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As Max says, "A pox on all your bottom-dwelling melancholy!"
The Maze, by W. H. Auden:
Anthropos apteros for days
Walked whistling round and round the maze,
Relying happily upon
His temperament for getting on.
The hundredth time he sighted, though,
A bush he left an hour ago,
He halted where four alleys crossed
And recognised that he was lost.
"Where am I? Metaphysics says
No question can be asked unless
It has an answer, so I can
Assume this maze has got a plan.
"If theologians are correct,
A Plan implies an Architect:
A God-built maze would be, I'm sure,
The Universe in miniature.
"Are data from the world of sense,
In that case, valid evidence?
What, in the universe I know,
Can give directions how to go?
"All Mathematics would suggest
A steady straight line as the best,
But left and right alternately
Is consonant with History.
"Aesthetics, though, believes all Art
Intends to gratify the heart:
Rejecting disciplines like these,
Must I, then, go which way I please?
"Such reasoning is only true
If we accept the classic view,
Which we have no right to assert
According to the introvert,
"His absolute presupposition
Is: Man creates his own condition.
This maze was not divinely built
But is secreted by my guilt.
"The centre that I cannot find
Is known to my unconscious mind;
I have no reason to despair
Because I am already there.
"My problem is how not to will;
They move most quickly who stand still:
I'm only lost until I see
I'm lost because I want to be.
"If this should fail, perhaps I should,
As certain educators would,
Content myself with this conclusion:
In theory there is no solution.
"All statements about what I feel,
Like I-am-lost, are quite unreal:
My knowledge ends where it began;
A hedge is taller than a man."
Anthropos apteros, perplexed
To know which turning to take next,
Looked up and wished he were a bird
To whom such doubts must seem absurd.
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Poetry
Jazzoctopus 10/28/2001 5:15 PM ![]()
Re: Poetry
wwh 10/28/2001 5:40 PM ![]()
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Wordwind 10/30/2001 12:37 PM ![]()
Re: Poetry
Faldage 10/30/2001 1:39 PM ![]()
Re: Poetry
Jackie 11/01/2001 3:33 AM ![]()
Re: Poetry
Bobyoungbalt 11/01/2001 4:17 AM ![]()
Re: Poetry
Vernon Compton 11/01/2001 8:47 AM ![]()
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Max Quordlepleen 11/01/2001 9:15 AM ![]()
Re: Poetry
maverick 11/02/2001 11:20 PM ![]()
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Max Quordlepleen 11/03/2001 12:21 AM ![]()
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Max Quordlepleen 11/03/2001 12:31 AM ![]()
Re: Poetry
maverick 11/03/2001 12:39 AM ![]()
more melancholy
Jackie 11/03/2001 2:12 AM ![]()
Post deleted by Wordwind
Wordwind 11/06/2001 2:15 PM ![]()
Re: more melancholy
Echo 11/07/2001 1:07 PM ![]()
Re:
Wordwind 11/07/2001 1:23 PM ![]()
Re: more melancholy
Echo 11/08/2001 12:24 AM ![]()
Re: more melancholy
Wordwind 11/08/2001 9:52 AM ![]()
Re: more melancholy
Wordwind 11/08/2001 9:53 AM ![]()
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Max Quordlepleen 11/09/2001 3:41 AM ![]()
Re: more medicine for the melancholic
duncan large 11/09/2001 5:05 PM ![]()
Re: melancholia distilled!
WhitmanO'Neill 11/09/2001 9:26 PM ![]()
My very favorite poem
Jackie 11/27/2001 2:47 AM ![]()
Re: More Blake
WhitmanO'Neill 11/27/2001 5:00 AM ![]()
To Autumn
Echo 11/03/2001 12:45 AM ![]()
Re: To Autumn
maverick 11/03/2001 1:16 AM ![]()
Re: To That Man/Woman Thang
consuelo 11/11/2001 12:38 AM ![]()
Re: Poetry
Anonymous 11/03/2001 1:17 AM ![]()
Post deleted by Wordwind
Wordwind 11/03/2001 1:24 AM ![]()
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Max Quordlepleen 11/03/2001 1:55 AM ![]()
Re: Poetry
Bobyoungbalt 11/03/2001 1:09 AM ![]()
Re: Poetry
WhitmanO'Neill 11/09/2001 3:06 AM ![]()
Re: Poetry
Wordwind 11/10/2001 11:42 PM ![]()
Re: Poetry
Bobyoungbalt 11/11/2001 6:45 PM ![]()
Re: Poetry
Wordwind 11/18/2001 11:10 AM ![]()
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Max Quordlepleen 11/18/2001 6:36 PM ![]()
Re: Poetry
Wordwind 11/18/2001 7:05 PM ![]()
Re: choleric at the melancholy
Keiva 11/18/2001 7:42 PM ![]()
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Max Quordlepleen 11/18/2001 8:37 PM ![]()
You Say You Want a Poem About Spring?
Sparteye 11/20/2001 2:02 AM ![]()
Re: You Say You Want a Poem About Spring?
WhitmanO'Neill 11/20/2001 5:58 AM ![]()
More Auden
Wordwind 11/22/2001 2:34 AM ![]()
Re: Poetry
Wordwind 11/24/2001 6:23 PM ![]()
Re: Poetry
milum 11/26/2001 7:07 PM ![]()
Re: Poetry
Wordwind 11/27/2001 12:26 AM ![]()
Re: Poetry
Bingley 11/29/2001 5:10 AM ![]()
Re: Poetry
Wordwind 11/29/2001 9:48 AM ![]()
Re: Poetry
Bingley 11/30/2001 4:28 AM ![]()
Re: Poetry
WhitmanO'Neill 11/30/2001 6:51 AM ![]()
Re: Poetry
Keiva 11/29/2001 11:15 AM ![]()
Re: A serious Nash (really)
WhitmanO'Neill 12/05/2001 4:33 AM
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