Sitting here sipping my “Well, Yes,” Campbell’s Tomato and Sweet Basil Soup with generous portions of Kraft’s Parmesan cheese, I remembered what someone said that Martin Luther had said about certain kinds of wayward thoughts: “You can’t stop the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building nests in your hair.” Whether Luther said that or not, I have found it a useful, helpful bit of advice, frequently.
Not Quite Sane
My mind is chaotic, disordered and grim,
Full of dark thoughts and doubts about Him.
My mind is chaotic, never silent or still;
Thoughts appear quickly, not guided by will.
Random, they ricochet off unseen walls,
Tumble down dark, unforgiving long halls.
My mind is chaotic, familiar, unkind;
But only to me, all others are blind.
Or,
Only Too Sane
I can almost remember the final lines of Alexander Pope’s Dunciad:
“Thy hands great anarch let the curtain fall,
And universal darkness covers all.”
The rhythm is iambic pentameter, at least, but memory plays tricks with verse. For example,
is it perhaps, really “buries all”? Hmm. I shall try to remember to check. “Covers” goes nicely with “curtain.” Is it hands or hand? Oh dear. Pope is so wonderfully quotable.
Okay! There were apparently two copies of the poem. The first edition contained these lines:
“She comes! The Cloud-compelling Pow’r, behold!
With Night Primeval, and with Chaos old.
Lo! the great Anarch’s ancient reign restor’d,
Light dies before her uncreating word:….
Thy hand great Dulness! Let’s the curtain fall,
And universal Darkness covers all….” (Book 3: 337-340; 355-356)
However, the second edition adds a book:
”Lo! thy dread Empire, Chaos! Is restored;
Light dies before thy uncreating word:
Thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall;
And universal Darkness buries All.” (Book 4: 653-656)
The Twickenham Edition of the Poems of Alexander Pope: The Dunciad. Ed. By James Sutherland. Third Edition. London, 1963.
What fun they must have had reading it in Pope’s time, the early 18th century. Perhaps our times call for such a work, given the nature of the university situation now, political correctness and “Black Lives Matter.”
Hmm, the formatting seems to be off, though I don’t know what to do about it.
Triumph of Death, Pieter Bruegel the Elder