Tintern Abbey and the Sublime

Upon reading Wordsworth's poem about Tintern Abbey a couple of lines immediately stuck out.

Nor less, I trust,      

To them I may have owed another gift,      

Of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood,       

In which the burthen of the mystery,       

In which the heavy and the weary weight      

 Of all this unintelligible world,                               40      

 Is lightened:

AND

And I have felt      

A presence that disturbs me with the joy       

Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime      

Of something far more deeply interfused,       

Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,       

And the round ocean and the living air,       

And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;

I picked these two lines because they both have a word that I remember appearing in more than a few English classes over the years--Sublime. I usually question why a surfer band out of Long Beach, California seems to invade my literature classes with some degree of frequency so this time I did a bit of snooping around on the Sublime. I actually found the Wiki article pretty darn informative on the Sublime and many of the short sections about the development of the modern conception of the divine echo most of the things we have talked about in class. Most notably, like an Epiphany, the sublime carries a two sided connotation with many of the primary philosophers obsessed with the sublime. The sublime isn't always rosy grasping the sublime evokes both awe and terror.

Joseph Addison wrote in his book "Remarks on Several Parts of Italy Etc" where he attempted to describe the sublime through his journey in the Swiss and Italian Alps. "The Alps fill the mind with an agreeable kind of horror." Addison's experience was scarily beautiful or maybe scared him into appreciation or amazement. Either way, his view of the sublime is a feeling of the most unpleasant pleasure. His paradoxical approach to the Sublime, painful pleasure, reminds me a hell of a lot of Eliot and all of the paradoxes he uses in the 4 Quartets. Sublime is indescribable with with anything but a paradox much like an epiphany is only describable with paradox. I found this to be a very interesting observation of the Sublime and having been to the Alps myself, I cant say I disagree.

Then I stumbled onto a passage by Edmund Burke out of his book "A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas on the Sublime and Beautiful."

"WHATEVER is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling"

This quote made me think back to all that I discovered while reading Hopkins. Humans are doomed to suffer much more than experience happiness. Or maybe the only feeling worth having is pain? Ether way they all sound like a bunch of pessimists. Or maybe I just didn't quite understand the type of pain Burke was trying to get at, but I kept on reading and the answer just sort of popped up.

"Thambos is in Greek, either fear or wonder; deinos is either terrible or respectable"

I don't really think all of these writer/philosophers believe that the Sublime (or Epiphany) is primarily a painful (as in physical pain though I would be willing to bet a certain amount of physical pain is involved) experience. Rather, just like thambos or deinos in Greek, pain is implied or written into the Sublime (or epiphany) it is part of the connotation. I think the pain of loss that comes along with a fleeting feeling of sublime or an epiphany makes pain a necessary and unavoidable part of the feeling.

All of this brings me back to one of the first days in class. Dr. Sexson was commenting on how the english word "Awesome" is over used and has lost most of its true meaning because of phrases like "duuuudddeeee, that was AWESOME." I think he was implying that "Awesome" has lost the pain associated with it. At some point, something "awesome" wasn't just cool, it hurt like hell, physically, mentally, spiritually, etc.

As for Wordsworth, I think for the most part he had a much more positive less painful view of the sublime and especially the sublime in nature. Though maybe not as he looks on nature, reflects on the sublime to hear "the still, sad music of humanity."

Holy Hopkins Batman!

So I did some revisions on my Hopkins blog because I was thinking about it walking home late last night from playing pond hockey. What started as a few revisions turned into another completely separate blog post. You can read all of my ramblings in my revised previous post but I wanted to separate this part from the whole because I think it stands alone and might be more interesting by itself.

Note: before this text I was talking about a dark epiphany in "The Wreck of the Deutschland." A nun cries out for god but dies anyway.

Of course in true Hopkins' fashion the Nun dies anyway in the wreck causing one to question God because he has forsaken her and her devotion like Simon Peter or a traitor on Tarpeian Rock. But its all part of the Epiphany though sometimes dark and confusing. BUT...

Loathed for a love men knew in them,
Banned by the land of their birth,
Rhine refused them. Thames would ruin them;
Surf, snow, river and earth
Gnashed: but thou art above, thou Orion of light;	165
Thy unchancelling poising palms were weighing the worth,
Thou martyr-master: in thy sight
Storm flakes were scroll-leaved flowers, lily showers—sweet heaven was astrew in them.
22 Five! the finding and sake
And cipher of suffering Christ.	170
Mark, the mark is of man’s make
And the word of it Sacrificed.
But he scores it in scarlet himself on his own bespoken,
Before-time-taken, dearest prizèd and priced—
Stigma, signal, cinquefoil token	175
For lettering of the lamb’s fleece, ruddying of the rose-flake.

Hello St. John of the Cross! The nuns must suffer to reach salvation they must experience "the dark night of the soul". They must endure the tumultuous waters and ultimately, drown, as a gift to the "martyr-master" (God I think). But God grants them peace and a happy ending (at least thats how I interpret it) as "sweet heaven was astrew in them (the nuns that is)." This is where I think the poem gets real interesting, what they must endure is likened to the suffering of Christ and what they must endure, a "Mark, the mark is of man's make." It seems to me that the suffering endured by the Nuns during the shipwreck or better yet, "the dark night of the soul," is mans creation (probably the only one in Hopkins' view), it is a self inflicted wound most likely originating from Bible World History Episode 1...The Apple. More interestingly, though man created his own suffering, man doesn't have the power to instill the "thingness" of the suffering. That is up to God he must manifest the "inscape" of the suffering, he must breath "the word of it Sacrificed." Which means we have the power to discover the "instress" of the "inscape" of our own creation... suffering. Wow... my head hurts.

From what we have read in Eliot, I think it is safe to say he would agree with Hopkins' view of epiphany. God made the epiphany, it was his gift to man but the dark epiphany (i.e. suffering and sacrifice) was man's own creation and man doomed himself to a hell of a lot more dark epiphanies than light ones. I think he would also agree that a real good epiphany (the ultimate AWE!!!!) comes from the "instress" of suffering (or dark epiphany). Though I would imagine Eliot would use a bit of different wording "The only hope, or else dispair, Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre-- To be redeemed from fire by fire"

An Epiphany in Stereo Hopkins and Eliot **Revised**

I know I said I would stop however I was rereading my blog post and decided to add a few things. For ease of reference, anything new is in blue.

I did some googling on Gerard Manley Hopkins and his terms "inscape" and "instress." Hopkins coined "inscape" as a word to describe the "thingness" of a thing. "Inscape" is what makes every object unique. "Inscape" is the design, it is what makes every object fit in the gigantic cosmic puzzle just right. Hopkins was a religious man and he saw this design as an extremely purposeful act of God. The "inscape" of something is the divine approval of existence, it is the mark of creation. The theory is related to the logocentric theory of creation. That is the world created through the "Word" of God. Creation from speech. All things came into existence from sounds coming out of the Gods mouth and thus "inscape" or self or identity was created from intonations as varied and unique as the things themselves.

Because humans have the best understanding of self, we can decipher "inscape." This process of discovering "inscape" in a thing is called "instress." "Instress" is the power to hear the Word of God within something's "inscape." Enlightenment comes from understanding the "instress" of the "Inscape." It is Hopkins' version of epiphany.

In his poem The Wreck of the Deutschland Hopkins addresses "instress" The poem is about the shipwreck of the SS Deutschland. Five of the passengers killed were Franciscan Nuns exiled due to the Falk Laws. Short WIKI here

Glow, glory in thunder;
Kiss my hand to the dappled-with-damson west:
Since, tho’ he is under the world’s splendour and wonder,
His mystery must be instressed, stressed;
For I greet him the days I meet him, and bless when I understand.

Hopkins' "inscape" reminds me of the "echoes" from Burnt Norton because they both use sound in trying to convey an epiphany. For both "inscape" and "echoes" the epiphany comes when the sound is interpreted properly. The sound must be intensified or attuned to stimulate deaf ears (perhaps distracted from distraction by distraction ears?). I think back to our discussion about an epiphany through music. I also think of the connotation of the title "Four Quartets," also based in sound and music. I think both of these writers, Eliot and Hopkins, are trying to tell us that epiphany ultimately comes from some kind of sound or wavelength rather than a vision, or a taste, or a smell. An epiphany is a chord that resonates through our minds, our hearts, our souls, and our guts. I think that's why I felt the goose bumps running down my back on the Mountain in Europe, my epiphany was using my spine as a keyboard. I also think that is why the dark epiphanies are so painful, as in Little Gidding "And last, the rendering pain of re-enactment, Of all you have done, and been; the shame." Also like the little dark epiphany (well maybe just little realization or little feeling) Taylor had with Pater that caused her to get "sick feeling in her stomach." The dissonant chords played by a dark epiphany nearly tear you apart.

The idea of music/sound and the epiphany may also lend a clue to Eliot's "dance". Professor Sexson said "Eliot doesn't seem like much of a dancer." I disagree. I think Eliot loves to dance but only to the right kind of music, the kind "restored by the refining fire, where you must move in measure." The kind of music that exists only in the "still point." I would imagine Eliot would dance to these lines from Hopkins' "Deutscheland"

Till a lioness arose breasting the babble, (sounds a lot like the Lotus in BN)	135
A prophetess towered in the tumult, a virginal tongue told.
18 Ah, touched in your bower of bone
Are you! turned for an exquisite smart,
Have you! make words break from me here all alone,
Do you!—mother of being in me, heart.	140
O unteachably after evil, but uttering truth,
Why, tears! is it? tears; such a melting, a madrigal start!
Never-eldering revel and river of youth,
What can it be, this glee? the good you have there of your own?
19 Sister, a sister calling	145
A master, her master and mine!—
And the inboard seas run swirling and hawling;
The rash smart sloggering brine
Blinds her; but she that weather sees one thing, one;
Has one fetch in her: she rears herself to divine	150
Ears, and the call of the tall nun
To the men in the tops and the tackle rode over the storm’s brawling.

The epiphany in "Deutscheland:" the cries (of mercy? or prayers asking God forgiveness asking kindly for salvation?) of a Franciscan Nun, a virgin, near drowned in the storm, piercing through the crashing of the waves and the foam of the sea, intent on hearing with "divine ears" (I think this phrase "divine ears" has two meanings. First she is calling upon God's "divine ears." Second she is she is opening her own "divine ears" as opposed to "distracted ears" [Eliot]) the voice of God. It is her devotion to God and his Word that shine like a beacon of light

Ah! there was a heart right!	225
There was single eye!
Read the unshapeable shock night
And knew the who and the why;
Wording it how but by him that present and past,
Heaven and earth are word of, worded by?—	230
The Simon Peter of a soul! to the blast
Tarpeian-fast, but a blown beacon of light.

Of course in true Hopkins' fashion the Nun dies anyway in the wreck causing one to question God because he has forsaken her and her devotion like Simon Peter or a traitor on Tarpeian Rock. But its all part of the Epiphany though sometimes dark and confusing. BUT...

Loathed for a love men knew in them,
Banned by the land of their birth,
Rhine refused them. Thames would ruin them;
Surf, snow, river and earth
Gnashed: but thou art above, thou Orion of light;	165
Thy unchancelling poising palms were weighing the worth,
Thou martyr-master: in thy sight
Storm flakes were scroll-leaved flowers, lily showers—sweet heaven was astrew in them.
22 Five! the finding and sake
And cipher of suffering Christ.	170
Mark, the mark is of man’s make
And the word of it Sacrificed.
But he scores it in scarlet himself on his own bespoken,
Before-time-taken, dearest prizèd and priced—
Stigma, signal, cinquefoil token	175
For lettering of the lamb’s fleece, ruddying of the rose-flake.

Hello St. John of the Cross! The nuns must suffer to reach salvation they must experience "the dark night of the soul". They must endure the tumultuous waters and ultimately, drown, as a gift to the "martyr-master" (God I think). But God grants them peace and a happy ending (at least thats how I interpret it) as "sweet heaven was astrew in them (the nuns that is)." This is where I think the poem gets real interesting, what they must endure is likened to the suffering of Christ and what they must endure, a "Mark, the mark is of man's make." It seems to me that the suffering endured by the Nuns during the shipwreck or better yet, "the dark night of the soul," is mans creation (probably the only one in Hopkins' view), it is a self inflicted wound most likely originating from Bible World History Episode 1...The Apple. More interestingly, though man created his own suffering, man doesn't have the power to create the "thingness" of the suffering. That is up to God he must instill the "inscape" of the suffering, he must breath "the word of it Sacrificed." Which means we have the power to discover the "instress" of the "inscape" of our own creation... suffering. Wow... my head hurts.

From what we have read in Eliot, I think it is safe to say he would agree with Hopkins' view of epiphany. God made the epiphany, it was his gift to man but the dark epiphany (i.e. suffering and sacrifice) was man's own creation and man doomed himself to a hell of a lot more dark epiphanies than light ones. I think he would also agree that a real good epiphany (the ultimate AWE!!!) comes from the "instress" of suffering (or dark epiphany). Though I would imagine Eliot would use a bit of different wording "The only hope, or else dispair, Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre-- To be redeemed from fire by fire"

Anyway back to the original intention of this blog post, it is sound and word that creates the Epiphany in "Deutscheland." (it is also the sound of the word that brings man's ultimate creation the dark epiphany into existance) Though not music specifically, the intonations that reach the "men in the tops and the tackle" cause the Awe! moment (a little side note...I find it very interesting that the most commonly associated term with epiphany isn't a term at all. Rather it is a sound "Awe" or "Ah-hah"). The more I think about sound and Epiphany the deeper I think the possibility may go. A bugle gives the Cavalry the courage to charge. A battle cry gives soldiers the courage to fight. The national anthem brings some people to tears. Or maybe even, to steal a bit from Proust, a couple notes on a pipe organ followed by "take me out to the ball game" brings you back to the summer when you were nine, eating hot dogs and crunching peanuts in the bleacher seats at the local minor league ballpark. Try it for yourself.

But anyway I'll stop there.

This time for real.

A college try at Elliot

I've been procrastinating this post for some time now. I really don't want to write it. My thoughts are scattered and my prose is a bit shaky but I feel i have to give it the old college try right?

Of course I am talking about a blog about the Four Quartets as a whole. A summation, a collection of the wanderings of my brain. I have no Idea where this is going.

Things I've noticed...

Paradox- Pat's discussion of paradox got me to start looking for paradoxes all over the quartets. Throughout the poem Eliot uses paradox to describe the indescribable. The still point, the point that is neither arrest nor movement. The end and the beginning. Between melting and freezing. Where I get a bit held up is the purpose to all of these paradoxes?

Adventure and the Still Point-

"At the still point, there the dance is" (Burnt Norton). A common theme through the presentations was the point of enlightenment existing in some indescribable area between stillness and motion. I think (in more general terms) the source of the river in Dry Salvages is the still point of Burnt Norton and the Sea is the vast knowledge attainable to those willing to explore the Still Point. However the journey is not as simple as tubing a river. Some voyagers "ended their voyage on the sand, in the sea's lips, Or in the dark throat which will not reject them" (Dry Salvages). There is threat of fire in the river from the "dark dove with the flickering tongue" (Gidding). Loneliness and loss fill the river yet the only option is for the voyager, once he has accepted the mission, is to "fare forward". The adventurer exploring the waters of the still point must realize "all shall be well" even when no hope exists. The journey is not pretty or romantic rather it is disjointed and winding like a river flowing through a delta. Each decision on the journey comes with the possibility of the opposite, the possiblity of the the other decision. Those decisions not chosen flow along side as other branches of the delta. They are "echoes" that follow the traveler (Norton). Even with these unrealized possibilities, the adventurer must always "fare forward" because true enlightenment occurs at the end...and at the beginning "And what you thought you came for, is only a shell, a husk of meaning, from which the purpose brakes only when it is fulfilled, if at all."

Bhagavad Gita/Dry Salvages-

I also became quite interested in this part from section 3 of the Dry Salvages

While time is withdrawn (in the still point maybe), consider the futer

And the past with an equal mind. (That is look to the echoes)

At the moment wich is not of action or inaction

You can receive this: "on whatever sphere of being

The mind of a man may be intent

At the time of death"-- that is the one action

(And the time of death is every moment)

Which shall fructify in the lives of others:

And do not think of the fruit of action.

Fare Forward.

(Salvages section 3)

The quote is from the Bhagavad Gita. In full it reads "on whatever sphere of being The mind of a man may be intent At the time of death, tither he will go." I find this interesting because i think Death can be another "still point" and like death the primary thought at a "still point" will be the catalyst for the journey I described above.

Of even more interest is another quote from the same section of the Gita. "To him who thinks constantly of Me, and of nothing else, to such an ever faithful devotee O Arjuna, am I ever accessible." To me, this is more than just a call to reflect on a higher power. A person dedicated to reflecting on the knowledge available in the "still point," or moment of enlightenment, will realize how accessible enlightenment truly is. Enlightenment isn't having the right thought, rather it is thinking right. Grasping the "still point" and riding out the river of unmoving enlightens the soul in a much greater way than some profound comprehensible thought. We must "suffer the trial and judgement of the seat, Or whatever event, this is your real destination" (Salvages section 3). Enlightenment comes not from the beginning or the end of the river (as these are one in the same) but rather from the bends of the river, the tributaries of the river, and the river delta all easily accessible so long as you think right.

I'm not sure i completed a single thought in this blog post but i tried. I consider this post the beginning of my float after being trapped for an extended period of time in an eddy.

A little tidbit of East Coker... stupid GRE

Well from the looks of other blogs, I missed out on a pretty excellent group presentation. Forgive me, I had to be sacrificed to the Gods of Standardized Higher Education and take the GRE. I'm so happy to say all of the knowledge of the last 5 years was packaged up into a little 4 hour chunk and spit out onto a Educational Testing Services computer to be compared with all of the other 4 hour chunks of students across the nation in efforts to determine worthiness to continue higher education.

But anyway back to the much more important matter.

I wanted to highlight a little passage that struck me in East Coker. It comes during the scene of the Dance of the Dead. Because this poem is so damn confusing I can only manage it in miniature chunks while the rest of it just flows over my head.

"Keeping time

Keeping the rhythm in their dancing

As in their living in the living seasons

The time of the seasons and the constellations

The time of milking and the time of harvest

The time of the coupling of man and woman

And that of beasts. Feet Rising and Falling.

Eating and drinking. Dung and death.

Dawn points, and another day"

This part of the poem initially struck me because of the thought of the dead keeping the time of the living. Living people have a insatiable fascination about time. Always, time for work, time for school, time for dinner, time for that incredibly important meeting. What struck me is all the dead have is time...an unlimited amount of it...to think, to ponder, to reflect on, if i were to guess, life. But Eliot says its the dead who keep time "as in their living in the living seasons." Switch a few of the letters around in that line and it reads. Its the dead who keep time "as if they're living in the living seasons." The dead keep the time of the seasons, constellations, milking, harvest and love. The dead keep the time of all the shit thats really important in life while the living keep time of meaningless appointments. The living keep dayplanners while the things worth keeping time of, i.e. seasons, constellations, and love, drift right on by without much notice.

It's like, Groundhog's Day. Bill Murrey's character only realizes the important things until after he's witnessed them thousands of times. The Dead have infinite time to figure out these important things and then fixate on them in ritual dance so as if to never lose them, while the living experience them in full flesh and blood only to disregard them during the never ending quest for "dawn points, another day."

"Still points" exists in the minutia of the world. It's a shame, i'd imagine Eliot would argue, that we walk right by them everyday. I think Joyce would agree because the greatest epiphany can come from patio furnature.

Pink Floyd and the Visual Echo

Best visual representation of an Echo I could find and Wiki Article to go with it. From the cover of Pink Floyd's 2001 release, Echoes. Click on the Picture to see the full image.

More revelations in Burnt Norton

While talking with Adam in the library, we discussed another interesting thought on the Four Quartets.

So much of Burnt Norton seems to be about something about a "still point." It's like a vaccuum in time. A stillness just before something happens but irrelevant to the actual happening, "Caught in the form of limitation Between un-being and being." (20). It's as if in this still point, an action has yet to happen but at the same time has already ended. It is a strange concept.

In Movement 3 in Burnt Norton. Eliot uses Subway imagery (or at least thats what the author of a short introduction on the Four Quartets says). For example "Only a flicker over the strained time-ridden faces Distracted from distraction by distraction filled with fancies and empty of meaning Tumid apathy with no conentration Men and bits of paper, whirled by the cold wind that blows before and after time..." What I find interesting about the Subway imagery and the concept of "Still point" is the idea that when someone stands on a subway platform and a full subway car passes by, for a split second (or "still point"), the person on the subway platform can clearly see each person on the train as they pass even though the car remains in constant movement. For a brief nanosecond, the person on the subway platform and the person directly across from them on the moving car exist in a "Still point" (or at least the closest natural occurrence of a "Still Point.")

I have quite a few more thoughts on this idea however we should be covering them in our group presentation. I wanted to share a little food for thought about Burnt Norton as I discover the tasty tidbits.

Books I couldn't Put Down...more or less

To be quite honest, I only remember a few books I couldn't put down during my years of reading both forced and chosen and of those books I remember even less as to why I found each so intriguing. But none the less I will try to recount them here.

Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead- Something about the general badassery of Howard Roark made the last couple hundred pages fly by on a lazy sunday afternoon.

Ken Kesey- Sometimes a Great Notion- Most complicatedly written book I have ever loved. A Greek tragedy set in a small

Oregon logging town. Kesey's writing turned me on to others of his or near his generation, Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson, Charles Bukowski, Kerouac (though all were entertaining, none even approached Kesey).

Douglas Adams- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy- The first book that I can clearly remember made me laugh outrageously and actually question the common conceptions of things. I even ended up buying Adam's whole Hitchhiker's series.

And most recently...

Warren Miller- Wine, Women, Warren, & Skis- A simple short story told and illustrated only as Warren Miller can. I consider it my apology for being a ski bum. It also contains one of the single greatest epiphanies in the recent literature I've read. "If you don't do it this year, you'll be one year older when you do." Words to live by.