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Sat 19 Feb, 2005 01:43 pm
I know there is a forum for poetry, but I chose to post it here, since I believe there is some philosophic value in it that may lead to fun discussion:
Long have we praised the genious self proclaimed
Of our own great deeds and devices
By the shores of blissfull oblivion we ranged
And now, as the full moon rises
We gather in scores to pray, as is demanded
Yet wide is the chasm 'tween our will and word
True to the brand, and by our own creed branded
Behind searing pain's cry all truth is unheard
This is how at last we forgot our mother
Nature's willful miracle that put us forth
In ignorance we brothers wound eachother
Thus diminishing our own work's worth
Because every allowance gains its weight in trust
And by this burden's span, mountains are but dust
Interesting, Cyracuz. Shakespearian philosophy has always intrigued me. Are we limited to the piece that you just posted?
Post whatever you want letty.
The piece I posted is not shakespeare, though you probably knew that. It's just some thoughts I had, put into rhyme and out of reason (?).
That was yours, Cyracuz? Fantastic! I'll be back later with an original, although I'm certain it won't be on a par with yours. Incidentally, I have an idea of the kernel of your original philosophy.
sounds to me like a disertation on the shortcomings of going to McDonald's for a snack.
[for those addicted, it must be a quasi religious experience!]
it might be that. something similar anyway. I don't know
Bo, I think you just killed my appetite.
Cyracuz, in it's simpliest form, I believe that your basic idea here is that our own inflated ego unsupported and blinding ,leaves us devoid of that one redeeming characteristic, love. Through the sense of that emotion, we come to take stock of our fellow humans, and to view their plight with eyes open, instead of milky with hedonism.
It rather reminds me of Friar Laurence's soliloquy in Romeo and Juliet, as he examines his herb garden. Are you familiar with that? There is nothing in the vegetable world so bad, that it does not possess one healing feature, and nothing so good that it doesn't have dire side effects.
For now, I will leave this open ended hoping that others will join the discussion.
Yes, I am familiar with Romeo and Juliet. I found shakespeares complete works in a bookstore for practically nothing. A real steal.
I think it is about the balance between action and thought. It is my philosophy that free will is the exact oposite of free thought. Free thought is thought ungoverned by will, as free will is action without thought...
Actually, Cyracuz, I simply wondered if you recognized the philosophy behind Friar Laurence's observation. If you could generalize the properties of herbs to humans, you might see that in the worse of us there is good and in the best of us there is bad.
As for your paradox of free thought and free will, I don't quite internalize your definition, but it reads well. <smile>
Yes, I do recognize the philosophy letty. I thought I had written that too. ops
Quote:As for your paradox of free thought and free will, I don't quite internalize your definition, but it reads well. <smile>
No paradox at all. A perfect synergy at all times. Sometimes we do things without thinking, and sometimes we never get around to the doing because of the thinking. It's left up to the individual to find the balance. Herbs can be good or bad. It is up to the user to make the balance right.
AHA! Now that is so much clearer to me. You must remember, Norway, that Florida weather sometimes dulls the thinking process. The best example of what you observe is in driving a car. So many drivers do things automatically without thinking, when, just as any cogent person knows, driving is a full time job. That may not be Shakespearian, but it's damn well practical. This discussion is helping me to cope with several things, Cyracuz. Thank you for that.
aside: Cyracuze, BoGoWo and I share a common grief. Our friend Cavfancier, just recently passed away. He was the young man whose avatar was a McDonald's clown.
Sire:-
Get hooked on Shakespeare man.You'll never regret it.One book for a desert island?It's no contest.
You're a bloody marvel writing English like that.
Already hooked spendius. I wonder why the english language has tossed many of the expressions he used when they are so wonderful...
Cavfancier passed away? That's sad. I've had a couple of discussions with him in here, and they were always good. My heart goes out to you Letty and BoGoWo.
Sire:-
Not everybody has tossed them away.
Don't try to read that cheap book too fast.Make it last.What's your favourite expression so far?
It's a BIG book. I bought it just recently, and aside from the plays Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet (wich we read in school) I haven't read much of it except for the sonnets. I love the sonnets. I don't remember the number of my favorite so far, but the two last lines of it go:
If this be error and upon me proved
I never writ, nor no man ever loved
That one is about the nature of love, but I get the sense when reading many of the others that shakespeare was into philosophy and that he used his poems to convey thoughts that are difficult to say in clear language.
Sire:-
The most important thing to remember about Shakespeare is that he lived in very dangerous times.You could get hung,drawn and quartered if somebody thought you were engaged in disloyal allusions.It would be like living close to Saddam.
Shakespeare lived at a time when the Catholic/Protestant thing was raging and his family was Catholic,more or less,and the Bess was otherwise.That needs to be at the back of your mind all the time.
We are lucky.You and me would have had to be hermits.
Hmmmm, cyracuz and spendius, Will's sonnet that you quoted is a beautiful philosophy on relationships.
Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments.
Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds,
Nor bends with its remover to remove,
It is a star to every wandering bark,
Who looks on tempests and is never shaken,
Whose worth's unknown although its height be taken.
Love's not time's fool whose rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending compass comes,
(something; something) but bears it out even to the edge of doom,
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ nor no man ever loved.
hmmm. I'm trying to recall that entire thing without looking it up. I hope Willie will forgive my massacre
Letty:-
If that's from memory it's pretty damn good.It is No 116.I'll put it up for you if asked.It won't be a chore.Just now Lola beckons and She must be obeyed.
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