Angkor Wat, Cambodia Photos by C. Houge
The photo above captures somewhat the emerald mystery of Nature and "her" spiritual secrets. The temple of Angkor Wat (12 c.) is a part of the world's oldest and largest Hindu religious site and incorporates an architectural element called the Temple Mountain which represents Mount Meru, the home of the Gods. The snaking tree here in the center of the photo appears to threaten the fragile edifice.
The short fable by Leonardo Da Vinci called "The Nut and the Campanile" also articulates the dynamic of creation, growth, age, and ruin: a nut escapes being eaten by a crow and finds shelter in a crevice of a wall of the campanile. Happy to shelter one that acknowledges "the grace of God," an admirer of beauty and nobility, and moved by the nut's story of having lost its place beneath the "old Father" and the nut's plea "do you, at least, not abandon me," the wall extends its compassion. The nut (seed), sheltered and rooted in darkness, reaches for the light and grows to great height and in time displaces "the ancient stones."
The campanile or belltower in the European tradition was most often a part of a church and was rung several times a day to call the faithful to prayer, to remind them of the incarnation of God. In civic life, a belltower might warn, among other things, of natural disasters or danger. Thus we see in Da Vinci's story, an allegory of the fragility of human constructs in the face of nature's powers and, to my mind, the poignancy of the conflict between humans and nature, a source that giveth and taketh all, and that is loved and feared.
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In Nature, Ralph Waldo Emerson writes:
nature, in the common sense, refers to essences unchanged by man; space, the air, the river, the leaf. Art is applied to the mixture of his will with the same things, as in a house, a canal, a statue, a picture. But his operations taken together are so insignificant [. . . ] that in an impression so grand as that of the world on the human mind, they do not vary the result "("Introduction").
The works or operations of humans in their totality cannot compare with those of nature, he claims, as all our Arts are meagered by nature's grand show.
Later he speaks of an "occult relation" between man and nature, a sense of delight and wonder, but warns that "nature is not always tricked in holiday attire" and what appears lovely today may tomorrow be "overspread with melancholy." He says, "Nature always wears the colors of the spirit." And "Nature is the symbol of spirit."
He makes it clear that the inward, subjective human experience of nature shapes our views of nature; we humanize nature; our imagination clothes nature in various dress–boon companion, indifferent Other, enemy menace. But he urges the higher, ideal conceptions: "Nature stretches out her arms to embrace man, only let his thoughts be of equal greatness." And, too, "Beauty is the mark God sets upon virtue," and "in art does Nature work through the will of a man filled with the beauty of her first works."
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To Review: Melville Cane's poem "Snow Toward Evening," is a short, rhymed poem, only a stanza in length but one of varying meter and line lengths. The poem shows the musical effects of sound devices such as end rhyme, internal rhyme, alliteration, and assonance, particularly in the last lines with the repetition of i and e vowel sounds, and l, t, and f consonants, which lend an airy crispness to the image of falling snowflakes. The central metaphor is that of a great tree suddenly "blossoming" and the sky bearing its petals to earth. The poem describes an unexpected moment of grace which makes for an epiphany for speaker and reader alike. The epiphany is a moment of insight or grace, when one becomes aware of something divine or revelatory breaking through to consciousness.
The late poet Czeslaw Milosz writes in A Book of Luminous Things that in ancient Greece (circa 5th century B.C.),
a polytheistic antiquity saw epiphanies at every step, for streams and woods were inhabited by dryads and nymphs, while the commanding gods looked and behaved like humans, were endowed with speech, could, though with difficulty, be distinguished from mortals, and often walked the earth. Not rarely they would visit households and were recognized by hosts. The Book of Genesis tells about a visit paid by God to Abraham, in the guise of three travellers. Later on, the epiphany as appearance, the arrival of Christ, occupies an important place in the New Testament. (4)
Indeed, the pantheon of ancient Greek gods and goddesses may be seen as personifications of various aspects or archetypes of the human psyche. Their storied conflicts and exploits among themselves and mortals reflect our own aspirations and temptations, our own light and the dark forces, conscious and unconscious realms of experience and imagination. Arianna Huffington writes in The Gods of Greece,
[ . . . ] the classic conflict that has dominated Western literature and has even entered our everyday language is the conflict between Apollo and Dionysos–between the Apollonian and Dionysian powers in man, between the need for order, balance and clarity, and the instinct for freedom, ecstasy and exultation. (16)
Whether the god or goddess called Olympos home, or Hades, each represented something alive, real, and open to change. All could trace their origin to the Great Mother archetype, goddess, called Gaia. As Earth Mother, she represents the primordial feminine power of generation and renewal. The goddesses Athena, Artemis, Aphrodite, and others represent individual aspects of the totality of Gaia.
The symbols and stories, the myths and legends, whether of ancient Babylon, Egypt, Greece, India or the Judeo-Christian world, refer “primarily to our inner selves” and not to “outer historical events” (Joseph Campbell Thou Art That 28), and they present archetypes known to all mythologies.” Beyond the necessities imposed by our animal nature, Campbell writes, is “another order of living, which the animals do not know, that of awe before the mystery of being, the mysterium tremendum et fascinans, that can be the root and branch of the spiritual sense of one’s days” (29).
The grapes of my body can only become wine
After the winemaker tramples me.
I surrender my spirit like grapes to his trampling
So my inmost heart can blaze and dance with joy.
by Rumi (Sufi poet, 13th century)
We will continue today with the poems and short stories assigned thus far, tracing the themes of nature, art, and visionary experience as they appear in each. I will collect your first essays and return them next week, graded.
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A Guide to the Study of Literature: Explore the pages and links at the site below, where you will find helpful introductory material and insightful essays and responses to the themes and topics readers have discovered in literature.
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Homework: Poetry Essay #2, due week 4: Compose a short essay of 250-350 (three paragraphs ought to do it) words on a poem from the handout. Introduce the subject piece by title and author, describe briefly what the poem is about, its form (free verse or rhymed, stanza type and number), and proceed to your thesis idea, which is an arguable claim, an interpretative claim/opinion you have arrived at after consideration of the text’s structure and sense. Support or prove your thesis idea in the body paragraph(s) by reference to specific lines and words in the poem text and explanation of their meaning. Provide a brief conclusion that underscores your central focus and point.
Integrate short quotations (less than four lines) into the text with quotation marks and slashes to indicate line breaks. Quotations of 4 and more lines should be block formatted. Remember, all use of original wording should be enclosed in quotation marks or otherwise indicated as original source material. Title your essay (do not use the poetry title in the essay title unless a subtitle is also present). Double‐space the lines. Bring the printed copy to class week 4, or email it to ndoyle@aii.edu if you cannot be in class to submit it.
Topic suggestions: the poem as symbol or allegory of imagination and its powers
the poem as meditation on nature's shows or life's progression
the uses of allusion –mythological, biblical, historical– in poetry
Readings: Augustine's Confessions, Charles Bukowski, selections. (docs uploaded at ecompanion)
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