Dear Listers,
Here are some
(tentative?) observations I'd like to share with you. To
me:
1. The protagonist looks at the world through a
Christian lens --
2. He is critical of the prevailing
social scenario which to him is antagonistic to the values he
cherishes --
3. To him there is no forgiveness for the
impudent crimes perpetrated through human history by human vanity
and greed -- our sins, however, pave the way for our virtues, the
hard way, though --
4. He likes to believe that death is
not the end of all -- even if life has been to him a saga of
dismal failures --
5. He has not been able to escape the
corruptions of life -- despite his faith in the Incarnation of the
Word and his detestation of the world's departure from the Word --
6. BUT, Death & destruction await all -- those who sin
in ignorance and those who sin in knowledge --
7. The
Trades -- trade winds, winds of flux & change, or whatever --
bring about an end to life -- bring death among mankind, as they
say --
8. The Trades drives G to a sleepy corner
--
9. And whatever view one may take of G's final state --
call it utter vacancy of thought -- or cynical disillusion -- it
remains an existential trauma/tragedy --
10. The monologue
is an expression of this angst of a modern man --
We may
call it a tragedy of inaction -- to me it is a counterpart of the
classical tragedy of action -- it's not drama proper -- it
is poetry --
but it follows a certain curve of thought
indicated by the phrases that punctuate the
monologue.
Regards,
CR
--- On Sat, 2/20/10,
Chokh Raj <
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wrote:
> Hi!
>
> Now this should be a help
to me [I'll not have to explain
> it to myself all over
again] and to the List. I find that my
> reading of
'Gerontion' is available online at the following
> link --
please go to CONTENTS and then to 'POEMS 1920' --
> and
there it is, beginning p.49. O, I was so afraid that
> some
pages would be missing, as they generally are, but
> thank
God, it's all there quite intact.
>
>
http://books.google.com/books?id=uKXwG_4wmSQC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false>
> Please peruse it, if you like, and I hope the mighty
drama
> that rages in Gerontion's mind vis-a-vis the
ambience he
> confronts -- only to discover, most
ironically, pathetically
> & painfully that he himself
is an inalienable part of it
> -- that the antogonist he is
contending against is within
> himself, as well as without
-- he finds himself immersed in
> it irretrievably -- only
to realize the futility of
> contending against an enemy all
too mighty for him or for
> anyone else. Finally he turns
deprecatingly away from the
> ambience, and from himself, so
to say, in a state of
> detached indifference. The closing
state of "sleep" is an
> expression of utmost "vacancy" that
finds expression in the
> Four Quartets -- indicative of the
threshold of The Dark
> Night of the Soul.
>
>
The classical structure of drama outlined in the four
>
phrases that punctuate the poem should be evident too. But
>
if it is not, I suppose that can wait.
>
>
Thanks,
> CR
>
> --- On Sat, 2/20/10, Chokh
Raj <
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>
wrote:
>
> > Dear Listers,
> >
> > Please let me present the four crucial
phrases
> > again for your kind consideration -- the
first one in
> its
> > complete form:
> >
> > "an old man in a dry month, / Being
read
> > to by a boy, waiting for rain."
> >
> > "an old man, / A dull head among
> > windy
spaces."
> >
> > "An old man in a draughty
house / Under a
> > windy knob."
> >
> > "an old man driven by the Trades / To
a
> > sleepy corner."
> >
> > I
call upon you to kindly reflect on them as part of
> >
our reappraisal of the poem's structure of thought
> >
-- and you will find that the monologue points to a
>
> significant involvement of the protagonist in a
>
process of
> > thought and action . Of that
later.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
CR
> >
> >
> > --- On Fri, 2/19/10,
Chokh Raj
> > <
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>
wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
'Gerontion' - the dramatic
> > arc
> >
> > -----
> >
> > Here I
am, an old man in a
> > dry month,
[line 1]
> >
> > I an old man, / A
dull
> > head among windy spaces
[lines
> > 15-16]
> >
> >
I have no ghosts / An old man in a draughty house /
> >
Under a windy knob. [lines 30-32]
> >
> > And an old man driven by the Trades / To a
sleepy
> > corner. [lines
72-73]
> >
> > -----
> >
> > To me the monologue moves along the lines
of
> > a classical dramatic structure -- with
an
> > Exposition, a Rising Action, a Climax, and
a
> > Resolution.
> >
> >
just an observation
> >
> > CR
>
>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>