IN PRAISE OF WOMEN

 

          IN PRAISE OF WOMEN

Literally a woman is a female human. She is a wife,  a mother, and the better half of man.  

According to some writers  the qualities of a good woman include , kindness, empathy, ambition, determination and loyalty.  She is also expected to be decent, respectful and compassionate.

The French writer Victor Hugo (1802-1885) said “No one knows like a woman how to say things which are at once gentle and deep.”

            I found one of the best descriptions about women in Italian Revolutionary Joseph Mazzini’s essay “The Duties of Man.” He was born on  22 June 1805  and died on 10 March 1872. His main aim was the unification of Italy.

Mazzini wrote : The angel of the Family is Woman. Mother, wife, or sister, Woman is the caress of life, the soothing sweetness of affection shed over its toils, a reflection for the individual of the loving providence which watches over Humanity. In her there is treasure enough of consoling tenderness to allay every pain. Moreover for everyone of us she is the initiator of the future.

He adds : The mother’s first kiss teaches the child love; the first holy kiss of the woman he loves teaches man hope and faith in life ; and love and faith create a desire for perfection and the power of reaching towards it step by step; create the future, in short, of which the living symbol is the child, link between us and the generations to come. Through her the Family, with its divine mystery of reproduction, points to eternity.

Finally, an anonymous  quote about a strong woman :” A strong woman knows she has strength enough for the journey, but a woman of strength knows it is in the journey where she will become strong. “   

                                                            *********

G. R. Kanwal

30 JUNE 2024

THE LAW

 

THE LAW

            ‘Law’ is defined as the whole system of rules that everyone in a country or society must obey. There are however many man-made laws in human societies and their disobedience invites various types of punishments and imprisonments.

            The world, not the societies therein, is the creation of God and its eternal laws of life and death are unchangeable. They are known as divine laws.

            The following extract entitled ‘The Law’ is taken from Joseph Mazzini’s book ‘ The Duties of Man and Other Essays ’ first published in 1907.

Mazzini (1805-1872) was an Italian politician, journalist and activist. He was a  revolutionary who worked for the unification of Italy. A country, according to him, is not a mere territory . It is the sentiment of love, the sense of fellowship which bind together all the sons and daughters of that territory.    

Mazzini starts his essay with the words: There is no life without a law. Whatever exists, exists in a certain manner, according to certain conditions, and under a certain law. A law of aggregation governs minerals; a law of growth governs plants; a law of motion governs the stars; a law governs you and your life; a law as much nobler and more lofty than these, as you yourselves are higher than all other created things on earth. To develop yourselves, to act, to live according to your law, is your first, nay, your only duty.

Mazzini adds : God gave you life: God therefore gave you the law. God is the only Law-giver to the human race. His human laws are only valid and good in so far as they conform to His law, explaining and applying it: they are bad whenever they contradict;  and it is then not only your right, but your duty, to disobey them and abolish them. He who best explains God’s law and applies it to human occasions is your legitimate head : love him and follow him. But you have not, and cannot have, any master but God, without being false and rebellious to Him.

                                    **********

G.R.Kanwal

29 June 2024

 

A POEM ON SLEEP

 

          A POEM ON SLEEP

‘Sleep’ is defined as “a condition of body and mind that typically recurs for several hours every night, in which the eyes are closed, the postural muscles relaxed, the activity of the brain altered, and consciousness of the surroundings practically suspended.”

Some of the synonyms of this word are : rest, slumber, nap, doze, siesta, etc.

The English poet-dramatist William Shakespeare (1564-1616} calls it “Our foster-nurse of nature in repose.”

A sleepless man looks  fatigued, lethargic, irritable, depressed, stressed and nervous. 

The English writer and magistrate  Henry Fielding (1707-1754) says: One hour’s sleep before midnight , is worth two after.

Roman poet, Publius Ovidius Naso, known in English as Ovid (43 BC---18 A.D) said: Sleep , thou repose of all things; thou gentlest of the duties; thou peace of the mind, from which care flies; who dost soothe the hearts of men wearied with the toils of the day, and re-fittest them for labour.

Finally, a sonnet entitled Sleep by the English poet, courtier, and soldier Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586):

Come sleep; O Sleep ! The certain knot of peace.

The baiting - place of wit, the balm of woe,

The poor man’s wealth, the prisoner’s release,

Th’ indifferent judge between the high and the low;

With shield of proof shield me from out the prease

O those fierce darts Despair at me doth throw:

O make in me those civil wars to ease;

I will good tribute pay, if thou do so.

Take thou of me smooth pillows, sweetest bed,

A chamber deaf to noise and blind of light ,

A rosy garland and a weary head;

And if these things, as being thine by right,

Move not thy heavy grace, thou shalt in me,

Livelier than elsewhere, Stella’s image see.

            ***********

G.R.Kanwal

28 June 2024

SELF-LESS GOALS

 

            SELF-LESS GOALS

It is in the eighteenth chapter of the  Bhagavad  Gita, the sacred book of the Hindus, where its author Lord Krishna says human beings have the right to perform their allotted  actions but not to the fruit or reward thereof:-

“To do thy duty is the only right;

            Thou hast no right to crave reward or fruit.

            Do all thy work with a detached mind.

            Enjoy the joys thy fortune may bring thee,

            But with aloofness, ready to give up.

 

Another English version Is like this:”You have right to work only never to its fruits. Let not the fruits of action be your motive, nor let your attachment to be inaction.“

This  is what is meant by a self-less goal. In other words: One should choose a selfless goal and use selfless means to attain it.

 

            Finally, a quotation  from the translation of the Bhagavadgita by Dr. Sarvepalli  Radhakrishnan (1888-1975) :  An action which is obligatory, which is performed without attachment, without love or hate by one un-desirous of fruit, that is said to be good.

                                                *******

G.R.Kanwal

27 June 2024

IN PRAISE OF MERCY

 

                IN PRAISE OF MERCY

Mercy is defined as a kind or forgiving attitude towards somebody that you have the power to harm or right to punish.  Some of the synonyms of this word  are : pity, kindness, sympathy, tolerance, generosity, forgiveness, compassion and tender-heartedness.

The theory of Karma is based on mercy and punishment. There is mercy of God or punishment by God according to our deeds. To say the least,  we are all at the mercy of God because none of us is perfectly innocent and  God’s mercy is like that of a father to his children.

According to the Spanish poet and novelist Seavedra M.de Cervantes (1547-1616) among the attributes of God, although they are all equal, mercy shines with even more brilliancy than justice. I

t is also true to say that mercy more becomes a magistrate than the vindictive wrath which men call justice.

Finally, this is what English poet-playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) said  in his famous comedy , The Merchant of Venice:

“The quality of mercy is not strained; it droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath; it is twice blessed; it blesseth him that gives and him that takes: ‘tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes the throned monarch better than his crown. Mercy is an attribute to God himself; and earthly power doth then show likest God’s, when mercy seasons justice. Consider this, ---that, in the course of justice, none of us should see salvation: we do pray for mercy, and that same prayer doth teach us all to render the deeds of mercy.”

                                    *********

G.R.Kanwal

26 June 2024

 

 

   

 

SOME UNUSUAL QUOTATIONS

 

SOME UNUSUAL QUOTATIONS

A quotation is defined as a group of words or a short piece of writing taken from a book, play, speech, etc. and repeated because it is interesting or useful.

A good quotation contains an extraordinary thought which supports you when you are writing or speaking on some topic. More often than not it becomes a part of your permanent knowledge and lasting  memory.

Usual quotations please you but don’t surprise you. Unusual quotations surprise you. They make you laugh as if they had some foolish thought in them.   

Here are some unusual quotations on various topics:-

1.A philosopher is one who doubts.

2. What a mercy it would be if we were able to open and close our ears as easily as we open and close our eyes.

3. It is easier to ruin a kingdom than to set up a greengrocer’s stall.

4. In eating, a third of the stomach should be filled with food, a third with drink and the rest left empty.

5. Envy makes strange bedfellows.

6. Fasting is a medicine.

7. You cannot understand history without having lived through history yourself.

8. Principles have no real force except when one is well fed.

9. No man is rich enough to buy back his past.

10. Success has ruined many a man.

            Finally, an unusual quotation by the Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) : Punctuality is the thief of time.

                                                ********

G.R.Kanwal

26 June 2024

 

      

NO PAST, NO FUTURE

 

                NO PAST, NO FUTURE

            Here is a stanza from a poem “A Psalm of Life”. Its author is an American writer Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882}. The full poem is pretty long comprising nine stanzas of four lines each. The first stanza reads like this:

            Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

            Life is but an empty dream!

            For the soul is dead that slumbers,

            And things are not what they seem.  

 

The stanza which I have referred to above is as follows:

            Trust no future, howe’er pleasant!

            Let the dead past bury its dead!

            Act, act in the living present!

            Heart within, and God o’erhead!

 

Of the three divisions of time--- present, past and future, only the present is available to us. It is here and now and is turning into past every fraction of a second. We are using it as we wish. As for the past, it is gone ever and exists only in historical records. The future is totally uncertain. It may or may not come. We cannot be sure about its availability.

 

People who go on remembering the past and keep their minds loaded with its good or bad events, waste even their present time. It is desirable to keep our minds empty of what happened in the past and what may happen in  future. Talking about painful or shameful events of the past, especially to hurt some listeners is hardly appreciable. Hence, the psychologically and morally

sound advice of the poet:

 

            Act, act, in the living present !

            Heart within, and God o’erhead !

                                                *********

G.R.Kanwal

24 June 2024

                                   

 

GENEROSITY

 

          GENEROSITY

Generosity is the willingness of a person to give somebody money, gifts, time or kindness freely and frequently. Its synonyms are, liberality, hospitality, charitableness, benevolence, bounteousness, open-handedness, magnanimity , lavishness, philanthropy, etc.  

  The quality of generosity is found not only in the very rich or not so rich but also in those who have not enough and to spare. It is not only a social but also a religious quality. It is an act of sharing and feeling happier.

God is the most generous of all of us. He has given away all for those whom He has created. There is no miserliness in Him. Even the tiniest creature gets his requisite food and other requirements.

English author Francis Quarles (1592-1644) said : He that gives all, though but little gives much; because God looks not to the quantity of the gift, but to the quality of the giver.

Also note that he who gives what he would as readily throw away does not perform an act of generosity because the essence of generosity is self-sacrifice which makes one happier and spiritually stronger. This type of generosity takes him/her closer to God.

Finally, the viewpoint of Roman naturalist Pliny The Elder (23-79}: I would have a man generous to his country, his neighbours, his kindred, his friends, and most of all his poor friends. Not like some who are most lavish with those who are able to give most to them.”

                                                *******

G.R.Kanwal

23 June 2024

 

REMEMBERING SANT KABIR

 

REMEMBERING  SANT KABIR

Today (22 June 2024) is being celebrated as the birth anniversary of the mystic poet Sant Kabir  who was born in1398 in Varanasi and died at the age of 120  in Maghar (Uttar Pradesh). He was an abandoned child, picked up and adopted as his own by a Muslim weaver and named as Kabir.  

After some struggle because of being a Muslim, he won the spiritual mentorship of great Vaishnava saint  Ramananda.

Kabir believed that God is one and is called by different names such as “Ishwar”, “Allah” etc.

He advocated Hindu Muslim Unity. His emphasis was on devotion to God and Truth. He had no faith in religious rituals and pilgrimages.  

He believed in brotherhood of man and abstained from caste distinctions. Salvation, according to him, could be achieved only through good and righteous deeds.

Kabir regarded the guru, the spiritual teacher, as the source of all wisdom. His logic was : “If Hari becomes angry, there still is some chance of not being adversely affected; but if the Guru gets angry, then there is no chance whatever.”   

            Kabir’s teachings are available in his poetry. Here are two quotations:

1.The Yogi dyes his garments, instead of dyeing his mind in the colours of love. He sits within the temple of the Lord, leaving Brahma to worship a stone.

 2. Set not thy heart on the worship of other gods, there is no worth in the worship of other masters. Thus thou shalt never find the Beloved.

            Finally, a partial English translation of Kabir’s: JAB MAIN BHULA RE BHAI, by one of the greatest Indian mystics OSHO (1931-1990):

  I do not ring the temple bell : I do not set the idol on its throne: I do not worship the image with flowers. It is not the austerities that mortify the flesh which are pleasing to the Lord. When you leave off your clothes and kill your senses, you do not please the Lord: The man who is kind and who practices righteousness, who remains passive amidst the affairs of the world, who considers all creatures on earth as his own self, he attains the Immortal  Being, the true God is ever with him. Kabir says:’He attains the true Name whose words are pure, and who is free from pride and conceit.’  

                                    *********

G.R.Kanwal

22 June 2024

 

WORLD MUSIC DAY

 

WORLD MUSIC DAY

Music is defined as sounds that are arranged in a way that that is pleasant or exciting to listen to. It may be sung or played on instruments. It is as old as this universe though the celebration of World Music Day (June 21) is a recent phenomenon.  In India there is an ancient Sanskrit Veda of melodies and chants called Samaveda.

Today there is hardly an occasion where music in not used. In fact, we are born with music and leave this world with music. Most of our social events and festivals are celebrated with music.

 Music is liked by everybody -- children, youngsters, adults, elderly persons, etc. Prayers all over the world are musical. None of the sacred books is void of musical renderings.

One of the powerful quotes on music says: It touches our hearts, enriches our souls, and creates connections that transcend time, culture, and language. In every note, every rhythm and every melody, the power of music echoes, and one’s journey becomes a magical composition of emotions and experiences.

Lovers cannot do without some sort of music. English dramatist William Shakespeare (1564-1616) says in Twelfth Night, Act 1, Sc,1.: “ If music be the food of love, play on.”

In another play Merchant of Venice, Act 5, Sc.1: he says:

“The man that hath no music in himself,/Nor is not mov’d with concord of sweet sounds,/Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;/The motions of his spirit are dull at night,/And his affections dark as Erebus:/Let no such man be trusted.” Note: In Greek religion Erebus is the god of a dark region.

Here is a humorous quote: No music no life, know music know life.

Music is a great tranquilizer.  It de-stresses you, uplifts your mood, cures  insomnia and makes you emotionally upbeat. .

According to German humorist Jean Paul Richter (1763-1826) music is the only one of the fine arts  in which not only man, but all other animals, have a common property,--mice and elephants, spiders and birds.

Finally, let us agree that music is the fourth great material want of nature, --first food, then raiment, then shelter, then music.

                                                ********

G.R.Kanwal

21 June 2024

 

SOME THOUGHTS ON READING

 

                SOME THOUGHTS ON READING

In education, reading is one of the four major skills. It is also a part of literacy.

In India 19^th June is celebrated as ‘Reading Day’ to recognize Puthuvayil Narayana Panicker’s contributions to promotion of literacy and libraries. He belonged to Kerala.  

There is no full literacy in India even today. Literacy and reading of old and new books, magazines, newspapers, and documents  depends on literacy.

“World Books Day” is also celebrated. It comes off on 23 April, the birthday of English poet-playwright William Shakespeare (1564-!616), and recognizes “the scope of books – a link between the past and the future, a bridge between generations and across cultures.”

 Today a lot of reading is taking place all over the world and due to this  knowledge has become power.

English essayist Francis Bacon (1561-1626) said:”Reading serves for delight, for ornament, for ability .----The crafty condemn it; the simple admire it; the wise use it.”

American theologian Tryon Edwards (1809-1894) said: “Always have a book at hand, in the parlor, on the table, for the family; a book of condensed thought and striking anecdote, of sound maxims and truthful apothegms. It will impress on your own mind a thousand valuable suggestions, and teach your children a thousand lessons of truth and duty. Such a book is a casket of jewels for your household.”

Finally, I would like to say reading is the cheapest entertainment and a most lasting pleasure for every literate person.

                                                ************

G.R.Kanwal

20 June 2024

 

THIS, TOO, SHALL PASS AWAY

 

          THIS, TOO, SHALL PASS AWAY

This, Too, Shall Pass Away is a  famous poem by Lanta Wilson Smith. She was born on July 19, 1856 at Castine, Main, and died on October 19, 1939 at Taunton, Massachusetts.

As a prolific  poet, she contributed her poems to many different publications including the Inter Ocean , Zion’s Herald and Ram’s Horn.

This, Too, Shall Pass Away is one of her most famous poems. Its theme is the transient nature of life. No event whether good or bad, sorrowful or joyous, is everlasting. Nothing stays in this world; everything comes for some time and then disappears. None  should, therefore, take any event as endless.

Let any situation, good or bad, glad or sad may come. We should always react with these words: “This, Too, Shall Pass Away.”  

     Here is the full text of the poem:

WHEN some great sorrow, like a mighty river,

Flows through your life with peace-destroying power,

And dearest things are swept from sight forever,

Say to your heart each trying hour:

“This, too, shall pass away.”

 

When ceaseless toil has hushed your song of gladness,

And you have grown almost too tired to pray,

Let this truth banish from your heart its sadness,

And ease the burdens of each dying day:

“This, too, shall pass away.”

 

When fortune smiles, and, full of mirth and pleasure,

The days are flitting by without a care,

Lest you should rest with only earthly treasure,

Let these few words their fullest import bear:

“This, too, shall pass away.”

 

When earnest labor brings you fame and glory,

And all earth’s noblest ones upon you smile,

Remember that life’s longest, grandest story

Fills but a moment in earth’s little while:

“This, too, shall pass away.”

                                    ***************

G.R.Kanwal

19^th June 2024

 

 

 

 

 

I SHALL PASS THROUGH THIS WORLD BUT ONCE

 

                I SHALL PASS THROUGH THIS WORLD BUT ONCE

“I Shall Not Pass This Way Again” is another title of the same poem. The author of both the versions is the same, i.e. Etienne de Grellet. He was a Quaker missionary. Born in France on 28 October 1772, he died in the United States on 16 November 1855. Some anthologies have published his poem without his name because the poem was not then available in his anthology.

The subject matter of the poem is available in the Holy Bible.

            By its very tone and purpose the poem is inspirational. Its gist should be read and remembered by every human being like this : “I shall pass through this world but once, Any  good , therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. “

            Here is the full text of the poem “I Shall Not Pass This Way Again”:

“Through this toilsome world, alas!

Once and only once I pass;

If a kindness I may show,

If a good deed I may do

To a suffering fellow man,

Let me do it while I can.

No delay, for it is plain

I shall not pass this way again.”

                                                *******

G.R.Kanwal

18^th June 2024

  

TRUE LOVE

 

                   TRUE LOVE

Love is a matter of the heart.It is mostly concerned with our feelings and emotions. It attracts us spontaneously towards somebody. Its synonyms are : life- long affection, fondness, care, concern, attachment, regard, warmth, intimacy, devotion, adoration, passion, yearning, etc.

            In his sonnet No, CXVI , English poet and dramatist  William Shakespeare (1564-1616) says : Love is not love/Which alters when it alteration finds,/or bends with the remover to remove. According to him: Love is not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks/Within its his bending  sickle’s compass come./Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, /But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

            The English author Maria Jane Jewsbury (1800-1833) says : Love is the purification of the heart; it strengthens and ennobles the character, gives a higher motive and a nobler aim to every action of life, and makes both man and woman strong, noble , and courageous; and the power to love truly and devotedly is the noblest gift with which a human being can be endowed; but it is a sacred fire that must not be burned to idols.

            Personally, I would like to say that a  man or woman whom we truly love is a religion.

            To conclude, let me say that true love is a great healer. No medicine can match its divine vitality. If you have a true lover in the shape of a friend or relative or anybody else  you don’t need any  physician to diagnose your illness and prescribe a medicine.

                                                *******

G.R.Kanwal

17^th June 2024

             

DON’T BE OVER-AMBITIOUS

 

          DON’T BE OVER-AMBITIOUS

Ambition is defined as desire, aspiration, drive, striving, force, enterprise, eagerness, zeal, longing, yearning, etc. It is a virtue, not a vice. It keeps a person active. No great task in the world can be accomplished without the adequate force of ambition.

To be ambitious is to be aspiring, assertive, enthusiastic, purposeful and dynamic.

Ambition cannot be dubbed as weakness unless it is disproportioned to the capacity  of the ambitious person. Italian author, philosopher and historian Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) said: “Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast, that however high we reach we are never satisfied.”

The English poet and playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) says in Henry VIII, Act 3, Sc.2: “Fling away ambition: By that sin fell the angels: how can man then,/The image of his Maker, hope to win by ‘t?”

Finally, the following viewpoint of the English novelist Edward George Bulwer-Lytton  (1803-73):

“Say what we will, we may be sure that ambition is an error,. Its wear and tear of heart are never recompensed; it steals away the freshness of life; it deadens our vivid and social enjoyments; it shuts our souls to our youth; and we are old ere we remember that we have made a fever and a labor of our raciest years.”

                                                *******

G.R.Kanwal

16 June 2024

 

 

The Character of a Happy Life

 

The Character of a Happy Life

‘The Character of a happy Life’ is the title of a poem written by Sir Henry Wotton . He was an English author, diplomat and politician. He was born on 30 May 1568 and died in December 1639. He was a member of the House of Commons in 1614 and 1625 .

The poem mentioned above is one of his best-known fifteen surviving verses. It is based on the principles of a good life which should never be abandoned. Its theme is the eternal sources of happiness.  

A happy man, according to the poet, is incorruptible. His strength is the un-declining love of God. Such a man is : “Lord of himself, though not of lands,/ And having nothing, yet hath all.”   

The full text of the poem reads as follows:

 

“How happy is he born and taught

That serveth not another’s will;

Whose armour is his honest thought,

And simple truth his utmost skill!

Whose passions not his master’s are;

 

Whose soul is still prepared for death,

Untied  unto the world by care

Of public fame or private breath;

 

Who envies none that chance doth raise,

Nor vice; who never understood

How deepest wounds are given by praise;

Nor rules of state, but rules of good;

 

Who hath his life from rumours freed;

Whose conscience is his strong retreat;

Whose state can neither flatterers feed,

Nor ruin make oppressors great;

Who God doth late and early pray

More of His grace than gifts to lend;

And entertains the harmless day

With a religious book or friend;

 

---This man is freed from servile bands

Of hope to rise or fear to fall:

Lord of himself, though not of lands,

And having nothing, yet hath all.

                                                            ********

G.R.Kanwal

15 June 2024

                                               

 

A POEM ON WILLPOWER

 

          A POEM ON WILLPOWER

In the phrase ‘willpower’  the word ‘Will’ stands for determination, firmness of purpose, single-mindedness and commitment. It also stands for the strength to carry out one’s decisions, wishes, or plans. The proverb ‘Where there is a will, there is a way’ carries all these connotations of the word.  

Willpower is said to be the key to success . Successful people are those who have the determination to overcome apathy, doubt or fear in their way. It has been rightly said that the saddest failures in life are those that come from not putting forth the power and will to succeed. Chinese philosopher Confucius (550-478 B.C.}  said ‘‘The general of a large enemy may be defeated, but you cannot defeat the determined mind of a peasant.’’

   What follows is a sonnet on ‘WILLPOWER’ by the American poetess Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919). The title of her sonnet is ‘WILL’.

“There is no chance, destiny, or fate,

Can circumvent or hinder or control

The firm resolve of a determined soul.

Gifts count for nothing; will alone is great;

All things give way before it, soon or late.

What obstacle can stay the mighty force

Of the sea-seeking river in its course,

Or cause the ascending orb of day to wait.

 

Each wellborn soul must win what it deserves.

Let the fool prate of luck. The fortunate

Is he whose earnest purpose never swerves,

Whose slightest action or inaction serves

The one great aim. Why, even Death stands still,

And waits an hour sometimes for such a will. “

 

            Finally, remember that “where there is no struggle, there is no strength.”

                                                *******

G.R.Kanwal

14^th June 2024

 

 

THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US

 

                                                                                               

THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US

“The World Is Too Much With Us” is a sonnet written by William Wordsworth  the greatest romantic poet of England (1770-1850). The  poem which is quoted below expresses his revolt  against people’s excessive interest in materialism. His belief is that we should live in harmony with natural environment and not in  the environment of the city. In another poem Tintern Abbey, he says:

A presence that disturbs me with joy

Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime

Of something far more deeply interfused,

Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,

And the round ocean and the living air,

And the blue sky, and in the mind of man.

 

The text of The World Is Too Much With Us reads as follows:

 

“The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

 

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,

The winds that will be howling at all hours

And are up-gather’d now like sleeping flowers,

For this, for every thing, we are out of tune;

 

It moves us not, -----Great God! I’d rather be

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn,

So might I, standing in this pleasant lea,

 

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

                        ---

Notes: 1. A pagan is a person who holds religious beliefs that are not part of any of the world’s main religions. 2. Proteus:  In Greek mythology ‘The old man of the sea’ who could assume any shape or form. 3. Triton: a Greek god of the sea who lived with his parents in a golden palace on the bottom of the sea.

                                                            ********

G.R.Kanwal

13 June 2024

               

BARTER : A POEM

 

                BARTER : A POEM

“Barter” is the title of a  famous poem written by the American poet Sara Teasdale. She was born on 8 August 1884 and died of pneumonia which ultimately  became the cause of suicide on 29 January 1933.

She authored several anthologies of poems in a very simple language.

            The word ‘‘Barter” literally means :” to exchange goods, property, services, etc. for other goods without using money. “

Sara’s poem is about buying loveliness of life by spending all we have.

             Most of the people sayl that life has no loveliness. The whole  world in which we spend our allotted time is a place of suffering and unattractiveness. Sara Teasdale’s view is different. She believes that : “Life has loveliness to sell,/All beautiful and splendid  things.“ The truth is that we do not use our eyes to see them.

Here is the full text of Sara’s poem:-

Life has loveliness to sell,

All beautiful and splendid things,

Blue waves whitened on a cliff,

Soaring fire that sways and sings,

And children’s faces looking up

Holding wonder like a cup.     

 

Life has loveliness to sell,

Music like a curve of gold,

Scent of pine trees in the rain,

Eyes that love you, arms that hold,

And for your spirit’s still delight,

Holly thoughts that star the night.

 

Spend all you have for loveliness,

Buy it and never count the cost,

For one white singing hour of peace

Count many a year of strife well lost,

And for a breath of ecstasy

Give all you have been, or could be.

                                    *******

G.R.Kanwal

12 June 2024