Evangeline
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
This romantic poem begins of a young love sprouted in Acadian people of Western Europe. A scene painted in all the balance of nature; Longfellow commands the English language with metaphoric description. Evangeline is only introduced after the backdrop is colored like an unfolding rose on a fresh spring morning. The battle for prominence of one element as it surrenders to another presents a peaceful array of living. Separated from her newfound love Gabriel, by the will of King George, each finds them on the American frontier. One in pursuit of a meaningful life. The other in pursuit of her lost lover. The over arching parody is a poetic representation of the relationship of men and women of the time. In the ending of such an endless pursuit, down every river of the American landscape they find each other. You must read the poem for yourself to discover what they learned.
Longfellow wrote Evangeline in 1847 of a time that was likely 50 years gone by. A tale that could likely had been handed down through a rackenteers verse at many a fireside and finally put to paper by what was proclaimed as the most revered American poet of the time. The poem gives insight to the value of brotherhood and the respect each person holds towards his neighbor. A value of appreciation towards one another for their contribution to the quality of their lives together. Has the advancement of systematic distribution of goods and services rendered society of the 21st century aloof to such a notion? This poem represents the oneness of man/woman and nature. It reminds me to take a moment to look into to the eyes of another and give thanks for that fleeting moment we have with each other.
In reading the poem, 166 years later you are still awed by ones ability to re create living in balance of nature. The reader rises to a new appreciation for the affect that written word holds as it provokes an imagination. An art that has it has yet to surrender to the media of today’s entertainment world.
As an enticement to pick up his works I provide an excerpt to give example of my message. The passage is of a priest advising Evangeline of which direction to head in pursuit of her lover.
“”Look at this vigorous plant that lifts its head from the
meadow
See how its leaves are turned to the north, as true as
the magnet
This is the compass flower, that thy finger of God has
Planted””
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6 comments:
Dad,
I can appreciate your sentiment for the closeness of the preindustrial world. Its a double edged sword, though.
TJ
TJ,
Agreed. All swords have two edges; it is what makes it a whole sword. The question is: is it a well-balanced sword? Actually I think Longfellow lived right in the thick of the industrial age's dawn. The reason I hold this dear, especially the verse on the compass flower is that as “man of science” moves into the future with aspirations to "play the part of God", he must first understand the intricate balance of nature, our universe. The compass flower is one of the many things that live in this delicate balance.
Dad
that as “man of science” moves into the future with aspirations to "play the part of God", he must first understand the intricate balance of nature, our universe.
I just finished reading the "Ending Aging" book, which very much treads on the realm of "playing god." One of the author's main points is that he's taking an engineering approach to aging, rather than a strictly scientific one. What this means, practically, is that you don't need to fully understand what's happening in order to make it work. After all, we've been going about the complicated business of reproduction for much longer than we've understood the role of Genes.
Specifically for aging: we've known for a long time that specific elements of metabolism contribute to the body's functional decline, and lots of research has gone into understanding metabolism so that we could just "tweak" it to avoid the negativities. It turns out that metabolism is fantastically complex and tangled system. Any change we introduce has a slew of unforeseen consequences, which all have to be address lest we cause more damage. The point is that a complete understanding of metabolism may be for all intensive purposes beyond our grasp.
But rather than despair at our inability and be resigned to aging, we can just understand the consequences of messy metabolism and address those. Aubry's DeGray's approach is to let the body continue going about its complex, poorly understood, and messy metabolism, and just clean up the damage periodically after it.
I think generally this illustrates the difference between "applied" and "pure" science, which is better called the difference between engineering and science. Engineers use incomplete information to make things that work well enough, scientists try to complete that information.
The point is that a complete understanding of the intricate balance of the universe, or even a small part of it, is beyond the grasp of unaided intelligence. We have to "play god" in order to give ourselves the ability so understand.
In truth, this is another example of the very intricate balance you're talking about- in order to progress we have to put ourselves at risk.
TJ,
To your summary conclusion: In truth, this is another example of the very intricate balance you're talking about- in order to progress we have to put ourselves at risk.
I am always more impressed by the engineer. He is a lot like an architect. I have come to understand that to study architecture, you must delve into philosophy. It would be nice to see this study brought back to the forefront in many technical fields. Perhaps I say this to put my fears at ease.
A divine coincidence that I entertain this discussion right after watching I am Legend.
Sounds like a good book, send me your review for publication here under your name if you like.
An interesting coencidence; this morning the firsst spoken words I heard where of a man giving a speech. He said:
Unlike like the flower who has no choice but to express God (the balance of the univers) Man has free will.
another interesting conicidence: the book I chose to read next deals explicitly with the Anthropic principal. The hypothesis it proposes to explain it is shocking... and plausible. The book is called The Intelligent Universe, I should be done with it by tomorrow so I'll give it to you. Its called The Intelligent Universe
The hypothesis is more directly put forth in a previous book by the same author (called Biocosm), I think this book encompasses all the important ideas of that book and also brings in some relevant corollaries. The first half of it is almost skippable, you could call it a catch-up primer for people who haven't read Kurzweil.
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