tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post5697715847451060476..comments2024-02-11T03:50:53.613-05:00Comments on Counterlight's Peculiars: Despairing of the RepublicUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-85702444876704949612009-12-14T11:10:56.521-05:002009-12-14T11:10:56.521-05:00I remember old Robinson Jeffers. I'm not fami...I remember old Robinson Jeffers. I'm not familiar with the poem, but then I'm not a poetry maven.<br />Thanks for bringing it to my attention.<br /><br />It's a great poem. I've always said that the other aspect to decadence is something new struggling to be born.<br />The American Empire is indeed in decline, and I hope that thing struggling to be born is a renewed American Republic. I'm very afraid of what else might be struggling to be born out of the decay.Counterlighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14345956180434795401noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-70229037709504199322009-12-14T10:41:27.267-05:002009-12-14T10:41:27.267-05:00Puts me in mind of the (now) old poem by Robinson ...Puts me in mind of the (now) old poem by Robinson Jeffers:<br /><br />While this America settles in the mould of its vulgarity, heavily thickening <br />to empire <br />And protest, only a bubble in the molten mass, pops and sighs out, and the <br />mass hardens, <br />I sadly smiling remember that the flower fades to make fruit, the fruit rots <br />to make earth. <br />Out of the mother; and through the spring exultances, ripeness and decadence; <br />and home to the mother. <br />You making haste haste on decay: not blameworthy; life is good, be it stubbornly <br />long or suddenly <br />A mortal splendor: meteors are not needed less than mountains: <br />shine, perishing republic. <br />But for my children, I would have them keep their distance from the thickening <br />center; corruption <br />Never has been compulsory, when the cities lie at the monster's feet there <br />are left the mountains. <br />And boys, be in nothing so moderate as in love of man, a clever servant, <br />insufferable master. <br />There is the trap that catches noblest spirits, that caught – they say – <br />God, when he walked on earth. <br /><br />As a kid I was shocked to read this--America declining????<br /><br />As an adult I'm a little more shocked that it made it into a textbook approved for me as a kid. I wonder if it's still read?rick allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07612435616018593956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-27872166324403181092009-12-13T22:51:29.856-05:002009-12-13T22:51:29.856-05:00Amen to those words. Thanks for the reminder of t...Amen to those words. Thanks for the reminder of the man he was.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01203286781888444548noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-60170230405454648362009-12-13T15:35:59.174-05:002009-12-13T15:35:59.174-05:00That's the Gospel, if I ever heard it. Thanks ...That's the Gospel, if I ever heard it. Thanks for posting it --I needed this too.it's margarethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13577280471100732619noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-72540968784531490092009-12-13T10:24:51.309-05:002009-12-13T10:24:51.309-05:00Great words by a great man! but then there is alwa...Great words by a great man! but then there is always us...Göran Koch-Swahnehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00925549945659350649noreply@blogger.com