Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Barbauld and Meditations
In his "short-lived rage," the sun seeps away leaving room for what we have been waiting many long hours for. Nighttime. Thoughts become visible and clear, even in their fury, and life awaits. Running free through the caverns of her mind, wandering through woods under Dian[a], the goddess of woodlands and the moon herself, wondering about the upwards that lies in the sky above her, she lives this moment of her life through her poem, "A Summer Evening's Meditation." As I read this I could feel the light dissipating in a gradient as the curtain of night is pulled over the poem. She accomplishes this by using imagery such as "with sweetest beam/Propitious shines, and shakes a trembling flood/Of soften'd radiance from her dewy locks./The shadows spread apace ; while meeken'd Eve/Her cheek yet warm with blushes, slow retires/Thro' the Hesperian gardens of the west,/And shuts the gates of day." Even in those phrases alone, the reader gets the feeling of a gradual change from day to night, and also is able to feel the impatience for the night's arrival which Barbauld references. Deepest thought and experience can occur during the darkest of hours, when the world seems empty in places, and more alive than ever in other places, remaining all the while a seemingly limitless world of possibilities. This could be represented by her journey to the stars, grasping on to the farthest realities, feeling she is able to reach them because of the freedom her mind is experiencing. There was a pattern in this poem of personifying nature, as well as characterising such abstract concepts as Contemplation and Thought. Barbauld also mentions gods, goddesses, and stars by their names. These aspect of the poem bring an other-worldly and mystical quality to this work as well. The natural imagery seen throughout becomes her muse and her inspiration, which inspires her to return home with a more open and enlightened mind, with a new mode of change now available to her. I like it when she returns to the natural world, back to the comfortable and familiar woods, the nature growing around her. Her soul is able to find peace in its original form; gaining the most from the nature around it, and protected from the wonders that lie far beyond the soul and which are profound and impossible to understand.
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“Deepest thought and experience can occur during the darkest of hours, when the world seems empty in places, and more alive than ever in other places, remaining all the while a seemingly limitless world of possibilities.”
ReplyDeleteDarkness consumes the distractions that keep us from our greatest thoughts; it acts as a savior for the soul. Without darkness, people would be unable to fully reflect on all that surrounds them, “clear thinking” abilities impossible to channel.
Generally speaking, people view the daytime hours as the times that the most production can occur, but I’m willing to argue that it is at night that people, as they lay there contemplatively in their beds, are the most productive because reflection proves the most powerful, though frustrating, ability of man. Darkness provides the conditions for great thinking, but man must meet it half way by ridding himself of petty distractions and thoughts so that hey may escape to a “seemingly limitless world of possibilities” that has been right at his fingertips.
I forget who it was that said something along the lines of "Man's greatest fear is to sit in a room alone for an hour." Reflection is a scary thing and thinking about the self's actions and whether they were 'right' or 'wrong' can be terrifying.
ReplyDeleteBy characterising Contemplation and Thought, I feel that Barbauld allows herself and us to understand the ideas better.
"When Contemplation, from her sunless haunts,
The cool damp grotto, or the lonely depth
Of unpierc'd woods, where wrapt in solid shade
She mused away the gaudy hours of noon,
And fed on thoughts unripen'd by the sun,
Moves forward"
It's interesting though to realize that Contemplation deals in thoughts unripen'd by the sun. In nature, nearly everything needs the sun to live. So, what is an idea unripen'd by the sun a good idea or a bad idea? Or is it just not fully thought out?