Omeros

Since I haven't had much experience reading epic poems, I found Omeros quite difficult to follow. I kept thinking that every line was a reference to something in Homer's epics that I wasn't understanding because I haven't read them. I felt like I wasn't giving it the poem the justice it deserves. The one thing that I could appreciate about this poem is the words that Walcott uses. Through his words, he transports you to the very place the character is in. For example, on page 142 he writes...

"He walked the ribbed sand under the flat keels of whales,

under the translucent belly of the snaking current,

the tiny shadows of tankers passed over him like snails

as he breathed water, a walking fish in its element."

He mixes the language of the land and the language of the sea to paint a picture of what it would be like for a man to stand on the ocean floor. I suppose the mixing of two worlds is something he is very familiar with.

Family Road Trips

In the beginning of this family's journey, I am reminded of my family and home. First of all, the grandmother's white gloves remind me of my great aunt whose collections of white gloves are in a box in my mom's room. Every now and then, those gloves are pulled out and my mom and grandmother and aunt take turns sharing stories of Aunt Virginia and the ladies of the town getting dressed up for church and other events and travel. I am also reminded of my grandmother when the grandmother in the story mentions speed. I am a bit of a speedster, and sadly my family knows it. Every time I leave home or go on an adventure, my grandmother makes me promise that I won't go over the speed limit. God is going to spend quite a bit of time on those promises when I get up there. The final thing is when the grandmother continually points out scenery and parts of the landscape. Whenever my family would go on a long road trip, my brother and I would play "road trip bingo" which is a piece of cardboard that had small pictures of random things you can see on the road - cow, cat, stop sign, ambulance, etc. There were times the entire family was helping us so we could win. It was so much fun! Although I am not far in this work, I have found humor and memories. I am excited for the rest!

Omeros

I was hard to keep up in Omeros. I thought Philoctete was interesting. He has this never healing wound that he sees as a blessing. He got it from a rusted anchor, but sees it as much more. How odd. He is almost in despair but due to it reminding him of his enslaved ancestors. This wound brings him great suffering and even contemplates cutting it off. Does he still see it as a blessing?

I commented on Ray's.

The Language

"Gunpowder and stores were shipped to St. Eustatius
from these innocent, moonlit harbors, in support
of French aid to the colonies; with slow paces,

the sea-chest, he walked the edge of the port
as the moonlight amazed him, its milk-white brilliance
pouring from dark pewter clouds..."

This is only an excerpt and a small example of what we've all been experiencing in reading this work. The language, while slightly confusing at times, is so poetic yet at the same time continuing the telling of a story.

As I read I feel like the story is happening to me. I don't necessarily feel like I am on the outside looking in and analyzing a narrative, I feel like I am experiencing it with the speaker. The phrasing and changing of voices provides this affect.

P.S. Commented on Ray's.

Omeros

I've actually really enjoyed reading this confusing piece of literature. All of the connections between The Iliad and The Odyssey are fun to connect. The different narrators have made it a little confusing to follow but the further in I got the harder it was to put down. I can't help but think that this is what the Homer classics would have looked like if placed in the 20th century.

Little Gidding

This poem has me really confused.  I did, however, find it interesting when it talked of the death of the elements.  When reading it, I did get lost, but got a sense of the death of life itself perhaps?  My reasoning behind this is that the elements provide us with life, and the death of elements would possibly equate to the end of life itself.

~Commented on Daniel's post

Uh. Yeah.

So I got so thrown off when the random Logos got thrown in. So I immediately starting thinking on the nature of Christ. As members of his, do we connect with that essence of being all and in all? I really connected some things when he discussed it in terms of music. But what I really liked was that this poetry was written as a long conversation. Like. It's people just discussing things. It doesn't necessarily feel like it needs a resolution. Because it's building a relationship between two entities through all the rambling. Answers don't matter. Time doesn't matter. It's a conversation. An ebb and flow of space and fill.

I commented on Francesca's.

Eliot's Quartets

While reading the last two quartets running on three hours of sleep, I am not sure it quite makes sense. In “The Dry Salvages”, I can see more of how nature is abandoned and ignored. One can see this at the very beginning when he speaks of the river and how now “Then only a problem confronting the builder of bridges”. We try to push the natural world away, but it is always with us. He later uses imagery of the sea I think to show struggle/suffering. Where is the end to it all? Our futures have “no destination” apparently.

            In “Little Gidding”, I found the second section to be interesting. He says, “dead water and dead sand/ contending for the upper hand./ The parched eviscerate soil/ Gapes at the vanity of toil/ laughs without mirth/ this is the death of earth”. This reminded me of the Wasteland with all the negative imagery. Eliot is talking about something deeper though, and I think he is referring to the meaning to life. The “vanity of toil” sticks out because everything one tries to do is pointless. 

I commented on Frankie's post. 

Every Poem is an Epitaph

In Part V of the "Little Gidding," Eliot says, "The end is where we start from. And every phrase / And sentence that is right... / Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a beginning, / Every poem is an epitaph." This section made me think about the general ebb and flow of life. Everyone goes through beginnings and endings in life. Every phrase and sentence we make reflects that. Oftentimes, poets will write about those beginnings and endings to help them get through those times or to reflect on those times in their lives. Thus, "every poem is an epitaph." They are reminders of what has been experienced and declarations of what has been learned through those experiences.

I commented on Briana Batdorf's post.

Phoenix

When reading Elliot's passage on being redeemed from fire by fire, I was strangely reminded of Kierkegaard (perhaps due to Tinsley's thesis). Kierkegaard discusses that the only way to truly escape despair is by first recognizing the experience of despair. It is feeling that very despair that one actually recognizes and sloths off despair. Perhaps this is a stretch, but perhaps it's only when we are consumed by the purging fire that we can, in love, burn. Either way, humanity wears a shirt of flame, so shall we be consumed by fire or fire? Shall be burn and be as the chaff of burnt roses on the man's sleeve? Or shall we be ever consumed, a crowned knot of flame and rose?

On Jeremy's

Little Gidding

"These things have served their purpose: let them be.
  So with your own, and pray they be forgiven
  By others, as I pray you to forgive
  Both bad and good. Last season's fruit is eaten
  And the fullfed beast shall kick the empty pail."

As I read little Gidding I definitely got lost sometimes but there were a few parts that really stuck out and made sense to me. This excerpt come from part II. It stuck out to me because I think it speaks to letting go of the past as well as realizing that everything has it's time and place in God's plan. Sometimes when something was very influential or effective, we want to stick with it and sometimes overuse and rely too heavily on it. Other times we just hold on to past situations, both good and bad too long. I think this excerpt does a good job of telling us to let the things of last season stay in last season and embrace the things God has in store for this season.

If you came this way. . .

Part I of Little Gidding particularly spoke to me about the unexpectedness of life. Eliot seems to be saying that no matter what you do or no matter how much you plan things will always go awry. Nothing is ever what you expect it to be. This passage specifically also gave me vague recollections of Yeats' Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, and how Prufrock said, "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons". I am terrible at expressing my thoughts so I can't say just why this passage brings Prufrock to mind but the best I can say is that it rings a bell with loneliness and perhaps the prodigal son when Eliot refers to the Pigsty and then the redundancy of planning one's life out even though you know it's going to get messed up somehow.

"If you came at night like a broken king,
If you came by day not knowing what you came for,
It would be the same, when you leave the rough road
and turn behind the pig-sty to the dull facade
and the tombstone. And what you thought you came for
is only a shell, a husk of meaning,
from which the purpose breaks only when it is fulfilled
if at all. Either you had no purpose
or the purpose is beyond the end you figured
and is altered in fulfilment."
                                 - T. S. Eliot

I commented on Daniel Stephens'   

The End is just a Beginning

"What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make and end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from. And every phrase
And sentence that is right (where every word is at home,
Taking its place to support the others,
The word neither diffident nor ostentatious,
An easy commerce of the old and the new,
The common word exact without vulgarity,
The formal word precise but not pedantic,
The complete consort dancing together)
Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a beginning, ' 

 Eliot makes a point that brought goosebumps to me when I read this. There is never a true ending or beginning to our own personal story." The end is where we start from" means that just because we think its over theres nothing that can get better or worse in our life there is anoter beginning starting in that moment. I have always thought there was a definte end and beginnging yet Eliot descibes it as though it is always continously flowing with each word and punctuation. Our different memories collide together like a dance and make up who we are. This gives another perspective of how unique and beautiful each person is and the beginning and ends that formed them.  

I commented on Darby's.

Little Gidding

At the end of the Four Quartets, there is a brief notes section one each of Eliot's poems. Under these notes, it is explained that Little Gidding was a religious community in 1626 when it was founded. In his poem, Eliot writes, "prayer is more than an order of words, the conscious occupation of the praying mind, or the sound of the voice praying." This stood out starkly for me as I was reading. It explains that prayer is so much more than what we think it is. It is the fire for which we speak with God. Eliot explains this in the next couple lines saying that "the communication of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living." Like Abbie mentioned in her post the fire of God can either burn someone up or warm him softly- this all depends on how we absorb God's fire. So, all in all prayer is the fire from God, it is our communication with him. We should not waste this preciousness on useless words. Like my pastor said on Sunday, "if God answered my prayers with yes from the past 7 days, would anything in the world be changed?" It makes one think about what she/he has been praying for.

I posted on Nate's!

Death of the Elements

Throughout the Four Quartets, Eliot mentions the four elements frequently. Though in the Little Gidding in part II, Eliot speaks of the death of all of these elements. The death of air, earth, water, and fire. Why do all of these elements die? The story ends with the dust in the air. The parched eviscerate soil without water. The marred foundations, rotted by fire and wind, forgotten. Eliot seems to lose hope. As part II continues, the poet gains the burdens of knowledge given to him by a stranger. Is this burden of knowledge what leads Eliot to believe that the elements are dead. The first three quartets he writes of the life of the elements but as he grows in wisdom does he come to the conclusion that the elements are actually dead? That hope is dead?

P.S. I commented on Ray's post.

Pre vs. Post Conversion Eliot

Schuler opined that The Four Quartets is Eliot's greatest post-conversion poem.  In comparing it to the Wasteland (which he wrote before his conversion, and is arguable his best pre-conversion poem), I found commonality in the discussion of cleansing.  In Wasteland, it is death, or purging, by water.  In 4Q, he considers fire along with water as a something that cleanses.  The poem considers many paradoxes, but this one (along with the beginning/end) may be most profound because of its religious implications.  I best understand "water and fire" as something that purges or wears away any lasting impurities from whatever was before unburned/uncleaned, to show it true essence (not to being Heidegger in): "of all that you have done, and been; the shame of motives late revealed..."  The result is realization or self understanding, which is salvation.

AG's

The End to the Beginning

"What we call the beginning is often the end

And to make and end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from."

This stanza caught me as I read because of the time of year it is. How we are all looking forward to the beginning of summer and the end of school. There is so much truth behind something have to end for there to be a beginning. Christ Himself is a great example of this as He had to end His life for us to be able to begin a new one with Him. Following this, we as Christians are to rid of our old selves and put on a new, an end to a new beginning. 

P.S. I commented on Abbie's

Death of Life

I must admit that I quickly became lost and confused within this poem but what stuck out to me was the very beginning, when the poem talks of the death of air, earth, fire, and water. From the paragraphs that describe the deaths of the elements, I think it is discussing the end of life itself. The air is what keeps life going and it is choked by the dust of all that clouds the soul. The earth is the foundations upon which a life is built, and it become malleable and washes away with the tides of time. Fire and water are what that life has accomplished and how they will flicker and fade away along with life. It is a rather bitter truth of the world that a life must come to an end and all that life was will eventually fade into nothingness. I wonder if there is a peace in that.

I commented on Nathaniel's post.

Pain and Love

"Who then devised the torment? Love.
Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame
Which human power cannot remove.
     We only live, only suspire
     Consumed by either fire or fire."

Love-- it can be painful, yet obviously we view it as a generally good thing. Human power cannot remove this "intolerable shirt of flame" (which I read as a possible reference to judgment), yet Love wove that shirt. This idea of love causing judgment points me to an interesting question: Is it out of love that God allows us to suffer? I don't even know how or if that makes sense at all, but that is the question I think about. The reason I see this is that the last two lines state we only live and breathe consumed by fire or fire... Love can save; love can punish. Anyone with kids will most likely attest to that. Perhaps God's love is what allows both His wrath and His grace to exist in union. The fifth section of "Little Gidding" definitely vies for them going hand in hand-- "Into the crowned knot of fire
                                                                                          And the fire and the rose are one."

That's an interesting thought. I think Eliot does a great job of portraying the idea of human temporality and God's love/wrath's connection throughout this poem. All in all, this is a beautifully worded piece of literature, and I cannot wait until we unpack it tomorrow.


P.S. I commented on Abbie George's post.

Fire or Fire

"Who then devised the torment? Love.
Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame
Which human power cannot remove
We only live, only suspire
Consumed by either fire or fire."

In reading IV of Little Gidding, I was immediately reminded of a concept introduced to me at the Greek Orthodox Church of Mobile. I recently visited and took a tour of the church for another class and during the course of the tour, our guide explained the significance of candles. She elaborated upon the rich meaning of the candle for a Christian. The fire is the the light of the world, Christ, which melts the cold wax, man's cold heart.

However, as the tour continued she referred back to this idea, the fire of God. She made a distinction in that the fire of God either painfully burns a man or comfortingly warms him. It all depends on how the man chooses to respond to God's fire. I think this is what Elliot is speaking of here, "consumed by either fire or fire."

Just thoughts.

P. S. I commented on Nate's.