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Tue 22 Jun, 2010 11:23 pm
I wonder if this poem beloe has anything to do with chistianity. I understand the main idea of the poem but I need to have access to a document which has the analysis of the poem. I seached a lot on the net but I did not find a critical analysis of the poem. I hope someone will help me out.
Laugh and be Merry
Laugh and be merry, remember, better the world with a song,
Better the world with a blow in the teeth of a wrong.
Laugh, for the time is brief, a thread the length of a span.
Laugh and be proud to belong to the old proud pageant of man.
Laugh and be merry: remember, in olden time.
God made Heaven and Earth for joy He took in a rhyme,
Made them, and filled them full with the strong red wine of
His mirth
The splendid joy of the stars: the joy of the earth.
So we must laugh and drink from the deep blue cup of the sky,
Join the jubilant song of the great stars sweeping by,
Laugh, and battle, and work, and drink of the wine outpoured
In the dear green earth, the sign of the joy of the Lord.
Laugh and be merry together, like brothers akin,
Guesting awhile in the rooms of a beautiful inn,
Glad till the dancing stops, and the lilt of the music ends.
Laugh till the game is played; and be you merry, my friends.
I wonder if the phrase in the 4th stanza " brothers akin guesting awhile" has an allusion to any story of the old testament. The poem, I feel, has a sense of religious obligation to God and hints at living a meritorious life full of joy.
Thank you in advance.
@bubu,
i'm with you bubu
the ode is redolent with meretricious relationship
This bears a strong resemblence to a chapter in Ecclessiastes. ( old testament)
@bubu,
I can only think of John 14:2
"In my Father’s house are many mansions (ie rooms) : if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you."
The inn imge sounds a little to me as though the poet is taking the image of heaven and making it how we should live on earth...ie as though all are loving to each other, and understanding we share the same earth. However, in line with our mortality, it is an Inn (a temporary rented space) not a house (where we stay permanently and belong.)
It's another rendition of the 23rd Psalm. There are many of those.
William
I think it's a poem about drinking wine.
That, and life is too damned short.
@bubu,
The poem needs to be understood in a statement and reasoning way. The reasoning for the happy life- God made it as an expression if His own joy; God filled it up with the Red wine- symbolizing joy again.
Take responsibility: Fight the evil and love your brothers and sisters.
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