Also, this poem reminds me of Pascal talking about the then new cosmology, who points out how humbling and incomprehensible the size of the universe is.
| Desert Places by: Robert Frost |
| Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast In a field I looked into going past, And the ground almost covered smooth in snow, But a few weeds and stubble showing last. The woods around it have it--it is theirs. All animals are smothered in their lairs. I am too absent-spirited to count; The loneliness includes me unawares. And lonely as it is that loneliness Will be more lonely ere it will be less-- A blanker whiteness of benighted snow With no expression, nothing to express. They cannot scare me with their empty spaces Between stars--on stars where no human race is. I have it in me so much nearer home To scare myself with my own desert places. |
4 comments:
Here's the quote from Pascal's Pensees that I was thinking of:
" When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity that lies before and after it, when I consider the little space I fill and I see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant, and which know me not, I rest frightened, and astonished, for there is no reason why I should be here rather than there. Why now rather than then? Who has put me here? By whose order and direction have this place and time have been ascribed to me? "
Josh, we're so close but so far away. The snow is falling fast, oh fast outside my window right now, and I'm reminding myself that "One must have a mind of winter." We'll have to catch up in 2010 and discuss our experiences with southern exile and northern adaptation.
Here's another good poem:
One thin September soon
A floating continent disappears
In midnight sun
Vapors rise as
Fever settles on an acid sea
Neptune's bones dissolve
Snow glides from the mountain
Ice fathers floods for a season
A hard rain comes quickly
Then dirt is parched
Kindling is placed in the forest
For the lightning's celebration
Unknown creatures
Take their leave, unmourned
Horsemen ready their stirrups
Passion seeks heroes and friends
The bell of the city
On the hill is rung
The shepherd cries
The hour of choosing has arrived
Here are your tools
No doubt. I have a long weekend in mid-February and have off for Holy Week and Easter Week.
I've placed the Pledge of Allegiance to the Texas Flag outside my dorm room. Several seminarians have already signed, even one from Long Island.
Oh yeah, Louis MacNeice's wonderful poem "Snow" is a real gem as well, though not as nihilistic as the others, if they really are nihilistic, which is debatable.
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