Here's your Daily Poem from the Poetry Chaikhana --
 | The Higher Pantheism By Alfred Tennyson
The sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the hills and the plains --
 / Photo by tourist_on_earth / |
| ============ Thought for the Day: Don't make every new minute ============ | Here's your Daily Music selection --  Chloe Goodchild Sura |
Hi Omss -
I'm back. I didn't send out poems on Friday or Monday, but what do you think of today's poem by Tennyson?
This is a poem worth reading aloud, several times. Listen to the rhythm and rhyme. Only once you've danced about with the words should you then let the meaning sift in.
Each couplet is rich with inner insight...
The sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the hills and the plains --
Are not these, O Soul, the Vision of Him who reigns?
I think here the Romantics got it right: To ignore the natural world or merely dominate it, only blinds us. It is when we learn to see the living world that we glimpse the underlying Reality. This is Tennyson's "Higher Pantheism" -- that the Divine is not somehow separate or apart from creation; the Divine is revealed through the living world.
The material world is sometimes seen as a mask or a veil that obscures the Eternal. True enough, but here's the funny thing about masks-- they not only hide, they also reveal the contours of the face behind it.
Tennyson invites us to look well, and catch the gleaming eyes peering out through the mask.
Dark is the world to thee: thyself art the reason why;
For is He not all but thou, that hast power to feel 'I am I'?
The world seems like an obstruction only because we ourselves -- the false projected self of the ego -- stand in the way of clear seeing. When we recognize our true Self, that which knows "I am I" a stillness and clarity of awareness results. The world is no longer seen as dark and dense and separated, but as an enlightened, interwoven whole.
Glory about thee, without thee; and thou fulfillest thy doom,
Making Him broken gleams, and a stifled splendour and gloom.
The world all around us -- and through us -- is filled with a radiant glory, but too often we don't see it. Instead of seeing that shining wholeness, the mind inserts itself into the vision and breaks it apart, dims it, stifles it so the ego can remain unchallenged by something brighter and bigger than itself.
A few thoughts.
==
Alfred, Lord Tennyson was probably the most prominent English poet of the Victorian era. He gained immense fame and renown in his own lifetime.
Alfred Tennyson was born in Lincolnshire, the fourth of twelve children. His father was a bitter clergyman, an alcoholic and drug addict, creating a dark, tense atmosphere in Alfred's upbringing.
Addiction and nervous disorders ran through the family. Two of Alfred Tennyson's siblings were institutionalized for erratic behaviors and addictions. It's said that all of the Tennyson children had at least one mental breakdown.
Alfred Tennyson began writing poetry at a young age, as did several of his brothers and sisters, as a way to find freedom from their dark home atmosphere.
Yet, despite such a difficult upbringing, Tennyson experienced ecstatic states of spiritual transcendence which he described as "a kind of waking trance -- this for lack of a better word -- I have frequently had, quite up from boyhood, when I have been all alone... All at once, as it were out of the intensity of the consciousness of individuality, the individuality itself seemed to dissolve and fade away into boundless being, and this not a confused state but the clearest, the surest of the surest... utterly beyond words -- where death was an almost laughable impossibility, the loss of personality (if so it were) seeming no extinction, but the only true life." These "trances" continued throughout his life.
His first collection of poetry was published before he was 18.
Alfred Tennyson attended university at Cambridge. There he made friends easily, where he was admired for his intelligence, his skill as a writer, for his sense of humor, and for his good looks. This was an especially happy time in the young poet's life.
During this time he became close friends with a brilliant student named Arthur Henry Hallam. Hallam later became engaged to Tennyson's younger sister, but the wedding was put off until Hallam completed his studies.
Alfred Tennyson had to abandon his studies when his father died. He refused a position in the church pressed on him by his grandfather. Living in virtual poverty on a small allowance given to him by an aunt, he determined to make his way as a poet. This was a period of great struggle for the young poet. His published poetry received brutal notices from the literary critics.
Then Hallam, Alfred's close friend, died unexpectedly while traveling in Vienna. Hallam's death, mixed in with his other life struggles, created a spiritual crisis for Alfred Tennyson. His mood and hopes collapsed. He refused to publish his poetry for nearly ten years, though he continued to write. Tennyson began an itinerant period of heavy drinking and staying with his widowed mother or with friends in London.
His friends, worried about him, finally convinced him to publish his poems again, and the resulting two volume Poems, was received with unexpectedly high praise. Alfred Tennyson was suddenly considered one of the rising stars of his generation of poets.
Subsequent publications further increased his notoriety and restored his finances. His collection of elegies to his dead friend Hallam In Memoriam lifted him to the position of the preeminent poet of his day.
Feeling that his life was on track once again, he married. His wife took over much of the day-to-day business of home and finances, freeing Tennyson to focus on his writing.
Because of his prominence, Tennyson was invited to court and he became a close friend to Queen Victoria. Tennyson succeeded Wordsworth as poet laureate. Later, after several refusals, he allowed himself to be created a baron, no longer Alfred Tennyson, but Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
The Victorian romanticism of Tennyson's poetry doesn't always match modern tastes. The language and imagery can be florid. Ideals of military heroism are often romanticized. His poetry gives voice to an imperial culture trying to rediscover what is most noble within its own identity, while at other times it serves as a reminder to reconnect with the living world of nature. Through it all, like his "trances," Tennyson's poetry uncovers moments of stillness and transcendence and underlying unity... with rhymes and turns of phrase that gently coax the awareness to follow.
Ivan
Share Your Thoughts on today's poem or my commentary...
Support the Poetry Chaikhana |
| Donations to the Poetry Chaikhana in any amount are always welcome. Thank you! |  Click here | You can also support the Poetry Chaikhana, as well as the authors and publishers of sacred poetry, by purchasing some of the recommended books through the links on this site. Thank you! | |
| A small amount each month makes a big difference. Become a voluntary Subscriber for just $2/mo. | |||
| Help the Poetry Chaikhana reach more people. Become a Supporter for just $10/mo. |
| Poetry Chaikhana Home Poetry Chaikhana |
Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2010 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or publishers.
============
Plain Text: If you have any difficulty reading this HTML formatted email, please let me know and I can send you plain text emails instead.
Friday Only: If you want to receive only one poem email each week, reply to this email and change the Subject to "Friday Only".
Canceling: If you wish to stop receiving this Daily Poem email from the Poetry Chaikhana, simply reply to this email and change the Subject to "Cancel".
No comments:
Post a Comment