Related quotes: Was Auden right to write...

Relative to Causal Initiative Paradox - After Auden - Breughel

Was Auden right to write Art was not wrong -
on canvas or through written word, to state
all little matters outside isolate
fate which squeezes, seizes in its tong
souls who - as Gray said - from madding throng
scarce ventured out, immune to stale debate
on cause, effect, affecting their estate.

The Old Masters, however, understood
human fragility, how we replace
extraordinary events, prefer the commonplace where we feel strong within our element. As then, all mark life-cycles but our waiting
is not breath 'taking' bait abating. Miracles few see
as part and parcel of modernity,
while often sibling rivalry's thin ice-skating
along the dotted line society
dictates for thinking as they 'ought to should.'
We should 'bear' in mind that life expectancy
was nearer forty (women thirty - childbirth took its toll) -
than three score years and ten, today's retirement age
when we have filled our work résumés page
as martyrs to global capitalistic cause.

Everywhere in some corner, or untidy spot,
dogs go on with their doggy life and transvestite coarse
scratches sin_nocent up a gum tree.

Although in Breughel's Icarus, everything turns away
quite leisurely from the disaster, though plowman may
have heard brash splash, observed, forsaken cry,
for him it was unknown as failure. Sun shone,
as always, on white legs disappearing into green
water; while some asea might see
something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
importance seemed some port of call. All sailed calmly on.

Though siren songs of progress spur Man higher,
like Icarus, beware ambitions' fire!

Conservatives of every hue
advance that common caveat -
whenever faced with something new
they seldom fail to smell a rat.
They therefore counsel caution due
before attempting this or that,
implying that inventions new, -
to wit: all that is not old-hat, -
both heresy and threat seems too.
You want a turn? Go out and bat!
Youth to youth true, what you must... do!
Don't wait too late. When old, cold, fat,
bold attitudes off cue, askew,
too often are ignored. Observe that
what unimportant seemed to minds foreclosed,
too soon proves more essential than supposed
when to time's acid test exposed.

Paradox: coincidence or causal link, tranposed
to life's known range exchanges juxtaposed.
Change prone population's predisposed
to self-seclusion, strange pose opposed,
scar[c]e leap from sheep-like shelf life sleep self-imposed,
discover overnight time-worn customs deposed.

Sure, though to safety's shore returned his sire,
Daedalus' fate, forgot by most, was dire.

Musee des Beaux Arts Auden
About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully
along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the plowman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

(7 March 2012)

poem by Jonathan Robin
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Related quotes

Initiative - Paradox

Though siren songs of progress spur Man higher,
like Icarus, beware ambitions' fire!

Conservatives of every hue
advance that common caveat -
whenever faced with something new
they seldom fail to smell a rat.
They therefore counsel caution due
before attempting this or that,
implying that inventions new, -
to wit: all that is not old-hat, -
are heresy, could threaten too.
You want a turn? Go out and bat!
Youth to youth true, what you must... do!
Don't wait too late, when old and fat, -
their attitude appears askew,
could be ignored, accepting that...

Sure, though to safety's shore returned his sire,
Daedalus' fate, forgot by most, was dire.

(9 September 1981)

poem by Jonathan Robin
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At New Cross Road

I am at cross road
Carry all burdens with heavy load
It is pursuit of goal with double mind
Sometimes action with eyes blind

We are unable to distinguish between
Young, aged, child or teens
Who can tell openly about friend or enemy?
They may be among us or between many

In this open world, who has time to think?
When ship is on brink of disaster or about to sink
It is state of unstable and uncertain stage
Life can’t be governed by the age

We have no love for neighborhood
As we live under wrong impression and falsehood
The life philosophy is not clearly understood
Where as concept followed is totally not good

We have lost human values
There is mad race without any reviews
It is follow up examples without great concern
Left it to fate and wait for the suicidal turn

We are not totally immune
We must clearly follow with tune
Humanity and life can co exist
Rightful things can’t be give wrong twist

Nothing may change except our approach
It will make long impact as such
We may perish but things may move on
Wind might blow slowly and then gone.

poem by Hasmukh Amathalal
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December 7

As I sit at my desk wishing
I did not have to edit a book
on poetry and painting a
subject that fascinates me
usually, but today is not as
usual, being today, white sky,
decent amount of sunlight,
forty one degrees in Central Park,
and it makes sense to dream of
Chicago, another big city
with two major league ballclubs,
and the pleasure of seeing Paul
and you, too, Elaine, whom
I never get to see often enough
in our own city of the subway series
the champagne gallery and
the tech wreck on wall street,
and as I look out the window
almost any minute I expect
the brokers to fall from the sky
like Icarus in Brughel's painting in
Auden's "Musee des Beaux Arts"
(and so back to work)

poem by David Lehman
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Loyal love..

Waiting is a game for you,
always follow me wherever I go,
Never disheartened,
Never get bored,
always waiting for me,
Whether I am angry or happy,
you are the same,
looking at me gracefully,
what a pair of beautiful eyes,
speaking the language of sight,
waiting is a game or a life for you.
when I give the food
you enjoy, still looking at me,
please turn away, I feel guilty.
Why you take care of me,
why you are there to protect me,
Am I in your mind?
even in your short nap.
Rush to answer each and every smell,
of the intruders, human or animals,
What did I do to have you as my dogs.
How do I reciprocate,
for everything you have done to me?
In next birth you be born as my masters,
but fortuneteller told me,
that this is my last birth.
Were you my masters in my last birth?

poem by Veeraiyah Subbulakshmi
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Someone's Watching Over Me

I found myself today
Oh I found myself and ran away
But something pulled me back
A voice of reason I forgot I had
All I know is you're not here to say
What you always used to say
But it's written in the sky tonight
[chorus]
So I won't give up
No I won't break down
Sooner than it seems life turns around
And I will be strong
Even if it all goes wrong
When I'm standin' in the dark I'll still believe
Someone's watching over me
I've seen that ray of light
And it's shining on my destiny
Shining all the time
And I won't be afraid
To follow everywhere it's taking me
All I know is yesterday is gone
And right now I belong
To this moment
To my dreams
[chorus]
So I won't give up
No I won't break down
Sooner than it seems life turns around
And I will be strong
Even if it all goes wrong
When I'm standin' in the dark I'll still believe
Someone's watching over me
It doesn't matter what people say
And it doesn't matter how long it takes
Believe in yourself and you'll find
It only matters how true you are
Be true to yourself and follow your heart
[chorus]
So I won't give up
No I won't break down
Sooner than it seems life turns around
And I will be strong
Even if it all goes wrong
When I'm standing in the dark I'll still believe
That I won't give up
No I won't break down
Sooner than it seems life turns around
And i will be strong
Even if it all goes wrong
When I'm standing in the dark I'll still believe
Someone's watching over
Someone's watching over
Someone's watching over me
Oh oh Someone's watching over me

song performed by by Hilary Duff
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Prophecy

Now that I know the right time has come
My prediction will surely be true
The impending disaster it looms
And the whole of the village is doomed
Why wont you listen to me
Is it so hard to understand
That I am the real seventh son
Your life or death on me depends
Suffering and pain impending disaster
Souls crying the devils laughter
Heard the cry of the seven whistlers
Lucifer smiles looks on and waits
Ill take your life in my hands
Your fate your fortunes in my vision
Heed what I say and youll see what will be
Please listen to me
Now that they see the disaster is done
Now they put all the blame on to me
They feel I brought on a curse
Dont they know that the torment
It stays with me knowing that I walk alone
Through the eyes of the future I see
They dont even know what fear is
Dont they know Im the one that is cursed
Purgatory beckons souls lost forever
Life after death or heaven hereafter
Heard the call of the seven whistlers again
Now lucifer laughs hell awaits
I had thei lives in my hands
Their fate their fortune in my vision
No one believed in my true prophecy
And now its too late

song performed by by Iron Maiden
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Icarus Fell

Icarus tried to feel wonderful,
He could try at least to fly,
But instigators of happiness were beautiful.

Instead of flight, the tragic became
A comical effect as he flew
And wings were aflutter and warm.

Near the ocean, his Sun was against him,
For dripping was the oil into ocean,
And diving was the maniac, all numb.

Icarus is still aiming for life,
But he sighs and he drowns,
With water as his foe and wife.

poem by Naveed Akram
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On a wing and a prayer

Icarus
has had a bad press
throughout history
as some sort of moral metaphor
for a man who challenged
Intelligent Design
and/or the gods
and failed, in a narrow-minded view

A young man’s ambition
and perhaps devotion
drew him towards the heavens
why not
and science had not developed very far
so how was he to know
except by experiment

I’d like to think that as he dropped
out of a cloudless Greek sky
out of mythology
out of Breughel’s painting
out of Auden’s mindfulness

he was caught before the third and last bobbing up
by a bevy of compassionate mermaids
and returned gently to land
to live again perhaps under
an assumed name

while the mermaids sang to each other his story
across the seven seas
who whispered it to men
in the off-shore breeze
as a moral story telling how

heartfelt prayer always reaches heaven
there to be taken into account
but science is dodgy, make sure
you get it right and
it will be your servant

and when one day with heaven’s consent
you build a better vehicle to ‘conquer’ space
though how untrue a phrase
perhaps Apollo would be
a safer name since Icarus Two
somehow doesn’t have that ring about it.

poem by Michael Shepherd
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To H.a.b. On My Forty-seventh Birthday

WHEN one is forty years and seven,
Is seven and forty sad years old,
He looks not onward for his Heaven,
The future is too blank and cold,
Its pale flowers smell of graveyard mould;
He looks back to his lifeful past;
If age is silver, youth is gold:-
Could youth but last, could youth but last!

He turns back toward his youthful past
A-throb with life and love and hope,
Whose long-dead joys in memory last,
Whose shining days had ample scope;
He turns and lingers on the slope
Whose dusk leads down to sightless death:-
The sun once crowned that darkening cope,
And song once thrilled this weary breath.

Ali, he plods wearily to death,
Adown the gloaming into night,
But other lives breathe joyous breath
In morning's boundless golden light;
Their feet are swift, their eyes are bright,
Their hearts beat rhythms of hope and love,
Their being is a pure delight
In earth below and heaven above.

And you have hope and joy and love,
And you have youth's abounding life,
Whose crystal currents flow above
The stones and sands of care and strife.
May all your years with joys be rifc,
May you grow calmly to your prime,
A maiden sweet, a cherished wife,
A happy mother in due time.

All good you wish me, past my prime,
I wish with better hope to you,
And richer blessings than old Time
And Fate or Fortune found my due:
For you are kind and good and true,
And so when you are forty-seven
May spouse and children in your view
Make Home the happiest life-long Heaven.

poem by James Thomson
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All My Life

Is it the way that you feel when Im kissing on you
Or is it the soul I can see in your eyes
The clothes that you wear or the smell of your hair
Or is it the way I cant sleep when youre not there
All my life, Ive been waiting for you
All my life, Ive been waiting for you
Is it the way that you feel deep inside
Or is it the way that I feel so alive
Your star and your flair are beyond compare
Or is it the way that we feel when were on fire
All my life, Ive been waiting for you
All my life, oh i, Ive been waiting for you
Every night, oh Ive been waiting for you
All my life, Ive been waiting for you
All my life, Ive been waiting for you
All my life, Ive been waiting for you
All my life, Ive been waiting for you
All my life, oh i, Ive been waiting for you
All my life, Ive been waiting for you
Ive been waiting for you
Ive been waiting for you
Ive been waiting for you
Ive been waiting for you
Ive been waiting for you

song performed by by Lenny Kravitz
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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the Way To Success

failure may outnumber success
failure is there
to make you strong
failure may cause pain
but nothing goes in vain
failure keeps you in touch
with reality
failure gives wisdom
failure gives experience
cowards don't fail
It's for the brave
who leave the shore
to sail into unknown
failure is a stop
in the journey of life
don't stop at the bend
today's failure would be
tomorrow's bigger success
failure is the cradle
in which success rocks.
failure is not a sin
failure is the first step for success
failure teaches you how to succeed
failure always helps in your success
failure helps you from failing
if you fail, it's not the end of the world
try!
success will definitely be on your way
so will run away your failure
but...
never forget your failure in life which helped you in your
SUCCESS

poem by Liioona Mohie
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May remain as bye gone

Yes days may remain as by gone
Sweet memory may remain and can't be undone
It is all that we have to bear and remember
Lasting thing may remain with us for ever

It is like river flow
It has to die down and nothing to grow
The water may recede and easy to monitor
Can be life line in day’s time and to act as creator

New population or life may emerge on the bank
Many houses might have been washed away lives sank
Yet it is unforgettable link and to remain forever
We have to forget and nothing to regret however

We can not hold one opinion in all the times to come
Whether sad or happiness, both are inevitable and welcome
It may form in formidable chain of events
Some one to be remembered and forgotten as past moments

Life as such if you may evaluate
Can not be compared or equated
It stands in tune with the time and related
To someone it may be happy memory and to some one as ill fated

It is not merely coming on earth
Grow up with age and ultimately face the death
It has something more than to do and excel
Life is all about to be lived again and performed well

It is not raising of one’s self or rearing a child
We are not living in primitive stage and stay as wild
It is all about living as human being
There may be different characters such as poor, beggar or king

Life to some one may look as mountain
To some it may look like as green fields with fountains
How to spend it with more pleasure may be worry?
To some one it may be sordid affair to feel always sorry

It has different feeling at each and every stage
It may not vary with advancement of your age
It is static and has its own sphere of influence
You may start liking it if properly adjusted at once

It is our usual business to get along and reach the shore
There is nothing like little efforts or driving more
It is with equal force and in tune with demand
The ship has to be sailed on water and not on sand

Life may soon be over with all that you did
You might have reached to the end with or without any lead
It is not searching excuses for what you observed
It is all the time achievement that was due and you deserved

poem by Hasmukh Amathalal
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A Seer

'BELOW there are white-faced throngs,
Their march is a tide coming Higher;
Below there are white-faced throngs,
Their faith is a banner flung higher;
Below there are white-faced throngs,
White swords they have yet, but red songs;
Place and lot they have lost hear you not?
For a dream you once dreamed and forgot!'

'But a dream has a life of its own
The wizard seas it can cross
A dream has a life of its own
It comes like the albatross.
A dream has a life of its own,
From my feet to your feet it has flown
And you, you victorious
That wild, white thing will lose!'

poem by Padraic Colum
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A thought after Yeats

When youth was life and life was youth
and life was love and love was life,
I thought love came and went;
its coming, overwhelming; and its going,
death of spirit; then, as if
the wild white swans had flown away
and left the waters of the heart’s lake cold.

But now I know it’s not like that:
love that, guarded, never flies from here in heart
to where it will, may grow dark, cold and miserly;
ungiven every livelong day
it turns to rags and dry old bones,
confiscated in the heart.

Better now, be with those wild white swans
which on a dark cold icy winter’s day
gather at the water’s edge to stretch
for yesterday’s warm loaf still fresh;
then turn, swim, lift strong wings and fly
one knows not where, and may not ask;

watch them then, into the distance;
hear the flap of wings grow into silent air;
pause still a little while;
then turn, one’s living breath
white in that winter air;
then back to warmth of home and love and peat fire
glowing in the hearth of heart renewed.

poem by Michael Shepherd
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The Course

Just as a ship sets sail and leaves her berth,
Her goal a port across the sea,
A new life starts a voyage from its birth,
No knowledge of its fate to be.

Smooth sailing rarely is the course of life,
For storm and tempest all will see;
The course of men's lives mixed of joy and strife,
In different measures though they be.

The chart of life a voyage by time drawn,
It inches on as days they pass.
The waves that break upon the reef at dawn,
The wary see with eye to glass.

There shoals exposed, as waves foam into spray,
And siren's voices tempt one on
To rocks, where wrecks of souls bemoan the day
They ventured close to ground thereon.

While some who founder, by bad luck are cursed,
Some careless to destruction sail.
The former despite care and thought, submersed,
The later by their own hand fail.

The goal of life: To reach the port and rest,
With sweet adventure on the way;
To navigate life's ocean depths and test
One's will, the charted course to stay.

poem by Dennis N. O'Brien
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(V – 1988) Fighting Fate

Oh, things out of control we call real fate
For factors far unknown too decide our state!
But things there are we must not see as mere fate;
Such things if controlled can oh, alter our state!

No thunder or tyrant is ever such fate
If faced with courage and soon held to checkmate!
Oh, thou art the architect of thy own fate!
So fight well with will and thus safeguard thy state!

At times we may fall to some strange, cruel fate;
By them should never our will still abate!
With arrows of resolve and faith, fight thy fate!
Oh, give no space ever to stand or to wait!

So bow not or falter before any fate;
Oh, fear and despair will thy fate aggravate!
Grim panic and anguish will strengthen our fate;
They make us, oh, lick a time unduly late!

So well in advance to, oh, face any fate
Thou equip thyself and thus secure thy state!
Challenges of life are challenges of fate –
So meeting them well, oh, means living life great!

poem by Kannan G
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Landscape With The Fall Of Icarus

According to Brueghel
when Icarus fell
it was spring

a farmer was ploughing
his field
the whole pageantry

of the year was
awake tingling
near

the edge of the sea
concerned
with itself

sweating in the sun
that melted
the wings' wax

unsignificantly
off the coast
there was

a splash quite unnoticed
this was
Icarus drowning

poem by William Carlos Williams
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Jonathan Houghton

There is the caw of a crow,
And the hesitant song of a thrush.
There is the tinkle of a cowbell far away,
And the voice of a plowman on Shipley's hill.
The forest beyond the orchard is still
With midsummer stillness;
And along the road a wagon chuckles,
Loaded with corn, going to Atterbury.
And an old man sits under a tree asleep,
And an old woman crosses the road,
Coming from the orchard with a bucket of blackberries.
And a boy lies in the grass
Near the feet of the old man,
And looks up at the sailing clouds,
And longs, and longs, and longs
For what, he knows not:
For manhood, for life, for the unknown world!
Then thirty years passed,
And the boy returned worn out by life
And found the orchard vanished,
And the forest gone,
And the house made over,
And the roadway filled with dust from automobiles --
And himself desiring The Hill!

poem by Edgar Lee Masters
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Waiting For A Girl Like You

So long
Ive been looking too hard, Ive waiting too long
Sometimes I dont know what I will find
I only know its a matter of time
When you love someone
When you love someone
It feels so right, so warm and true
I need to know if you feel it too
Maybe Im wrong
Wont you tell me if Im coming on too strong?
This heart of mine has been hurt before
This time I wanna be sure
Ive been waiting for a girl like you
To come into my life
Ive been waiting for a girl like you
A love that will survive
Ive been waiting for someone new
To make me feel alive
Yeah, waiting for a girl like you
To come into my life
Youre so good
When we make love its understood
Its more than a touch or a word we say
Only in dreams could it be this way
When you love someone
Yeah, really love someone
Now, I know its right
From the moment I wake up till deep in the night
Theres no where on earth that Id rather be
Than holding you, tenderly
Ive been waiting for a girl like you
To come into my life
Ive been waiting for a girl like you
And a love that will survive
Ive been waiting for someone new
To make me feel alive
Yeah, waiting for a girl like you
To come into my life
Ive been waiting, waiting for you, ooh
Ooh, Ive been waiting
Ive been waiting, yeah
Ive been waiting for a girl like you
Ive been waiting
Wont you come into my life?
My life?

song performed by by Foreigner
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Ship That Never Returned

On a summer's day while the waves were rippling, with a quiet and a gentle breeze;
A ship set sail with a cargo laden for a port beyond the sea.