Favorite Metaphysical Poems, Part 2

THE DAWNING

AWAKE, sad heart, whom sorrow ever drowns ;
Take up thine eyes, which feed on earth ;
Unfold thy forehead, gathered into frowns ;
    Thy Saviour comes, and with Him mirth :
                                            Awake, awake,
And with a thankful heart His comforts take.
    But thou dost still lament, and pine, and cry,
    And feel His death, but not His victory.

Arise, sad heart ; if thou dost not withstand,
    Christ’s resurrection thine may be ;
Do not by hanging down break from the hand
    Which, as it riseth, raiseth thee :
                                            Arise, Arise;
    And with His burial linen drie thine eyes.
Christ left His grave-clothes, that we might, when grief
Draws tears or blood, not want a handkerchief.

George Herbert

Favorite Metaphysical Poems, Part 1

The Dying Christian To His Soul

Vital spark of heav’nly flame!
Quit, O quit, this mortal frame:
Trembling, hoping, ling’ring, flying,
O the pain, the bliss of dying!
Cease, fond Nature, cease thy strife,
And let me languish into life.

Hark! they whisper; angels say,
Sister Spirit, come away!
What is this absorbs me quite?
Steals my senses, shuts my sight,
Drowns my spirit, draws my breath?
Tell me, my soul, can this be death?

The world recedes; it disappears!
Heav’n opens on my eyes!  My ears
With sounds seraphic ring!
Lend your wings!  I mount, I fly!
O Grave! where is thy victory?
O Death! where is thy sting?

Alexander Pope

Poets and Divines

I have received a lot of flak from friends recently about the intermittency of my blog posts.  In this digital-print-rich world, frequency is as important as volume and clarity, and I have been neglecting my blog at my own peril.  Over the last two weeks, my blog has averaged two hits a day.  Boy, if I cared about stats, that would be a real blow to my ego.

Anyway…I thought of an interesting series of posts for the next couple of weeks.  I’ve always been a big fan of metaphysical poetry–that is, poetry that conveys spiritual and supernatural truths and insights.  But I’ve noticed that many of the poems I take as the most fascinating are

1. Not known by literary hacks (like me) because most of them think “metaphysical” means superstitious, and
2. Not known by many of my Christian friends because most of them aren’t literary hacks (like me) and have seen little reason to investigate the history of poetics.

So.  I’m going to start posting some of my favorites.  I’ll post one every day or two, or maybe week, for as long as I can sustain such a thing…I’ll invite comments on each of the poems and then, in typical Schmidt-classroom style, pronounce my authoritative (ha! as if) interpretation after everyone has had her/his say.

I’m going to post the first poem tomorrow night, after (perhaps) some of my old audience have seen a flag on their RSS feeds that says schmidtty is posting again.  I hope at least one of the five people who read this blog will encounter at least one new poem to add to her/his favorites…one person, one poem–that’s what I live for.

Cheers, everyone.

With just a couple of days to go…

Here’s the most helpful “case for Obama” piece I’ve found.

http://www.slate.com/id/2202163/

Enjoy.

Au revoir, Paul Newman.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/obit_newman

Three things you definitely need to know.

One: my wife and I are okay; Hurricane Ike did not damage our home, and we had power back as early as Tuesday night.  We are very blessed.

Two: a short, revealing, readable, popular-level analysis and fact-check of McCain/Palin’s claims about Barack Obama is right here.  (It’s especially revealing about Palin’s claim that Obama never authored any major legislation at either the state or the national level.  Amazing what she can get away with saying.)

Three: Tina Fey has achieved a new level of hilarity in her portrayal of our ill-fated future would-be Vice President:

Classes officially leveled.

A big thanks to all of you who read my last post and offered kind words for our plight.

Thankfully, as of yesterday, the English department had mostly manageable classes.  My largest class is now 35, my average 29, and my total 175.  This is a great improvement, and I have to thank my building principal and our counselors for tireless work in making it happen.

I’m sad to report, though, that about ten of my students decided that they wouldn’t be able to hang with the AP curriculum, and dropped out of the class.  So my satisfaction at having smaller classes is tinged with a sadness at having lost so many to discouragement already.

Yes, I know.  I can’t have it both ways.

It’s like symbolic.

I just wrote a post for my friends’ new communal blog.  You should, like, check it out.

Monstrosities

 We who hate all things monstrous are now rejoicing at the news that GM is losing money on the Hummer and hopes to sell the brand this year.  This after pangs of guilt (or sanity?) coaxed GM to gradually deflate this swelling phallus–from the H1 (which is no longer sold) to the H2 (which is getting harder to find) to, finally, the H3 (which, at 14 miles per gallon, is the Hummer line’s most modest and sensible product). 

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

I don’t suppose it should come as a surprise to anyone that the cover story of Atlantic, vanguard of twentieth century print media, should suggest something so inimical to the newly christened Web 2.0.  I also don’t find it at all surprising that Web 2.0, having been recently christened, is already so blase that even a technophobe like me can have a weblog.

Least surprising of all, though, are the ubiquitous (and damaging) effects of web browsing on thought patterns.  Read the story in Atlantic: a blinding flash of the obvious will stun you senseless.  In short, Nicholas Carr argues that point-and-click reading (the preferred method for Americans now, regardless of age) is rewiring our brains out of any inclination (or ability, even) to focus on a line of plot or reasoning for more than a few minutes.