human
Can you write a poem for me in the style of Joseph Hocking?
assistant
Sure, here's a poem in the style of Joseph Hocking:
  _Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe sum up the chief phases of European
relation between philosophy and poetry._
rejuvenation: Helen--The classic manner and the judgement on
_Comparison of the three poets--Their relative rank--Ideal of a
philosophic or comprehensive poet--Untried possibilities of art._
unrivalled poet.
situation.
If we think of philosophy as an investigation into truth, or as
Nevertheless, even if we grant that the philosopher, in his best
Shall we say, then,--and I now broach an idea by which I set some
imagination, might grasp a larger subject with the same ease. The
decisions, so for each philosophic poet the whole world of man is
Veluti pueris absinthia tetra medentes
Cum dare conantur, prius oras pocula circura
Contingunt mellis dulci flavoque liquore,
Ut puerorum aetas improvida ludificetur
Labrorum tenus, interea perpotet amarum
Absinthi laticem, deceptaque non capiatur,
Sed potius tali pacto recreata valescat:
Sic ego nunc ... volui tibi suaviloquenti
Carmine Pierio rationem exponere nostram,
Et quasi musaeo dulci contingere melle.
Percussit thyrso laudis spes magna meum cor
Et simul incussit suavem mi in pectus amorem
Musarum, quo nunc instinctus mente vigenti
Avia Pieridum peragro loca nullius ante
Trita solo: iuvat integros accedere fontes,
Atque haurire; iuvatque novos decerpere flores,
Insignemque meo capiti petere inde coronam,
Unde prius nulli velarint tempora musae.
Primum, quod magnis doceo de rebus, et artis
Religionum animum nodis exsolvere pergo:
Deinde, quod obscura de re tam lucida pango
Carmina, musaeo contingens cuncta lepore....
Si tibi forte animum tali ratione tenere
Versibus in nostris possem, dum perspicis omnem
Naturam rerum, qua constet compta figura.
disappears is often remarkably like it in character. Universal
comforting, and wishes to pursue a possible, not an impossible,
happiness.
Lucretius; an answer he accepted from Epicurus, his master in
perished with it. This substance, accordingly, was physical, not
unnatural, there is no hope for our minds.
The ethics of Democritus, in so far as we may judge from scanty
The system of Democritus was adopted by Epicurus, but not because
Epicurus, the Herbert Spencer of antiquity, was in his natural
Although science for its own sake could not interest so monkish a
materialism and a homely morality.
achieving something. In a word, the moral hue of materialism in a
Of course, the poetry we see in nature is due to the emotion the
This double colouring of things is supremely interesting to the
The Mars of the opening passage, subdued for a moment by the
equilibration of matter; as the throw of sixes is an _eventum,_ a
punishments, and so to liberate the mind for the calm and tepid
enjoyment of this world. There is something to be gained in this
_A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,_
_A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread--and Thou_
_Beside me singing in the Wilderness--_
_Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!_
To convince us that we perish at death he has to rely on vulgar
deliverance and was the saviour of mankind. Yet this was only a
The soul of nature, in the elements of it, is then, according to
The word nature has many senses; but if we preserve the one which
thoughts intelligently, to render them symbols for things.
landscape is an influence. What he renders, beyond such pictorial
Yet these influences are vague and for the most part fleeting.
complement of the other. Imagine a poet who, to the freedom and
transform Epicurean sentiment. History would have opened to the
fortified.
_This losing is true dying;_
_This is lordly maris down-lying,_
_This his slow but sure reclining,_
_Star by star his world resigning._
The maxim of Lucretius, that nothing arises save by the death of
Nil ... natumst in corpore, ut uti
Possemus, sed quod natumst id procreat usum.
Alid ex alio clarescet, nec tibi caeca
Nox iter eripiet, quin ultima naturai
Pervideas: ita res accendent lumina rebus.
Alid ex alio reficit natura, nec ullam
Rem gigni patitur, nisi morte adiuta aliena.
AEneadum genetrix, hominum divomque voluptas,
Alma Venus, caeli subter labentia signa
Quae mare navigerum, quae terras frugiferentis
Concelebras; per te quoniam genus omne animantum
Concipitur, visitque exortum lumina solis:
Te, dea, te fugiunt venti, te nubila caeli,
Adventumque tuum: tibi suaves daedala tellus
Submittit flores; tibi rident aequora ponti,
Placatumque nitet diffuso lumine caelum.
Nam simul ac species patefactast verna diei,
Et reserata viget genitabilis aura favoni;
Aeriae primum volucres te, diva, tuumque
Significant initum, perculsae corda tua vi.
Te sociam studeo scribendis versibus esse....
Quo magis aeternum da dictis, diva, leporem:
Effice, ut interea fera moenera militiai
Per maria ac terras omnes sopita quiescant....
Nam neque nos agere hoc patriai tempore iniquo
Possumus aequo animo, nec Memmi clara propago
Talibus in rebus communi desse saluti....
Sed tua me virtus tamen, et sperata voluptas
Suavis amicitiae, quemvis sufferre laborem
Suadet, et inducit noctes vigilare serenas,
Quaerentem, dictis quibus et quo carmine demum
Clara tuae possim praepandere lumina menti.
Omnia debet enim cibus integrare novando,
Et fulcire cibus, cibus omnia sustentare.
Sic igitur magni quoque circum moenia mundi
Expugnata dabunt labem putrisque ruinas....
Iamque caput quassans grandis suspirat arator
Crebrius incassum manuum cecidisse laborem:
Et cum tempora temporibus praesentia confert
Praeteritis, laudat fortunas saepe parentis,...
Nec tenet, omnia paulatim tabescere et ire
Ad capulum, spatio aetatis defessa vetusto.
Inter se prostrati in gramine molli
Propter aquae rivum, sub ramis arboris altae,
Non magnis opibus iucunde corpora curant:
Praesertim cum tempestas arridet, et anni
Tempa conspergunt viridantis floribus herbas.
Iam nec spes animi credula mutui...
Sed cur, heu! Ligurine, cur
Manat rara meas lacrima per genas?
Here we have the programme of a new philosophy. Things are to be
understood by their uses or purposes, not by their elements or
incubus, a guardian angel, or a devil that possessed it. The
salvation; all three being really episodes in a historical drama,
indifference that would have astonished the Hindoos.
So interpreted, sacred history acquired for the philosopher a new
allegiance to such things as justice and humanity.
To betray or resist these divine rights, or to confound them, was
commonwealth--is now obvious to the idealist, the socialist, the
On the other hand, the sting of Dante's private wrongs, like the
Of this Platonic expansion of emotion, till it suffuses all that
A mind persuaded that it lives among things that, like words, are
In a letter which tradition assigns to Dante, addressed to his
considered simply as a fact. But if the work is understood in its
terrible, and consoling of all possible truths.
hornets into a belated activity
faction by perpetual gaping wounds and horrible mutilations.
convinced that there is perfect harmony in the universe. On this
straightforward faith and simplicity of his age he devours these
filled; they, enlarged, to the limits of human imagination, the
habitations and destinies of mankind. Although the saints did not
market-place, or into the council-chamber of some factious
_condottiere_. The passages--such as those about Boniface and
evidently his greatest task.
Dante fulfilled this task, of course under special conditions and
Plato, _Phaedo_,97B-99C, Jowett's translation. I have
changed the rendering of [Greek: _Nous_ from "mind" to "reason."]
Fiorenza dentro dalla cerchia antica...
Si stava in pace, sobria e pudica.
Non avea catenella, non corona,
Non donne contigiate, non cintura
Che fosse a veder pin che la persona.
Non faceva nascendo ancor paura
La figlia al padre, che il tempo e la dote
Non fuggan quinci e quindi la misura.
Non avea case di famiglia vote;
Non v'era giunto ancor Sardanapalo
A mostrar cio che in camera si puote....
O fortunate! Ciascuna era certa
Delia sua sepoltura, ed ancor nulla
Era per Francia nel letto deserta.
L' una vegghiava a studio della culla,
E consolando usava l' idioma
Che prima i padri e le madri trastulla;
L' altra traendo alia rocca la chioma,
Favoleggiava con la sua famiglia
Volgeva il mio disiro e il _velle,_
Si come rota ch' egualmente e mossa,
L' amor che move il sole e l' altre stelle.
Le belle membra in ch' io
Rinchiusa fui, e sono in terra sparte.
 _Schermo della veritade_,--natural philosophy.
Or perche mai non puo dalla salute
Amor del suo suggetto volger viso,
Dall' odio proprio son le cose tute:
E perche intender non si puo diviso,
E per se stante, alcuno esser dal primo,
Da quello odiare ogni affetto e deciso.
Questi sciaurati, che mai non fur vivi,
Erano ignudi e stimolati molto
Da mosconi e da vespe ch' erano ivi.
Semo perduti, e sol di tanto offesi
Che senza speme vivemo in disio.
"State contenti, umana gente, al _quia_;
Che se potuto aveste veder tutto,
Mestier non era partorir Maria;
E disiar vedeste senza frutto
Tai, che sarebbe lor disio quetato,
Ch' eternalmente e dato lor per lutto.
Io dico d' Aristotele e di Plato,
E di molti altri." E qui chino la fronte;
E piu non disse, e rimase turbato.
E pronti sono a trapassar lo rio,
Che la divina giustizia gli sprona
Si che la tema si volge in disio.
Della mondizia sol voler fa prova,
Che, tutta libera a mutar convento,
L' alma sorprende, e di voler le giova....
Ed io che son giaciuto a questa doglia
Cinquecento anni e piu, pur mo sentii
Libera volonta di miglior soglia.
"O Capaneo, in cio che non s' ammorza
La tua superbia, se' tu piu punito:
Nullo martirio, fuor che la tua rabbia,
Sarebbe al tuo furor dolor compito."
Dante, pourquoi dis-tu qu'il n'est pire misere
Qu'un souvenir heureux dans les jours de douleur?
Quel chagrin t'a dicte cette parole amere,
Cette offense au malheur?
... Ce blaspheme vante ne vient pas de ton coeur.
Un souvenir heureux est peut-etre sur terre
Plus vrai que le bonheur....
Et c'est a ta Francoise, a ton ange de gloire,
Que tu pouvais donner ces mots a prononcer,
Elle qui s'interrompt, pour conter son histoire,
D'un eternel baiser!
"Se disiassimo esser piu superne,
Foran discordi li nostri disiri
Dal voler di colui che qui ne cerne,...
E la sua volontate e nostra pace;
Ella e quel mare al qual tutto si move
Cio ch' ella crea, e che natura face."
Chiaro mi fu allor com' ogni dove
In cielo e Paradiso, e si la grazia
Del sommo ben d' un modo non vi piove.
Col viso ritornai per tutte e quante
Le sette spere, e vidi questo globo
Tal, ch' io sorrisi del suo vil sembiante;
E quel consiglio per migliore approbo
Che l' ha per meno; e chi ad altro pensa
Chiamar si puote veramente probo.
Now _Faust_ is the foam on the top of two great waves of human
journey, and we have to divine the goal.
Goethe is a romantic poet; he is a novelist in verse. He is a
This legend purported to offer a terrible and edifying example, a
melodrama, that sends him shrieking to hell.
What makes Marlowe's conclusion the more violent and the more
unphilosophical is the fact that, to any one not dominated by
_O Faustus, lay that damned book aside,_
_And gaze not on it lest it tempt thy soul,_
_And heap God's heavy wrath upon thy head._
_Read, read, the Scriptures; that is blasphemy...._
_Sweet Faustus, think of heaven, and heavenly things._
To which the evil angel replies:
_No, Faustus, think of honour and of wealth._
And in another place:
_Go forward, Faustus, in that famous art,_
_Wherein all nature's treasure is contained._
_Be thou on earth as Jove is in the sky,_
_Lord and commander of these elements._
_Was this the face that launched a thousand ships_
_And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?_
Such was the legend that, to the great good fortune of mankind,
unintellectual, insatiable Faust. He thinks, like many another
philosopher of feeling, that since his is a part of the sum of
philosophy. The changes, however, are more in expression than in
_Ein Teil von jener Kraft_
_Die stets das Boese will, und stets das Gute schafft--_
If he admitted the other interpretation, he would be _ipso facto_
Earth-Spirit as much as man; man has no special dignity that
Such is the spirit, and such are the conditions, in which Faust
possible.
simplicity and heartiness which might find even drunken gaiety
This is the end of Faust's career through the world of private
existence. Fitter for our eyes the waterfall over against it, the
_Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass,_
_Stains the white radiance of eternity,_
_Until death tramples it to fragments._
This death, however, is itself unstable. The Lucretian Venus, by
This is Goethe's theory of rejuvenation and immortality. It is
idealized, or as the robbers of Schiller.
The next turn in Faust's fortunes actually finds him a trader, a
Faust regrets this accident; but it is one of those inevitable
Meantime, his end is approaching. The smoke from that poor little
triumphantly.
imputed to it as a whole; divine love accepts it as sufficient;
mountain,--Sinai, Carmel, or Athos,--each in his little cave or
feminine, as Goethe calls it--draws life on from stage to stage.
Mephistopheles, do have other philosophies on top of their
grounded. Such outlooks, such vistas into nature, are scattered
bewildered.
Ich bin nur durch die Welt gerannt;
Ein jed' Geluest ergriff ich bei den Haaren,
Was nicht genuegte, liess ich fahren,
Was mir entwischte, liess ich ziehn.
Ich habe nur begehrt und nur vollbracht
Und abermals gewuenscht und so mit Macht
Mein Leben durchgestuermt; erst gross und maechtig,
Nun aber geht es weise, geht bedaechtig.
Welch Schauspiel! aber, ach! ein Schauspiel nur!
Wo fass' ich dich, unendliche Natur?
Du, Geist der Erde, bist mir naeher;
Schon fuehl' ich meine Kraefte hoeher,
Schon glueh' ich wie von neuem Wein;
Ich fuehle Mut, mich in die Welt zu wagen,
Der Erde Weh, der Erde Glueck zu tragen,...
Mit Stuermen mich herumzuschlagen
Und in des Schiffbruchs Knirschen nicht zu zagen.
Hab' ich mich niemals gern befangen.
Am meisten lieb' ich mir die vollen, frischen Wangen.
Fuer einen Leichnam bin ich nicht zu Haus;
Mir geht es, wie der Katze mit der Maus....
Von Sonn' und Welten weiss ich nichts zu sagen,
Ich sehe nur, wie sich die Menschen plagen.
Staub soll er fressen, und mit Lust.
Es irrt der Mensch, so lang' er strebt.
Ein guter Mensch in seinem dunkeln Drange
Ist sich des rechten Weges wohl bewusst.
Ja! diesem Sinne bin ich ganz ergeben.
Das ist der Weisheit letzter Schluss:
Nur der verdient sich Freiheit wie das Leben,
Der taeglich sie erobern muss.
Des Menschen Thaetigkeit kann allzu leicht erschlaffen,
Er liebt sich bald die unbedingte Ruh;
Drum geb' ich gem ihm den Gesellen zu,
Der reizt und wirkt und muss als Teufel schaffen.
Das Werdende, das ewig wirkt und lebt,
Umfass' euch mit der Liebe holden Schranken,
Und was in schwankender Erscheinung schwebt,
Befestiget mit dauernden Gedanken!
Erhabner Geist, du gabst mir, gabst mir alles,
Warum ich bat. Du hast mir nicht umsonst
Dein Angesicht im Feuer zugewendet....
O, dass dem Menschen nichts Vollkommnes wird,
Empfind' ich nun. Du gabst zu dieser Wonne,
Die mich den Goettern nah und naeher bringt,
Ich bin der Geist, der stets verneint!
Und das mit Recht; denn alles, was entsteht,
Ist wert, dass es zu Grunde geht;,
Drum besser waer's, dass nichts entstuende....
Ich bin ein Teil des Teils, der anfangs alles war,
Ein Teil der Finsternis, die sich das Licht gebar....
Was sich dem Nichts entgegenstellt,
Das Etwas, diese plumpe Welt,
So viel als ich schon unternommen,
Ich wusste nicht ihr beizukommen....
Wie viele hab' ich schon begraben!
Und immer cirkuliert ein neues, frisches Blut.
So geht es fort, man moechte rasend werden!
Eilet, we sie helfen kann;
Ob er heilig, ob er boese,
Alles kann der Edle leisten,
Der versteht und rasch ergreift.
The whole scene will repay study.
Des Lebens Fackel wollten wir entzuenden,
Ein Feuermeer umschlingt uns, welch ein Feuer!...
So bleibe denn die Sonne mir im Ruecken!
Der Wassersturz, das Felsenriff durchbrausend,
Ihn schau' ich an mit wachsendem Entzuecken....
Allein wie herrlich, diesem Sturm erspriessend,
Wolbt sich des bunten Bogens Wechseldauer,...
Der spiegelt ab das menschliche Bestreben....
Am farbigen Abglanz haben wir das Leben.
Ins hohe Meer werd' ich hinausgewiesen,...
Zu neuen Sphaeren reiner Thaetigkeit....
Hier ist es Zeit, durch Thaten zu beweisen,
Dass Manneswuerde nicht der Goetterhoehe weicht,...
Zu diesem Schritt sich heiter zu entschliessen
Und war' es mit Gefahr, ins Nichts dahin zu fliessen.
 _Faust_, Part ii. Act iv., _Hochgebirg_: The first monologue.
 _Faust_, Part i, Act ii., _Anmutige Gegend_:
Du, Erde,... regst und ruehrst ein kraftiges Beschliessen
Zum hoechsten Dasein immerfort zu streben.
 _Faust_, Part ii. Act iv., _Hochgebirg_:
Erstaunenswuerdiges soll geraten,
Ich fuehle Kraft zu kuehnem Fleiss.
Herrschaft gewinn' ich, Eigentum!
Die That ist alles, nichts der Ruhm.
Da wagt mein Geist, sich selbst zu ueberfliegen;
Hier moecht' ich kaempfen, dies moecht' ich besiegen.
Es kann die Spur von meinen Erdetagen
Nicht in Aeonen untergehn.
 _Faust_, Part ii. Act iv., _Hochgebirg_:
Wer befehlen soll
Muss im Befehlen Seligkeit empfinden.
Ihm ist die Brust von hohem Willen voll,
Doch was er will, es darf's kein Mensch ergruenden.
Ich bin nur durch die Welt gerannt:
Ein jed' Geluest ergriff ich bei den Haaren,
Was nicht genuegte, liess ich fahren,
Was mich entwischte, liess ich ziehn.
Solch ein Gewimmel moecht ich sehn,
Auf freiem Grund mit freiem Volke stehn.
Zum Augenblicke duerft' ich sagen:
Verweile doch, du bist so schoen!
Wer immer strebend sich bemueht,
Den konnen wir erloesen.
Wir wurden frueh entfernt
Doch dieser hat gelernt,
Er wird uns lehren.
Noch hab' ich mich ins Freie nicht gekaempft.
Koennt ich Magie von meinem Pfad entfernen,
Die Zaubersprueche ganz und gar verlernen,
Stuend' ich, Natur, vor dir ein Mann allein.
Da waer's der Muehe wert, ein Mensch zu sein.
Hier wird's Ereignis;
Hier ist es gethan;
Zieht uns hinan.
Mich treibt umher ein unbezwinglich Sehnen;
Da bleibt kein Rat als grenzenlose Thraenen....
Und so das Herz erleichtert merkt behende
Dass es noch lebt und schlaegt und moechte schlagen,...
Da fuehlte sich--o, dass es ewig bliebe!--
Des Menschen Leben ist ein aehnliches Gedicht;
Es hat wohl einen Anfang, hat ein Ende,
Allein ein Ganzes ist es nicht.
illusion here. Dante's, idea of nature is not genuine; it is not
prearranged drama, with Judea and Rome for its chief theatre.
Obviously, what would be desirable, what would constitute a truly