Ash Wednesday
As i am performing a significant part of T.S Eliot's "Ash Wednesday" i feel it my responsibilty to include my favorite parts in this post. i tried putting the whole thing on here, but the line breaks weren't working and i didn't have the patience to do them all manually. So, some of my favorite parts:
Because I do not hope to turn again
Because I do not hope
Because I do not hope to turn
Desiring this man's gift and that man's scope
I no longer strive to strive towards such things
(Why should the agèd eagle stretch its wings?)
Why should I mourn
The vanished power of the usual reign?
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still
If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent
If the unheard, unspoken Word is unspoken, unheard;
Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard,
The Word without a word, the Word within
The world and for the world;
And the light shone in darkness and
Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled
About the centre of the silent Word.
O my people, what have I done unto thee.
Now i don't claim to have a grasp on much of this, but i think the encounter with language it provides, and the obvious emotion and passion the verse carries can be enough to aprreciate it as great.
Recently i have noticed how completely i am driven by the future. Every day i (and most of the high school students) walk the halls saying "i can't wait for 'insert upcoming event here...the weekend is popular'." The weekend, or whatever the event is, comes and goes. We might have a good time during that much anticipated day, but even if we do, was not the week wasted in looking towards that event? In all seriousness, we need to keep our heads in the present. Look forward to graduation, but recognize that these days leading up to it are no bore; they are no curse. They might seem that way if we view them as such. But i challenge you to not dwell on the future or the good ole times. Where will they get you? They will get you the heck out of here, and no where but here is reality. Personally, i prefer the concrete. If the whole country did this for a week, productivity would spike astoundingly. Think how many paid work hours are wasted day dreaming, playing solitaire, or talking on AIM (that's you Nathan Clark)? The weekend might be great, but for now, give me school and KU vs. Kstate, the weekend will handle itself just fine. And right now i really don't look forward to it because i have to sing and the weather is cold as...well, it's cold outside.
Ash Wednesday complete text with the option of having it read to you by T.S. Eliot himself(yeah, i listened to the whole thing)
posted by Pureblood Prince @ 4:27 PM
6 Comments:
Any chance you've been reading Pascal recently? For he says (quite similarly to but not nearly as poetically as you), "We scarcely ever think of the present; and if we think of it, it is only to take light from it to arrange the future...So we never live, but we hope to live; and, as we are always preparing to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so." Good stuff, Thomas...you and Pascal. :) ~Amy
But of course Amy...but of course. He's quite the guy. When i started writing that part of the blog i couldn't remember what i was inspired by, but whe ni finished i remembered the GI reading...weird how stuff skips your mind.
So relieved when I saw your post today, T. I was feeling guilty all morning for not posting a bit from Eliot's poem yesterday, and now it's really too late. I'm glad you remembered at least. Well done.
Ben, that particular anonymous post was signed "Amy" as in amy aadalen, but you are right that many of them have been Mr S.
All a sick kid wanted was a new post, is that too much to ask?! :)
Susanna
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