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PrinceMyshkin
03-26-2011, 09:16 AM
O chestnut-tree, great-rooted blossomer,
Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole?

Yeats, "Among School Children"

Oh, puzzled wanderer,
are you the body or the soul?
The half of you
that longs forever to be whole
has forgotten: to be half is human
and that longing is the breath of life.
Hawkman
03-26-2011, 09:54 AM
Both a good tribute and a valid philosophical position in my view. Bravo.

Live and be well - H
_Shannon_
03-26-2011, 12:26 PM
Interesting to me is that here native chestnut trees have been decimated.
everyadventure
03-26-2011, 01:52 PM
One of my favorites of yours, Prince. It goes back to the age-old questions of "who am I? what am I?" Is this body only a temporary shell for the soul? Is the body as sacred as the mind?

And yes, that longing is the breath of life. It is what keeps us moving forward, seeking more. Wouldn't complete satisfaction, total knowledge, cause us to stagnate? Why press on when you're happy with where and who you are?

This is pure excellence.
Delta40
03-26-2011, 05:28 PM
Oh, puzzled wanderer captures the reader in a comforting, supportive hug and allows them to read on that they may listen to the wisdom of your words.
deryk
03-26-2011, 05:48 PM
I'm not a fan of dualism, but you make it worth thinking about, which is saying a lot, coming from someone who is diametrically opposed to it.
Bar22do
03-27-2011, 05:58 AM
Matter for thought, as usual in your well written pieces. But after all, today's science knows that even our tiniest cell can reproduce our whole... Thus a half is a whole... and the bole is chestnut-tree... Best from Bar
blank|verse
03-27-2011, 03:49 PM
to be half is human
...was my favourite moment in this wonderful meditation, Prince. Not many people could get away with including an epigram from Yeats as well as you did here!
PrinceMyshkin
03-27-2011, 05:40 PM
Many thanks to all of you.
MorpheusSandman
03-28-2011, 04:54 AM
Can't say this is one of my favorite's from you, Prince. It's almost... didactic, dare I say. There's definitely a rhetorical quality at least that feels like it's borrowed from a philosophy 101 thought experiment. It's not really the dualism thing either, because I think the concept makes for some fantastic art (in fact, most of my favorite art contains some kind of dualistic strain), but simply that I think this reduces it too simply to body and soul and the idea that we ARE half or that there's even a discrete split. I think the truth is subtler. I'm reminded of an analysis that Ben Saunders did of Donne's The Triple Fool that plays on the conflict of a Cartesian, whole "self" and how that self fractures and what can bring it together.
PrinceMyshkin
03-28-2011, 08:11 AM
Can't say this is one of my favorite's from you, Prince. It's almost... didactic, dare I say. There's definitely a rhetorical quality at least that feels like it's borrowed from a philosophy 101 thought experiment. It's not really the dualism thing either, because I think the concept makes for some fantastic art (in fact, most of my favorite art contains some kind of dualistic strain), but simply that I think this reduces it too simply to body and soul and the idea that we ARE half or that there's even a discrete split. I think the truth is subtler. I'm reminded of an analysis that Ben Saunders did of Donne's The Triple Fool that plays on the conflict of a Cartesian, whole "self" and how that self fractures and what can bring it together.

Ugh, "didactic" I cannot say it is not. I'm afraid there is didacticism in my bones but I had hoped that in this case the didacticism was delivered with a bit of melody or wit. Thanks for your thoughtful analysis.
Delta40
03-28-2011, 09:42 AM
I nominate Prince as the Gandalf/Dumbledore of Lit-Net!
PrinceMyshkin
03-28-2011, 10:34 AM
I nominate Prince as the Gandalf/Dumbledore of Lit-Net!

Never having read a word of the Harry P. series, for all I know Gandalf/Dumbledore is/are a notorious (pair of) sex pervert(s)! Would you care to provide a thumbnail sketch to relieve my mind? (or not!)
MorpheusSandman
03-28-2011, 10:53 AM
^ I would certainly take it as a compliment, Prince. Gandalf is from Lord of the Rings, Dumbledore from Harry P. In both cases they're the wizened, older statesmen that know more than those around them but are very unpretentious about it. They're always a bit removed and mysterious, but when they finally do reveal their powers they have the ability to change everything.
qimissung
03-29-2011, 12:00 AM
Don't make his head any bigger than it already is, please guys! :lol:

Didactic or no, I liked it. Sublime as usual, Prince.
Haunted
03-29-2011, 08:49 PM
powerful concept
longing is the breath of life

but the longing, forever unfulfilled, may cause the breath of life to cease. A double-edged sword.
Jerrybaldy
03-30-2011, 02:09 PM
I am going to agree that is didactic as you once used it in a review of one of my offerings. You went on to say that you loved the poem and that the didactism (is that a word?) was justified, so I offer this same praise back to you. You are unmissable, #I.
Baldy
PrinceMyshkin
03-30-2011, 05:08 PM
I am going to agree that is didactic as you once used it in a review of one of my offerings. You went on to say that you loved the poem and that the didactism (is that a word?) was justified, so I offer this same praise back to you. You are unmissable, #I.
Baldy


You do understand, I trust, that Di Dactic was not a relative of the late "Princess Di"?

"Unmissable" surely means that no one would or could miss me if I were to disappear!!