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Often appears with: fate, destiny, and necessity · language, naming, and meaning · history and the writing of history · the passions and the emotions · translation and the transmission of texts · reason and the intellect · religious persecution and toleration · justice as a virtue · education and the training of the young · books, libraries, and learning · myth and the gods of the nations · theatre and performance
Usually: curiosity (161) · argument (153) · detachment (143) · wonder (103) · narrative (90) · commentary or gloss (68) · reflection (68) · skepticism (51) · censure (49) · exhortation (47)
“Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears.” Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an Amer · insight
“Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament…” Aristotle, The Poetics of Aristotle · precept
“The change of fortune should be not from bad to good, but, reversely, from good to bad.” Aristotle, The Poetics of Aristotle · insight
“The perfection of style is to be clear without being mean.” Aristotle, The Poetics of Aristotle · precept
“Yet a style wholly composed of such words is either a riddle or a jargon; a riddle, if it consists of metaphors; a jargon, if it consists of strange (or rare) words.” Aristotle, The Poetics of Aristotle · insight
“It is precisely because such phrases are not part of the current idiom that they give distinction to the style. This, however, he failed to see.” Aristotle, The Poetics of Aristotle · observation
“For sameness of incident soon produces satiety, and makes tragedies fail on the stage.” Aristotle, The Poetics of Aristotle · insight
“The wonderful is pleasing: as may be inferred from the fact that every one tells a story with some addition of his own, knowing that his hearers like it.” Aristotle, The Poetics of Aristotle · insight
“If, then, Tragedy is superior to Epic poetry in all these respects, and, moreover, fulfils its specific function better as an art for each art ought to produce, not any chance pleasure, but the pleasure proper to it, as already stated it plainly follows that Tragedy is the higher art, as attaining its end more perfectly.” Aristotle, The Poetics of Aristotle · insight
“Great art has no limits of locality or time. Its tidings are timeless, and its messages are universal.” Euripides, The Trojan women of Euripides · insight
“Yet it is only the crying of one of the great wrongs of the world wrought into music.” Euripides, The Trojan women of Euripides · observation
“Sparrow, favourite of my own beloved, Whom to play with, or in her arms to fondle, She delighteth, anon with hardy-pointed Finger angrily doth provoke to bite her:” Gaius Valerius Catullus (translated by Robinson Ellis), The Poems and Fragments of Catullus · vivid
Pepys praises a sermon by Mr. Frampton, then on 21st meets the Swede’s resident to discuss prizes, observes court/legal figures, and notes orders of council for Lord Brouncker’s accounting roles.
truth is, he preaches the most like an apostle that ever I heard man; and it was much the best time that ever I spent in my life at church. 21st To the Swede's-Resident's in the Piazza, to discourse with him about two of our prizes. A cunning fellow. He lives in one of the great houses there, but ill-furnished; and come to us out of bed in his furred mittins and furred cap. Up to the Lords' House, and there come …
Pepys notes poetry being printed, attends church and country leisure at Barnet and Hatfield, buys a book on witches, and criticizes recent comedies while waiting for news of the peace at Breda.
very late, till I could hardly get a coach or link willing to go through the ruines; but I do, but will not do it again, being indeed very dangerous. 10th. Sir John Denham's Poems are going to be all printed together; and, among others, some new things; and among them he showed me a copy of verses of his upon Sir John Minnes's going heretofore to Bullogne to eat a pig. Cowly, he tells me, is dead; who, it seems, w…
Telemachus asks Athene to stay for a bath and gift, promises she will be given something to carry home, and then returns to the wooers as Phemius sings; Penelope interrupts, urging him to stop a sorrowful song about the Achaeans’ pitiful return.
go down to the swift ship and to my men, who methinks chafe much at tarrying for me; and do thou thyself take heed and give ear unto my words.” Then wise Telemachus answered her, saying: “Sir, verily thou speakest these things out of a friendly heart, as a father to his son, and never will I forget them. But now I pray thee abide here, though eager to be gone, to the end that after thou hast bathed and had all thy h…
Alcinous orders fifty-two chosen youths to launch a black ship and has a feast prepared with animal sacrifices, while Demodocus sings about the quarrel between Odysseus and Achilles at a festival of the gods.
the divine minstrel, Demodocus, for the god hath given minstrelsy to him as to none other, to make men glad in what way soever his spirit stirs him to sing.” He spake and led the way, and the sceptred kings accompanied him, while the henchmen went for the divine minstrel. And chosen youths, fifty and two, departed at his command, to the shore of the unharvested sea. But after they had gone down to the ship and to th…
At the Phaeacian feast, Odysseus praises Demodocus and urges him to sing of the wooden horse and the destruction of Troy, then weeps as the song recounts Odysseus’s deeds in the sack.
hands upon the good cheer set before them. Now after they had put from them the desire of meat and drink, then Odysseus of many counsels spake to Demodocus, saying: “Demodocus, I praise thee far above all mortal men, whether it be the Muse, the daughter of Zeus, that taught thee, or even Apollo, for right duly dost thou chant the faring of the Achaeans, even all that they wrought and suffered, and all their travail,…
Du Bois praises Atlanta as a future-facing postwar city shaped by the war and industry, then uses the Atalanta-Hippomenes myth to warn against greedy gold corrupting work and ideals.
on each other, the blazing passion of their love profaned the sanctuary of Love, and they were cursed. If Atlanta be not named for Atalanta, she ought to have been. Atalanta is not the first or the last maiden whom greed of gold has led to defile the temple of Love; and not maids alone, but men in the race of life, sink from the high and generous ideals of youth to the gambler’s code of the Bourse; and in all our Na…
Moses, Israel, and Miriam sing after Pharaoh’s defeat in the sea, then Israel travels into the wilderness of Sur, reaches Mara with bitter water turned sweet by Moses’ tree, and camps at Elim with wells and date trees.
Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song unto the LORD and said: Let us sing unto the LORD, for he is become glorious, the horse and him that rode upon him hath he overthrown in the sea. The LORD is my strength and my song, and is become my salvation. He is my God and I will glorify him, he is my father's God and I will lift him up on high. {an hie} The LORD is a man of war, Iehouah is his name: Pharao's …
Jesus arrives in Bethany for a supper, is anointed at Lazarus’s home, rides into Jerusalem on a young ass to fulfill prophecy, and teaches about glorification and the light before departing.
Then said Iesus: Let her alone, against the day of my burying she kept it. The poor allways shall ye have with you, but me shall ye not allways have. Much people of the jewes had knowledge that he was there. And they came not for Iesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also whom he raised from death. The high priests therefore held a council that they might put Lazarus to death also, because that for his s…
Douglass interprets the meaning of slave songs as testimony against slavery and prayers for deliverance, argues that enslaved people sing most when unhappy, and says he is still moved by these songs.
hearing of those songs would do more to impress some minds with the horrible character of slavery, than the reading of whole volumes of philosophy on the subject could do. I did not, when a slave, understand the deep meaning of those rude and apparently incoherent songs. I was myself within the circle; so that I neither saw nor heard as those without might see and hear. They told a tale of woe which was then altoget…
Margoliouth argues the Qur’an’s originality lies less in new material than in reshaping borrowed traditions, which he claims pass through Muhammad’s mind into new, poetic forms that encourage believers and frighten opponents, and he links the Qur’an to later medieval learning.
later on, frequently descended to deliberate invention and artful rhetoric. He, in fact, accommodated his moral sense to the circumstances in which the r\oc\le he had to play involved him. On the question of originality there can hardly be two opinions now that the Koran has been thoroughly compared with the Christian and Jewish traditions of the time; and it is, besides some original Arabian legends, to those only …
Margoliouth defends the Qur’an’s style as shaped by the psychology and environment of an untutored Arab prophet, compares its cadence to earlier prophetic voices, criticises European discomfort with repetition and “fantastic” elements, and praises Rodwell’s translation for matching Arabic atmosphere.
has in fact been penned by the prophet's greatest British admirer, Carlyle himself; and there are probably many now who find themselves in the same dilemma with that great writer. The fault appears, however, to lie partly in our difficulty to appreciate the psychology of the Arab prophet. We must, in order to do him justice, give full consideration to his temperament and to the condition of things around him. We are…
In a tower-like, storm-and-night vision, Du Bois calls out “white” self-confinement to hatred, prods unity across colors, and includes a long poem attacking colonial “white” vermin and imagining a rebirth with a “black Christ.”
* * * * * All this I see and hear up in my tower, above the thunder of the seven seas. From my narrowed windows I stare into the night that looms beneath the cloud-swept stars. Eastward and westward storms are breaking,--great, ugly whirlwinds of hatred and blood and cruelty. I will not believe them inevitable. I will not believe that all that was must be, that all the shameful drama of the past must be done again t…
A poem addresses “Almighty Death” as a gentle arrival from beyond time, ending with a farewell and children’s voices recalling deeds tried for them, followed by the chapter’s “OF BEAUTY AND DEATH” reflection.
Almighty Death[1] Softly, quite softly-- For I hear, above the murmur of the sea, Faint and far-fallen footsteps, as of One Who comes from out beyond the endless ends of Time, With voice that downward looms thro' singing stars; Its subtle sound I see thro' these long-darkened eyes, I hear the Light He bringeth on His hands-- Almighty Death! Softly, oh, softly, lest He pass me by, …
Messene mourns and hesitates after capturing Philopoemen, but Dinocrates orders poison and Philopoemen drinks it; Achaean youths avenge him, choose Lycortas, destroy resistance, and arrange an elaborate funeral-brawl procession.
him, and carried him off, every kind of insult and contumely being lavished on him who truly had never so much as dreamed of being led in triumph by Dinocrates. The Messenians, wonderfully elated with the news, thronged in swarms to the city gates. But when they saw Philopoemen in a posture so unsuitable to the glory of his great actions and famous victories, most of them, struck with grief and cursing the deceitfu…
Plutarch explains why Athenians honored Cimon above other commanders, recounting his conquests of Eion, Amphipolis, and Scyros, his recovery of Theseus’ remains, and his role in judging the first plays of Sophocles.
Greeks, so Homer's verses say, The ablest man an army to array: So old the title of her sons the name Of chiefs and champions in the field to claim. Though the name of Cimon is not mentioned in these inscriptions, yet his contemporaries considered them to be the very highest honors to him; as neither Miltiades nor Themistocles ever received the like. When Miltiades claimed a garland, Sochares of Decelea stood up in …
Kant advises careful word-use for philosophical clarity, then explains Plato’s notion of idea as an archetype beyond sense, grounded in highest reason and recovered by reminiscence.
Despite the great wealth of words which European languages possess, the thinker finds himself often at a loss for an expression exactly suited to his conception, for want of which he is unable to make himself intelligible either to others or to himself. To coin new words is a pretension to legislation in language which is seldom successful; and, before recourse is taken to so desperate an expedient, it is advisable t…
After mixed decisions, they preserve select books like Palmerin of England and Tirante el Blanco, while ordering most chivalric volumes burned, and they shift remaining poetry to separate treatment.
and another called ‘Roncesvalles;’ for these, if they come into my hands, shall pass at once into those of the housekeeper, and from hers into the fire without any reprieve.” To all this the barber gave his assent, and looked upon it as right and proper, being persuaded that the curate was so staunch to the Faith and loyal to the Truth that he would not for the world say anything opposed to them. Opening another boo…
The curate decides poetry need not be burned, but edits out magical or excessive parts of works like Jorge de Montemayor’s Diana, then preserves or condemns various pastoral and poetic titles.
“As you will,” said the barber; “but what are we to do with these little books that are left?” “These must be, not chivalry, but poetry,” said the curate; and opening one he saw it was the “Diana” of Jorge de Montemayor, and, supposing all the others to be of the same sort, “these,” he said, “do not deserve to be burned like the others, for they neither do nor can do the mischief the books of chivalry have done, bei…
The goatherds offer entertainment, and Antonio plays the rebeck and sings a ballad about Olalla, love’s persistence, Sunday-Monday devotion, and a promise to marry or leave the mountains in a friar’s gown.
Full Size All this long harangue (which might very well have been spared) our knight delivered because the acorns they gave him reminded him of the golden age; and the whim seized him to address all this unnecessary argument to the goatherds, who listened to him gaping in amazement without saying a word in reply. Sancho likewise held his peace and ate acorns, and paid repeated visits to the second wine-skin, which t…
From the hillock, Don Quixote theatrically names many imaginary knights, giving each invented armor, heraldic devices, mottos, and far-flung national attributes, while Sancho can only hear sheep and sees no men.
had not obscured them and blinded the sight; nevertheless, seeing in his imagination what he did not see and what did not exist, he began thus in a loud voice: “That knight whom thou seest yonder in yellow armour, who bears upon his shield a lion crowned crouching at the feet of a damsel, is the valiant Laurcalco, lord of the Silver Bridge; that one in armour with flowers of gold, who bears on his shield three crown…
Sancho explains why he calls Don Quixote the “Knight of the Rueful Countenance,” and Don Quixote replies that an author and chivalric naming scheme require such a title; they plan to paint a rueful face on his shield and move on.
said, without making any reply; and Don Quixote asked Sancho what had induced him to call him the “Knight of the Rueful Countenance” more then than at any other time. “I will tell you,” answered Sancho; “it was because I have been looking at you for some time by the light of the torch held by that unfortunate, and verily your worship has got of late the most ill-favoured countenance I ever saw: it must be either owi…
Cervantes reports that in the Sierra a gifted singer performs city-style verses about happiness undone by disdain, jealousy, absence, love, chance, heaven, and “change, madness, or death,” followed by a sonnet on holy Friendship.
what they heard sung were the verses not of rustic shepherds, but of the polished wits of the city; and so it proved, for the verses they heard were these: What makes my quest of happiness seem vain? Disdain. What bids me to abandon hope of ease? Jealousies. What holds my heart in anguish of suspense? Absence. If that be so, then for my grief Where shall I turn to seek relief, When hope on every side lies slain By A…
Sancho bursts in from the garret claiming Don Quixote has decapitated a giant, while the curate doubts it because the giant is “two thousand leagues” away.
WHICH TREATS OF THE HEROIC AND PRODIGIOUS BATTLE DON QUIXOTE HAD WITH CERTAIN SKINS OF RED WINE, AND BRINGS THE NOVEL OF “THE ILL-ADVISED CURIOSITY” TO A CLOSE There remained but little more of the novel to be read, when Sancho Panza burst forth in wild excitement from the garret where Don Quixote was lying, shouting, “Run, sirs! quick; and help my master, who is in the thick of the toughest and stiffest battle I ev…
The canon’s actor anecdote is extended: the canon insists past Spanish tragedies like ‘Isabella,’ ‘Phyllis,’ and ‘Alexandra’ followed artistic principles and pleased both wise and ignorant.
“‘No doubt,’ replied the actor in question, ‘you mean the “Isabella,” the “Phyllis,” and the “Alexandra.”’ “‘Those are the ones I mean,’ said I; ‘and see if they did not observe the principles of art, and if, by observing them, they failed to show their superiority and please all the world; so that the fault does not lie with the public that insists upon nonsense, but with those who don’t know how to produce somethi…
Don Quixote reasons that the Grove’s knight’s singing reveals his thoughts, then the knight sings a sonnet addressed to “lady mine,” followed by a complaint about the ungrateful Casildea de Vandalia.
for example, the clyster from the stork, vomit and gratitude from the dog, watchfulness from the crane, foresight from the ant, modesty from the elephant, and loyalty from the horse. Sancho at last fell asleep at the foot of a cork tree, while Don Quixote dozed at that of a sturdy oak; but a short time only had elapsed when a noise he heard behind him awoke him, and rising up startled, he listened and looked in the …
Don Quixote identifies himself as a knight-errant whose adventures have been printed in “thirty thousand volumes,” and the gentleman replies that he now believes such chivalric histories will displace fictional knight tales.
lankness and sallowness of his countenance, his armour, his bearing and his gravity—a figure and picture such as had not been seen in those regions for many a long day. Don Quixote saw very plainly the attention with which the traveller was regarding him, and read his curiosity in his astonishment; and courteous as he was and ready to please everybody, before the other could ask him any question he anticipated him b…
Don Diego tells Don Quixote he has one son, studying Latin and Greek at Salamanca, who prefers poetry and debate on Homer, Martial, Virgil, Horace, and other classical authors.
were without the true knowledge of God, placed the *summum bonum* was in the gifts of nature, in those of fortune, in having many friends, and many and good children. “I, Señor Don Quixote,” answered the gentleman, “have one son, without whom, perhaps, I should count myself happier than I am, not because he is a bad son, but because he is not so good as I could wish. He is eighteen years of age; he has been for six …
Don Quixote argues at length that children are portions of their parents’ bodies and that poetry should be governed by virtue, urging the son to pursue his natural inclination while using art to perfect nature.
Spanish poetry, just now his thoughts are absorbed in making a gloss on four lines that have been sent him from Salamanca, which I suspect are for some poetical tournament.” To all this Don Quixote said in reply, “Children, señor, are portions of their parents’ bowels, and therefore, be they good or bad, are to be loved as we love the souls that give us life; it is for the parents to guide them from infancy in the w…
Don Quixote debates with Don Diego de Miranda on why knight-errantry shows better courage than courtly tournaments, arguing valour lies between cowardice and temerity.
helmet full of curds, and then persuading oneself that enchanters are softening one’s skull; or what could be greater rashness and folly than wanting to fight lions tooth and nail?” Don Quixote roused him from these reflections and this soliloquy by saying, “No doubt, Señor Don Diego de Miranda, you set me down in your mind as a fool and a madman, and it would be no wonder if you did, for my deeds do not argue anyth…
Don Diego tells his son Lorenzo that Don Quixote is both madness and wisdom, and Lorenzo discusses with Don Quixote, who asks about his poetry and the sciences he studied.
make of this gentleman you have brought home to us, sir? For his name, his appearance, and your describing him as a knight-errant have completely puzzled my mother and me.” “I don’t know what to say, my son,” replied. Don Diego; “all I can tell thee is that I have seen him act the acts of the greatest madman in the world, and heard him make observations so sensible that they efface and undo all he does; do thou talk…
After Don Lorenzo is dismissed as a “madman” with “lucid intervals,” the household eats in near-monastic silence, and he recites a gloss disputing the possibility of “was” becoming “is” to restore lost happiness.
“All the doctors and clever scribes in the world will not make sense of the scrawl of his madness; he is a madman full of streaks, full of lucid intervals.” They went in to dinner, and the repast was such as Don Diego said on the road he was in the habit of giving to his guests, neat, plentiful, and tasty; but what pleased Don Quixote most was the marvellous silence that reigned throughout the house, for it was like…
Don Quixote praises Don Lorenzo’s poetic talent, urges him to repeat verses, celebrates his sonnet on Pyramus and Thisbe, and then Don Quixote departs to seek adventures near Saragossa.
from pain. And yet, thought were the best for me. Anon the thought aside I fling, And to the present fondly cling, And dread the time that is to be.” When Don Lorenzo had finished reciting his gloss, Don Quixote stood up, and in a loud voice, almost a shout, exclaimed as he grasped Don Lorenzo’s right hand in his, “By the highest heavens, noble youth, but you are the best poet on earth, and deserve to be crowned wit…
Trifaldi quotes romantic poems sung by Don Clavijo and condemns amatory poets, claiming their verses pierce hearts like thorns and lightning, while love-slogans and paradoxes lure simple people.
From that sweet enemy of mine My bleeding heart hath had its wound; And to increase the pain I’m bound To suffer and to make no sign. The lines seemed pearls to me and his voice sweet as syrup; and afterwards, I may say ever since then, looking at the misfortune into which I have fallen, I have thought that poets, as Plato advised, ought to be banished from all well-ordered States; at least the amatory ones, for the…
Don Quixote privately tells the curate and Carrasco he was defeated and must not leave the village for a year, so he plans to become a shepherd; he names the shepherds (Quixotize, Carrascon, Curambro, Pancino) and asks them to write love verses and carve names on trees.
led Dapple, they made for their house, leaving Don Quixote in his, in the hands of his niece and housekeeper, and in the company of the curate and the bachelor. Don Quixote at once, without any regard to time or season, withdrew in private with the bachelor and the curate, and in a few words told them of his defeat, and of the engagement he was under not to quit his village for a year, which he meant to keep to the …
She argues novels should be corrected by ridicule and comparison with history, and she links novel-reading to women’s excessive superlatives and men’s flirtation with vice rather than virtue and modest respectability.
mind has been so totally neglected, that knowledge was only to be acquired from this muddy source, till from reading novels some women of superior talents learned to despise them. The best method, I believe, that can be adopted to correct a fondness for novels is to ridicule them; not indiscriminately, for then it would have little effect; but, if a judicious person, with some turn for humour, would read several to…
Freud argues that perversion and hysteria vary within the same family, yet neurosis functions as the opposite of perversion, and that sublimation transforms dangerous sexual excitations into artistic and moral capacities.
distribution of perversion and hysteria in different persons of the same family, must be placed side by side with the fact that the neurosis is the negative of the perversion. *Sublimation.*--The third issue in abnormal constitutional dispositions is made possible by the process of "sublimation," through which the powerful excitations from individual sources of sexuality are discharged and utilized in other spheres,…
He argues that games and arts grew from religion because cult practices express society’s effervescence and leave a surplus of energy used for art; hence rites can include motions with meanings that may be elusive.
changed. In fact, the distinction between these two sorts of ceremonies is so variable that it is impossible to state with precision to which of the two kinds they belong.[1218] It is a well-known fact that games and the principal forms of art seem to have been born of religion and that for a long time they retained a religious character.[1219] We now see what the reasons for this are: it is because the cult, though…
He distinguishes religion’s rites from its ideas, arguing that religious thought translates nature, man, and society into an intelligible language akin to science, though without scientific critical method.
organizes. Then they do not depend upon the same conditions, and consequently it may be asked if the second answers to necessities as universal and as permanent as the first. When specific characteristics are attributed to religious thought, and when it is believed that its function is to express, by means peculiar to itself, an aspect of reality which evades ordinary knowledge as well as science, one naturally refu…
Gibbon credits bards with supplying the priests’ promised immortality, explaining how heroic songs and battle feasts fueled German martial ardor, fame-seeking, and contempt for death.
Roman rites, of which the nuptial songs formed a part. Adelung, p. 382.—G. Charlemagne is said to have collected the national songs of the ancient Germans. Eginhard, Vit. Car. Mag.—M.] Such was the situation, and such were the manners of the ancient Germans. Their climate, their want of learning, of arts, and of laws, their notions of honor, of gallantry, and of religion, their sense of freedom, im…
Gibbon discusses a Latin poet’s rise, comparing his stature to ancient Roman poets and citing scholarly notes and epigrams that defend Claudian’s honor and biographical details.
of the Latin language; 119 soared above the heads of his feeble contemporaries; and placed himself, after an interval of three hundred years, among the poets of ancient Rome. 120 114 (return) [ At the nuptials of Orpheus (a modest comparison!) all the parts of animated nature contributed their various gifts; and the gods themselves enriched their favorite. Claudian had neither flocks, nor herds, no…
Darwin continues his puma account with hunting and behavior—condors’ role, how carcasses are watched—then describes the Turco and Tapacolo birds, their habits, and hummingbird distribution and feeding.
shoulders, and then drawing back the head with one of its paws, until the vertebrae break: I have seen in Patagonia the skeletons of guanacos, with their necks thus dislocated. The puma, after eating its fill, covers the carcass with many large bushes, and lies down to watch it. This habit is often the cause of its being discovered; for the condors wheeling in the air every now and then descend to partake of the fe…
The author explains the Nibelungenlied’s strophic form and linguistic features, notes likely Saxon and Otfrid-influenced origins for the metre, and closes with the poem’s theme of Treue (faithfulness unto death) and its literary character in German tradition.
the refining influences of Christianity as does his. In all essential respects he is still the same old gigantic Teuton, who meets us in the earliest forms of the legend. As to the various minor characters, many of which appear only in the "Nibelungenlied", space will not permit of their discussion here, although they will be treated of briefly in the notes. Suffice it to say, that the "Nibelungenlied" has introduce…
Siegfried Sassoon introduces Wilfred Owen’s war poetry as truthful, humane, and technically experimental, argues it resists trivial personal gossip, and gives Owen’s biography and death at the Sambre Canal.
POEMS by Wilfred Owen With an Introduction by Siegfried Sassoon [Note on text: Italicized words or phrases are capitalized. Lines longer than 78 characters are broken and the continuation is indented two spaces.] Introduction In writing an Introduction such as this it is good to be brief. The poems printed in this book need no preliminary commendations from me or anyone else. The author has left us his own fra…
Owen’s Preface and Contents declare the poems are about the pity of war, not heroes or consolations, and warn truthful poets will only warn; it also begins with “Strange Meeting” and includes “Greater Love.”
subject of it is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity. Yet these elegies are not to this generation, This is in no sense consolatory. They may be to the next. All the poet can do to-day is to warn. That is why the true Poets must be truthful. If I thought the letter of this book would last, I might have used proper names; but if the spirit of it survives Prussia,--my ambit…
“Strange Meeting” continues with an “enemy” and the speaker in a subterranean afterlife who exchange ideals—mystery, mastery, and truth untold—followed by an “Another Version” ending with “Greater Love,” “Apologia pro Poemate Meo.”
*Another Version* Earth's wheels run oiled with blood. Forget we that. Let us lie down and dig ourselves in thought. Beauty is yours and you have mastery, Wisdom is mine, and I have mystery. We two will stay behind and keep our troth. Let us forego men's minds that are brute's natures, Let us not sup the blood which some say nurtures, Be we not swift with swiftness of the tigress.…
A biographical-literary appraisal contrasts Burke with Johnson, Goldsmith, and the Literary Club, arguing that Burke’s speaking style was oratorical and passionate, with occasional faults of ostentation and self-consciousness.
one of the highest types, he had other interests than those directly suggested by his office, and in one of these, at least, he affords an interesting and profitable study. To the student of literature Burke's name must always suggest that of Johnson and Goldsmith. It was eight years after Burke's first appearance as an author, that the famous Literary Club was formed. At first it was the intention to limit the club…
Tocqueville says democratic bustle and constant activity undermine the calm needed for deep contemplation, so higher sciences suffer, though he treats revolutions as exceptional causes.
and abstract portion of human knowledge. In this respect the Americans carry to excess a tendency which is, I think, discernible, though in a less degree, amongst all democratic nations. Nothing is more necessary to the culture of the higher sciences, or of the more elevated departments of science, than meditation; and nothing is less suited to meditation than the structure of democratic society. We do not find ther…
He maintains that in democracies people value rapid, superficial ideas over slow work, shaping scientists’ methods toward utility, while he praises disinterested devotion to truth as exemplified by Pascal.
at particular incidents, the daily study of the fleeting passions of the multitude, the accidents of the time, and the art of turning them to account, decide all its affairs. In the ages in which active life is the condition of almost everyone, men are therefore generally led to attach an excessive value to the rapid bursts and superficial conceptions of the intellect; and, on the other hand, to depreciate below the…
Tocqueville concludes that democratic literature often lacks order and perfection, valuing vehemence, boldness, wit, and astonishment over erudition, and he describes transitional epochs like 18th-century French literature.
they require rapid emotions, startling passages--truths or errors brilliant enough to rouse them up, and to plunge them at once, as if by violence, into the midst of a subject. Why should I say more? or who does not understand what is about to follow, before I have expressed it? Taken as a whole, literature in democratic ages can never present, as it does in the periods of aristocracy, an aspect of order, regularity…
He claims democracy turns literary production into a trading spirit: readers are more numerous and easier to please, authors seek liking over admiration, and literature becomes crowded with writers treating letters as commerce.
Democracy not only infuses a taste for letters among the trading classes, but introduces a trading spirit into literature. In aristocracies, readers are fastidious and few in number; in democracies, they are far more numerous and far less difficult to please. The consequence is, that among aristocratic nations, no one can hope to succeed without immense exertions, and that these exertions may bestow a great deal of f…
Tocqueville defines poetry as the pursuit and depiction of the ideal, then argues that democratic equality weakens poetic imagination by pushing people toward physical gratification, usefulness, and the real rather than ideal beauty.
Nations Various different significations have been given to the word "poetry." It would weary my readers if I were to lead them into a discussion as to which of these definitions ought to be selected: I prefer telling them at once that which I have chosen. In my opinion, poetry is the search and the delineation of the ideal. The poet is he who, by suppressing a part of what exists, by adding some imaginary touches t…
He continues that equality shrinks poetry’s subjects by eliminating privileged figures and making everyone too similar for poetic idealization, then claims democracy shifts poets toward new themes and away from the past.
to poetry; for things commonly grow larger and more obscure as they are more remote; and for this twofold reason they are better suited to the delineation of the ideal. After having deprived poetry of the past, the principle of equality robs it in part of the present. Amongst aristocratic nations there are a certain number of privileged personages, whose situation is, as it were, without and above the condition of m…
Tocqueville argues that democracy turns imagination inward to man and future possibilities; he claims America lacks poets but has poetic ideas grounded in self-vision and nation-making across the wilderness.
cover the earth, was the kind of poetry peculiar to democratic ages; but I believe this to be an error, and that it only belongs to a period of transition. I am persuaded that in the end democracy diverts the imagination from all that is external to man, and fixes it on man alone. Democratic nations may amuse themselves for a while with considering the productions of nature; but they are only excited in reality by a…
He says democratic mixing makes nations resemble one vast democracy, letting poets depict mankind’s destiny and a broader providence, and he advises that democratic poets should avoid supernatural forms and instead connect events to universal design.
United States. But amongst the thoughts which it suggests there is always one which is full of poetry, and that is the hidden nerve which gives vigor to the frame. In aristocratic ages each people, as well as each individual, is prone to stand separate and aloof from all others. In democratic ages, the extreme fluctuations of men and the impatience of their desires keep them perpetually on the move; so that the inha…
Tocqueville claims democratic poetry will center on passions and ideas rather than persons and deeds, arguing that familiar public life is too common for idealization, while man before nature and God remains the proper theme.
the Supreme Governor, reveal the thoughts of the Supreme Mind, their works will be admired and understood, for the imagination of their contemporaries takes this direction of its own accord. It may be foreseen in the like manner that poets living in democratic ages will prefer the delineation of passions and ideas to that of persons and achievements. The language, the dress, and the daily actions of men in democraci…
He explains why American writers become inflated when they try poetic diction: citizens obsess over small personal affairs, so they crave vast conceptions and push both authors and public into gigantic, incoherent imagery that turns into monsters.
I have frequently remarked that the Americans, who generally treat of business in clear, plain language, devoid of all ornament, and so extremely simple as to be often coarse, are apt to become inflated as soon as they attempt a more poetical diction. They then vent their pomposity from one end of a harangue to the other; and to hear them lavish imagery on every occasion, one might fancy that they never spoke of anyt…
She describes personal recovery and setbacks in 1881–82, then gives a travel-linked origin story for the first part written in the winter of 1882–83 near Rapallo and the Bay of Tigullio, between Chiavari and Cape Porto Fino.
“Zarathustra born on lake Urmi; left his home in his thirtieth year, went into the province of Aria, and, during ten years of solitude in the mountains, composed the Zend-Avesta.” “The sun of knowledge stands once more at midday; and the serpent of eternity lies coiled in its light—: It is YOUR time, ye midday brethren.” In that summer of 1881, my brother, after many years of steadily declining health, began at las…
The introduction details Nietzsche’s influenza in the Santa Margherita–Genoa period, his despondency at first reception, and his gloomy spring in Rome leading to composition of “The Night-Song.”
say, from the beginning to about the middle of February 1883. “The last lines were written precisely in the hallowed hour when Richard Wagner gave up the ghost in Venice.” With the exception of the ten days occupied in composing the first part of this book, my brother often referred to this winter as the hardest and sickliest he had ever experienced. He did not, however, mean thereby that his former disorders were t…
She continues the Rome episode, linking the heat and circumstances to Nietzsche’s decision to pause Zarathustra, and then describes renewed creativity after returning to Switzerland in late June.
loneliest of all songs was composed—‘The Night-Song’. About this time I was obsessed by an unspeakably sad melody, the refrain of which I recognised in the words, ‘dead through immortality.’” We remained somewhat too long in Rome that spring, and what with the effect of the increasing heat and the discouraging circumstances already described, my brother resolved not to write any more, or in any case, not to proceed …
Forster-Nietzsche quotes Nietzsche’s account of “inspiration” in Ecce Homo, portraying composition as revelation-like lightning-strikes with involuntary similes, rhythmic instinct, and ecstatic outbursts of power.
have no idea of the vehemence of such composition,” and in “Ecce Homo” (autumn 1888) he describes as follows with passionate enthusiasm the incomparable mood in which he created Zarathustra:— “—Has any one at the end of the nineteenth century any distinct notion of what poets of a stronger age understood by the word inspiration? If not, I will describe it. If one had the smallest vestige of superstition in one, it w…