the rocking cradle.

Maybe this isn't coherent to anyone but me, but when I put this together in my head it seems like the ancient Egyptian tradition is being awakened again by Christianity. The fact that the 2000 year reign is almost over and something must take the place of it. Besides a great poem has to have some mentions of the gods in it in some way, form, or fashion doesn't it?

I commented of Jamie's Post

I have to wipe the dust off my PC.

Oh. Blogs. How I have missed thee dearly.

I really enjoyed the debate or discussion (whichever is appropriate) that we had Tuesday. I had read The Second Coming beforehand, and as I was reading it, I found myself thinking, "Oh. I know exactly what this is about! I can tell what this is about merely by looking at the title! The Second Coming. The second coming of Christ. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out. Right?" Wrong. I go to class and the whole discussion drives me to different thoughts completely. I found myself thinking, "Welcome Back to Honors."

One thing that sparked my interest came in these lines of the poem :

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity

This poem was written following WWI, however the words are true even today. Crime is radiating on the streets. There are murders, rapes, thefts, and all other sorts of misfortune happening in our world, our country, our states, and in our very cities. Sexual immorality is burned into the culture. Our innocence is "drowned". Then it goes back to the key lines. "The Best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." We're allowing the stench of the world to roam and corrupt our habitats, yet the good people in the world are silent. The good people are comfortable with their laziness and lack of motivation. This brings me back to a revelation that I've had in the last couple of weeks.

Lately, I've been thinking about Christianity and how it has developed. This poem has only complemented what I've been thinking. 'The best lack all conviction." The "Modern-day Christian" (as I have come to call them) is comfortable with being dormant and without taking any action. We are called to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit". Yet we have created our own doctrine. Instead of making disciples we have become satisfied with merely going to Church, reading the Bible when we feel guilty, and living a basically unchanged life. It also says in Ezekiel 18:30 that we should repent! And turn from all our transgressions, so iniquity will not be our ruin. we should cast away from all our transgressions, by which we have transgressed; and get a new heart and a new spirit.For God has no pleasure in the death of him who dies, so then we need to turn from ourevil ways and live!

We need to step out of our modern theological mold where culture has put us, and step up and be full of conviction and not have a lack of one! We should make an impact and a difference. Am I asking that everyone becomes a missionary? In a way yes. Mobile, Alabama is our mission field. Therefore, we need to go from our comfort zones and make disciples of the Lord.
This video is by Francis Chan and I watched it the other day and it only strengthened how I felt and it summarized my feelings perfectly. :) http://youtu.be/LA_uwWPE6lQ

p.s. I commented on Jamie Kilpatricks "Poetry."

Continue seeking the truth my friends.

"Aperi oculos ad lucem veritatis."

The Second Coming... of war?

As I read The Second Coming, yet again, I keep going back to my (possible) conspiracy theory. Do I believe in it? No. It is interesting to note, however, the imagery between The Second Coming and the events leading up to, as well as the events of WWII. let's look at it

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Here we have the imagery of the gyre, or a cycle of repeating events. When moving in a circle, no matter how much you move, you will always end up where you were before. In class we talked about the Bi-millennial revolution. (remember Dr. Mitchell's Millenium Falcon comment?) For the last two thousand years, and before then even, Europe had been in a state of constant war. If it wasn't the expansion of the Roman empire, it was whether or not you were Catholic, or a supporter of Napoleon, or you were friends with Serbia.

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The center cannot hold... Find a map of Europe ca. 1919 (when the poem was written). In the center, you'll see that it contains the countries Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. Interesting to notice that, even before Germany invaded Poland and Czechoslovakia, the Nazi Party spread propaganda in these counties so as to cause a regime change. While ineffective overall, it did however cause a small, fanatical sect of Nazism that aided the German Army in their invasion of these countries at the beginning of the war, these countries were in turmoil first, before any other countries. It started at the center, and sent a wave of bloodshed all across Europe.

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

During the Holocaust, Nazi Germany, and the countries that allied with her, acted with passion. Just watch a video of a Nazi Rally, or a Fascist convention In Italy. You can see passion, not only in the leaders, but in the people themselves. However, during this time, The reactions of Britain, whom the world looked to for leadership, was one of indifference. Britain did not want a war, so they turned a blind eye to the murder of over six million men, women, and children.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming!

After the First World War, known at the time as 'The Great War', many Christians began to look to the second coming of Christ promised in the Bible. "The end is near!" was a common cry from the pulpit all across the world.

Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

So, after this, we have a Sphinx moving, slowly, steadily across the desert. It is interesting to note that, in Greek mythology, the Sphinx was a symbol of destruction and bad luck. This beast, after arousing itself from its slumber in the desert sands, is ready to bring destruction to the world after two thousand years. Also mentioned are the desert birds that follow it to destruction. In ages past, whenever two armies are encamped in a location, large desert carrion (vultures, people) would begin to circle over the battlefield. The vultures knew there would be an inevitable bloodbath to follow. This is where we get the term "gore-crow". Interestingly, it had been about 1600 years after a German people, the Anglo Saxons, had invaded Britain. One of the Low points in WWII was the Battle of Britain, or the Blitz. This was a sustained bombing campaign against London and other large British cities in order to soften up the island for eventual invasion.

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Last, we have the Beast, symbolizing destruction and bloodshed, moving towards Bethlehem, a small town in Israel, the nation of the Jews, and the birthplace of the most famous Jew: Jesus of Nazareth. I don't really need to elaborate on destruction and bloodshed of the Jews a few years after this poem was written.

It took me all that to say this: this poem is very interesting, and could it allude to the Second World War? May be so, but probably not. It's just something interesting I noticed while reading The Second Coming.

~~Cody Martin

P.S. I commented on Josh's "I have to wipe the dust off my PC"

During class the past few times I have struggled to get back into a routine and to re-focus my mind on analytical reading. With Yeats I found this especially challenging because I had to reread many portions just to understand what he was trying to get at. The thing that is difficult for me about poetry is getting to the root of what we are really supposed to glean from the poet, digging through the figurative language, the rhyme and meter to find real meaning. What I lack is a fundamental desire to break poetry into smaller parts and dissect meaning because I am typically too preoccupied with the outer beauty of poetry. One line in particular from the Elliot piece stood out to me purely because of it's thought-provoking imagery.
"I think we are in rats' alley
Where the dead men lost their bones."
Take from it what you will I loved these lines because I think it is a beautifully written metaphor about the state of man and depravity.

Commented on Jamie's post

Well....Here Goes The Plunge

Well I actually really liked Yeats' poem, The Second Coming. The part that really stood out to me was the Beast.
"When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds."

As soon as I read this, I stopped and looked up the name of whatever had the body of a lion and the head of a man. It pulled up the Sphynx. There are many different versions of the Sphynx in literature. In Greek mythology, the Sphynx guards the city of Thebes and people must answer a riddle in order to gain access into the city. If they answer incorrectly then the Sphynx eats them. Oedipus was the only man to ever solve the riddle. I did not think that this was the Sphynx that Yeats was referring to. I felt that he was talking about the Egyptian Sphynx. Especially since he was mentioning the sand in the line before. In Egypt, the Sphynx was built to represent the closeness of the pharoahs with their sun god. They were also guardians. Yeats seems to tie them together even more when he mentions how the Beast has a gaze that is pitiless like the sun. The only way I can link the Egypt idea with religion is the story of when Moses had to get his people out of slavery in Egypt from the Pharoah. I don't think I really know what I'm talking about honestly, but I feel like maybe Yeats is very fearful of the idea of a giant monster coming and killing everyone. But it feels very odd yet significant that the Beast is coming from Egypt.

P.S. I commented on Anna's, "An Unravelling and a Revelation."

An Unravelling and a Revelation

It’s blog time once more, and our class is once again delving into mysterious poetry. The Second Coming is to some degree a very mysterious poem. Perhaps that is what is so intriguing about it. My favorite part of the poem, and the part that I understood the most, was the first stanza. I believe most of the class would agree with me. There are some important cues to look at while reading the first stanza. It may not be as straightforward as we think. One dynamic of the poem that stands out is an overall unwinding of old and a prophecy of something new.

In class we talked about the gyre. It is a cone-like spiraling motion-- a ‘widening “ gyre. The part of the gyre to focus on is the part that is not compact and because it is widening it is getting weaker and weaker and further and further away from it’s starting point. In the next line the falcon is also getting further and further away from his starting point, the falconer. Once again we see a circling motion, and a widening as the falcon’s circles become so large he cannot hear the falconer. Later in the poem the word “loosed” is used twice. Over all in the first stanza, there is something that is being loosed. Things are beginning to unwind. The clockwork is over and things as they were before are quickly unraveling.

Something is indeed happening as told by the next three lines. The first line says, “Surely some revelation is at hand.” Don’t let the word revelation confuse you. Some revelation does not necessarily mean The Revelation we are familiar with found in the book of Revelation in the Bible. What if it is a different kind of revelation? What if Yeats is playing off the biblical references we know to symbolize a revelation he is introducing? Next the poem leads into the part about the sphinx. I do not fully understand what the sphinx means, but whatever it is, it represents the “revelation” at hand. Once again don’t get caught up in the use of the word beast. What if Yeats means a different kind of beast? After focusing on the sphinx it says, “while all about it / Reel shadows of the indignant birds.” Here again we can notice imagery of a circling motion.

Next there is a shift in the poem. “Twenty centuries of stony sleep,” and “Bethlehem” are found in the same three lines. This is no coincidence. Yeats wrote the poem in the twentieth century. There had been twenty centuries since Jesus’ birth. Since Jesus’ birth there had been twenty centuries of nightmares, (19-20) or at least in Yeats eyes there was. Now finally those nightmares were coming to an end.

I don’t understand exactly what Yeats is prophesying, but it has to be something along the lines of a change occurring in his times. Perhaps he is saying something about Postmodernism. There is definitely a strong indication of a progression and an unraveling. The gyre’s starting point was at Jesus’ birth and now, with it’s widening it’s power is lost. Now, to Yeats, a new birth is at hand.

P.S. I was unable to comment because of a glitch on Blogspot I think. I'll type comment.

A Disturbing Sight

"Says it feels right this time,
Turn around and found the light lime...
Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel
was just a freight train coming your way."
-Metallica, No Leaf Clover

It's good to be back on the Honors Blog, ain't it? Let's see what I've got to work with here...ooh, Yeats! I've heard good things about this guy. Let's see, The Second Coming, hm, sounds vaguely Christian. (Reads)...what is this I don't even...???? I don't need to drive this train of thought any longer, we all know how divisive this poem was and how we couldn't fully determine the meaning of this poem. Still, there is a certain theme I want to touch on that this poem brings on more than any other I've read-what if we want to come is actually not what we get at all?
It's happened to us all. You take a difficult test that we think deserves an A, but you end up with a C. You get tickets to see someone perfom live hoping for an amazing show, but for one reason another it totally sucks. Now take that and enlarge it over 9000 times...this is Yeat's reality.

Consider that Yeats was an Irishman writing during a time of intense holy war between the Catholics and Protestants, where he not only knew of the scriptures and our perception of the apocalypse but also saw religion in its most evil form. Consider that this poem was written right after World War I, in a time where people had been eagerly expecting the return of Jesus Christ. For some, the most terrifying war of all time surely meant that Jesus would be coming soon and end the madness. For the secular, this was surely the war to end all wars and utopia would surely be established. Others merely saw a return to peace and hoped for better days after the hell they just went through. Yeats didn't share their sentiments. Regardless of all the symbolism and allusions that may or may not be in this poem, one thing is certain...things are about to get very bad very soon. It is not a second coming of Christ, but a second coming of war! We are not heading upwards towards Utopia but downwards into something far more terrifying than we can imagine.

Now consider the global depression that the world fell into after the war, the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany, the Holocaust, and, most notable considering the Sphynx allusion, the Six Day War on the newly reformed nation of Israel of which Egypt participated in and tell Yeats he's wrong. Yeah, poets are like that, which is why I say that the light at the end of the tunnel most Europeans were expecting turned out to be a freight train, "surely the Second Coming is at hand."

Anyway, that's just some food for thought, thanks for reading. Please feel free to comment as you please, I commented on Joshua's The Slouching World.

Yeats gives me the eats!!!

While reading Yeats three poems I unconsciously swallowed about four brown cinnamon sugar pop-tarts....

Anyways, of the three poems my favorite by far was Sailing to Byzantium, especially the first stanza. I also found this the easiest one to understand...or maybe I just got it all wrong.

My favorite lines of the poem are in the first stanza:
" Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
monuments of unageing intellect."
From these lines, for me at least, I can really understand and empathize with the speaker's agony of old age. His yearning to find a way somehow to remain youthful really makes me see the desperation in being forgotten or left behind, which goes along with old age.

In the second stanza, the speaker goes on to say that:
" An aged man is but a paltry thing,
a tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, louder sing"
This, too, makes me feel sad for the speaker. For it seems like he is trying to figure out how to live when he is "fastened to a dying animal" (his body). My own grandparents, at times, have expressed somewhat embarrassingly to me, the same sort of helplessness. In the mind, heart, and soul, they are still full of life and energy. Yet, they physically can not achieve what they want to because they are trapped in their own bodies.

The last stanza is my second favorite of the poem. In it, the speaker desires to be taken away from "any natural thing" and to basically be kept beautiful in what the speaker goes on to describe as a work of art I feel like. This part very much reminds me of Ode to A Grecian Urn where the two lovers are left suspended outside of time, untouched by old age and ugliness, where they always will remain youthful and beautiful. By desiring to be taken away from any natural thing, it seems as if the speaker almost wants to be something fake, artificial, which would keep his body from aging and becoming ugly.

Basically, this poem made me dread getting old and ugly and being forgotten. Lovely.

The Slouching World

William Butler Yeats penned "The Second Coming" in 1919, when the human race had just emerged from the worst military conflict in history: World War I, the supposed "War to End All Wars." Never before had the nations experienced destruction on such a large scale, and to all its survivors, the war seemed apocalyptic. Relating to this sentiment, Yeats writes,

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

Yeats, a non-Christian, does not use the Second Coming of Christ in a literal sense; rather, he uses it as symbolism for his primary audience, Christian Europe. The Second Coming is known as a cataclysmic event- the final chapter of history and the end of all things- and Yeats uses poetic imagery to describe it:

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

These lines are a commentary on the general state of man. Again, one should only consider the world in 1919: the nations were traumatized, and all that seemed to be good was overshadowed by war, pestilence and plague. As bad as the world seemed, it was but "mere anarchy," a shadow of things to come.

Yeats says that the best of men "lack all conviction" while the evilest "are full of passionate intensity." When good men lack the conviction to do good, they will not rise to stop those who are passionately intent on doing evil. Yeats read the times well, as it was this lack of conviction that would allow men like Adolf Hitler to come to power.

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

It is not Christ who is slouching towards Bethelehem. It is us. We are the beast. According to Yeats, there is not an external doom coming to the world. The world is creating its own doom. We, humanity, will be the ones who destroy ourselves. The world is on the downgrade, continually slouching towards desolation and, ultimately, darkness.

EDIT: I commented on His Beloved's "Questions concerning 'The Second Coming'" and Mallory Searcy's "First post on the honor's blog."

Poetry

Yesterday in class, I found myself torn during the discussion on writing poetry instead of pros. I am pretty scientifically minded. I rather like bullet points and concise facts. I like things to be clear and plainly expressed. However, for some reason that I will never begin to be able to explain, I love poetry. Despite mystery and an unclear message, I have always enjoyed reading poetry, and even writing it (badly) on occasion. ”The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity” just wouldn’t be as effective had Yeats said “Good people are lazy and bad people are motivated.”

Commented om "The End??"

-Jamie

Like a lost falcon...

I'm just going to focus on the first stanza, momentarily forgetting whether or not this poem is about the second coming of Jesus or WW1.

"Turning and turning in the widening gyre,
The falcon cannot hear the falconer."

These first two lines immediately reminded me of the parable of the True Shepherd.

"The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice." (John 10:2-4 NIV) 
Yeats is saying that in the midst of the chaos of war Christians felt lost  and out of touch with God. Like a falcon who could not hear directions from his master and didn't know which way to go or sheep without their shepherd, they forgot to put their trust in the True Shepherd. They lost sight of hope and neglected the One who gives us hope in times of trouble. But we don't have to be in the middle of World War to feel distant from God. It happens to all Christians during trying times in our own lives. We turn to other things to fill the void when we feel like God is silent, and this is when "things fall apart" and we experience "mere anarchy". But if we remain still long enough, we can hear the shepherd's soft whisper of encouraging words, guiding us through the gyre and back to safe ground.
-Tori Burger
Commented on Bethan's "Yeats gives me the eats"

Well, back into the fray!

First and foremost, all of you rock my world. I am thoroughly loving the discussions we started off with this semester. It is absolutely wonderful being "home" again, and it is exciting to see that we all came back with swords at the ready. Truly, tantum e tenebris receptum constabit.

And now into the fray...

Each semester is naturally different from those previous, but this is radically different for me. I am currently immersed in three or four-ish different movements of literature, which makes my semester a little like the gyre. However, this gyre is fascinating and frightening and beautiful. In my mind rages a war among the Medievals, Romantics, and the Moderns--and each of the opponents has something to say about nature or Nature (thanks, Wordsworth).

CS Lewis and Schuler have shown me over the last week that the Medievals have a place for everything and everything must be put in its right place...which they accomplish, but according to their own Model (go listen to Radiohead when you feel like figuring out this Model, ugh). As one who is utterly obsessed with the Middle Ages, something about this Model invites me in. Everything has been given a purpose; the society that bore them has their significance built into its cycle through history. Something about that is desirable to me, but I think I may be speaking that from weariness of seeking my purpose. Nature has its purpose; she is everything but nothing. "By surrendering the dull claim to be everything, she becomes somebody." And according to the Model, all things have a place within her. There is no room for mystery.

Next, I have Wordsworth traipsing through the woods to find a plot of land untouched by society, this place where he can simply be and dwell for a little while. Then he destroys it. Not really sure what to do with that, but he does respect Nature regardless of his slip in "Nutting". In "Tintern Abbey", he prays to Nature. Not in a deifying way, but a veneration of her for what she shows him about himself through his memories that include her and also the effects she (Nature) will have on his sister.

Then, Strauss...modernity insists that it is man who can be both potter and clay for lack of a better or non-Biblical reference--not that I equate Lady Natura with God. That would be nonsensical and stupid. Strauss reveals to us that "man's humanity is not due to nature but to history, to the historical process, a singular or unique process which is not teleological." The Medievals also uphold history, perhaps even more so than the Moderns. The difference is in the purpose of nature/Nature. The modern man defines his own purpose, and tells Nature what hers is as well. Everything and nothing?

There are loopholes in everything I just said, and I could sit here and point them out. But my blog would be obnoxiously long, and no one wants that.

COMMENTED ON MALLORY'S

Question's concerning "The Second Coming"

I found reading the "Second Coming" by Yeats very interesting. Upon first reading the title of this poem I had the mind to believe it would be about the second coming of Christ. I do believe thats what everyone believed when reading the title. Once reading the poem, however, it takes a different turn. It is in fact, not at all talking about the second coming of Christ, from what I can tell. I know we threw ideas around and talked at first about it being about the second coming of Christ because it does talk about the beast and then Bethlehem.  Considering that Yeats was an atheist, I can only think that he was not referring to Christ's return. By these following words: "A shape with lion body and the head of a man...And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" we came to the assumption that the beast was a sphinx. I guess, as i said in my comment of Ajackson's post "The End??" why does the sphinx go to Bethlehem? There has to be some meaning behind that. Also, what does it mean when Yeat's says "Slouches towards Bethlehem to  be born?" Does that mean that this beast is truly being born again or does this mean waking up for the first time in such a long time? These are just some questions that I have been wondering about.

P.s I commented on Ajackson's post "The End??"

First post on the honor's blog

We closed in class on tuesday with the purpose of studying poetry. I haven't really been able to stop thinking about it. This is probably because I love poetry so much and I've never thought to explain why. To understand it in a class setting is a bit foreign to me. I don't know what to think about studying The Waste Land tomorrow because I have read it for years and have never had to understand it in an intellectual sense. I just like it. I like the way it makes me feel, what it makes me think about. I was homeschooled, so most of my interaction with literature has been just reading it. over and over again. I carried around a beat up copy of T S Elliot poems everywhere i went my junior and senior year in high school. No one ever asked me to explain Prufrock, or what the "overwhelming question'' was. I read one time that Elliot said great art should be felt before it is understood, and I agree. Not that it shouldn't be understood, but just that you should feel it first. When Dr. Abernathy yelled out "turning turning in the widening gyre/ the falcon cannot hear the falconer" I FELT the words, and something in me knows exactly what they mean, even though we toss around the concepts for an hour in class and I can't make any sense of them. So, I don't know if I'll have anything profound to say about The Waste Land, but it's beautiful and sad, and i do get that.

ps- i commented on "like a lost falcon..."

The End of My Life as I Know It, or Something Like That.

“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;/Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,/The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere/The ceremony of innocence is drowned;/The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity.”

Friday marks the ending of my favorite television show. A show that has helped me through some incredibly hard times, including a move in the middle of my junior year in high school. And I feel exactly like the description above. Many people think I’m crazy for caring so much about a television show. But like I said, it has been one constant thing in my life for five years and now it won’t be there any longer. Actually, a more accurate representation of the way I feel is the first two lines of the poem, the ones directly preceding the ones I’ve quoted above. I feel like once the show is over, I will be flying high above the ground in ever widening circles until I can’t hear anything or anyone. I know this feeling won’t last long, probably not more than a day or two, but nevertheless, the feeling will be real.

Okay, I admit, I really don’t know what Yeats was trying to say. I also don’t know that we came to any sort of consensus about what the poem meant. And since I don’t understand poetry anyway, I thought it appropriate to try and relate my feelings to the surface level of a very confusing poem. Maybe next week I’ll understand the readings better and be able to actually write on those. I doubt it though.

Until next time,

Meghan

P.S. I commented on Rachel’s post and I would put the title of the post, but I can’t remember what it is, sorry.

Rebirth

In Eliot's "The Waste Land," he sets the whole mood for his collection by opening with "April is the cruellest month . . . ." It is very evident that Eliot sees the corruption and brokenness in the world. I like it. As he progresses through, I find it harder to follow his thoughts. They seem broken; maybe that is his point, too.

Death (the state and not the process) is certainly a recurring idea in Eliot's writing. As he nears the fifth section, he speaks of the thunder. I cannot quite figure out his meaning here, but the sterility of the thunder may refer to the silence of the gods or a deity. He may be referring to either a post-violence silence void of life due to warring, or a slow, agonizing death brought on by a lack of life from a silent god. Either way, the lack of water symbolizes a lack of life.

He also begins on a mountain that reminds me of a hopeless version of Dante's Purgatorio: a lack of relief, slowly dying with merely a little patience, a mysterious figure up the road.

Also, I wonder whether or not Eliot liked Poe's writing. They remind me of one another, although merely in content and not form.

Ad augusta per angusta,

Will

Commented on Cheyenne's "Secularized Biblical faith"

Secularized Biblical faith

In The Three Waves of Modernity on page 82, Modernity is defined as secularized biblical faith. It goes on to say we should not look forward to a heaven after we die, but instead focus on making a heaven on earth by our own means. We want both. The thought of eternal happiness is nice but it is also desired to have a pleasant and comfortable life on earth. We are raised being told to go to school and get an education to be able to get hired at a high paying job. With a lot of money you can buy a nice house and have other expensive things that will make us happy. Do we chase things that we believe will complete is and then are just even more unsatified when we get them? We want our rewards in the after life and at the same time we don't want to struggle in this one.

The End??

So i was brainstorming ideas to use for my first ever blog post and i kept coming back to Yeats's image of a man-headed lion rising up out of the desert. in class we were kicking around the idea that it's the sphinx and a symbol for Egypt. that could be true, but what if it's more? In the poem, the Sphinx rises up from the desert sand and stalks towards Bethlehem.  I know that William Yeats was an atheist, but he had to believe that something was going on with Bethlehem because there are SOOOO many other cities he could have used. The sphinx in the Egyptian culture was a symbol of intellect and power. The fact that Yeats says it has "a gaze as blank and pitiless as the sun," makes me think that some merciless spirit, cruel and calculating, stalks toward the cradle of Christianity. Everything about the situation screams of ill intentions for little city and what might be within it, from the beast rising from the desert (a place of death and little hope) to the desert birds (which more often than not are vultures), circling around it. The title of the poem is "The Second Coming", but what is it the second coming of?  Could it be the second coming of the world's attempt to snuff out Christianity at it's roots: first with Herod, and now with whatever evil spirit represented by this sphinx creature? it's seems to me that the ideas of the west-- power, intellect, cruelty- have come to finally put an end to the "old ways" of Christianity and once and for all crush it from existence. wow that last one was kinda dark....

(haha! "edit post"-- marvelous button that is..) P.S. i commented on "Yeats gives me the eats!!!"

Many Different Meanings

After sitting in class today and listening to the many interpretations of “The Second Coming” I decided I wanted to write on a view point myself. I know I mentioned it in class but I want to say it again, what if we are way over thinking the poem instead of allowing it to be as simplistic as Yeats intended it to be? If it is true, like Will and Lane said, that everyone would have understood and heard of the stories of the Bible, then our author would be wise to use biblical references in an allegorical way. I believe this poem could be describing the war and trying to help people better understand it Yeats used scripture, which everyone had been raised hearing, to smoothly explain, in a descriptive way, what he wanted to communicate to his audience. We need to remember to put his piece of work into the context which Yeats would have been in. The first stanza talks about “The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere/ the ceremony of innocence is drowned.” This section sounds like it could be from Revelation when the angels are pouring out the bowls of wrath or when the beast is persecuting the saints. This poem really could be taken in a variety of ways, but I think we should really try and ponder the context and think about how instead of always taking something to such a deep level the author might have meant something to be easy to grasp.

Ps - This post was intended for Chloe R. post, but the blog would not let me comment on her post...
I agree we need to be seeking to share Christ with those who are lost and "make the most of every opportunity, however the bible says we are to anticipate and desire for the day of Christ's return. Having said that, it does not mean we need to stop being concerned for all those who are perishing, on the contrary, Jesus told us to "go make disciples of all the nations". We are suppose to care about the lost, one quote that I love that my pastors says (and I am sure other pastors as well) is how much do we have to hate someone to not tell them about Christ and let them go to hell not knowing if they have heard about Him before or not?(I am paraphrasing, he says it better, sorry) it is true though, how much do we have to hate someone to really not care about them going to hell, a lake of fire to burn forever?.?