My OperaTo a friend
Friday, October 30, 2009 11:29:02 PM
(A poem by Matthew Arnold)
Who prop, thou ask'st in these bad days, my mind?
He much, the old man, who, clearest-souled of men,
Saw The Wide Prospect, and the Asian Fen,
And Tmolus hill, and Smyrna bay, though blind.
Much he, whose friendship I not long since won,
That halting slave, who in Nicopolis
Taught Arrian, when Vespasian's brutal son
Cleared Rome of what most shamed him. But be his
My special thanks, whose even-balanced soul,
From first youth tested up to extreme old age,
Business could not make dull, nor passion wild;
Who saw life steadily, and saw it whole;
The mellow glory of the Attic stage,
Singer of sweet Colonus, and its child.
Who prop, thou ask'st in these bad days, my mind?
He much, the old man, who, clearest-souled of men,
Saw The Wide Prospect, and the Asian Fen,
And Tmolus hill, and Smyrna bay, though blind.
Much he, whose friendship I not long since won,
That halting slave, who in Nicopolis
Taught Arrian, when Vespasian's brutal son
Cleared Rome of what most shamed him. But be his
My special thanks, whose even-balanced soul,
From first youth tested up to extreme old age,
Business could not make dull, nor passion wild;
Who saw life steadily, and saw it whole;
The mellow glory of the Attic stage,
Singer of sweet Colonus, and its child.
PainterWoman # Saturday, October 31, 2009 3:35:22 PM
Gothic.O # Saturday, October 31, 2009 7:37:28 PM
NonZionist # Wednesday, January 27, 2010 9:22:37 PM
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Matthew_Arnold
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The men of culture are the true apostles of equality.
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-- Matthew Arnold, Culture and Anarchy (1869)
http://www.poetry-online.org/arnold_to_a_friend.htm
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Who saw life steadily, and saw it whole;
The mellow glory of the Attic stage,
Singer of sweet Colonus, and its child.
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-- Matthew Arnold, "To a friend"
This reminds me of something Emerson wrote that I quote very often:
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There is one mind common to all individual men. Every man is an inlet to the same and to all of the same. He that is once admitted to the right of reason is made a freeman of the whole estate. What Plato has thought, he may think; What a saint has felt, he may feel; What at any time has befallen any man, he can understand. Who hath access to this universal mind is a party to all that is or can be done, for this is the only and sovereign agent.
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-- Emerson, "History", 1844
Gothic.O # Saturday, January 30, 2010 2:03:45 PM
Unregistered user # Wednesday, November 2, 2011 11:28:59 AM