There's a certain Slant of light - Interpretation
From:
Jimmy George (jg-ltuil@lntecc.com)
Sent:
Tue 5/26/09 8:36 AM
To:
Thomas Samuel (tomsabb@yahoo.com)
In the first stanza, the speaker claims that on winter afternoons, the light that shines through her window has a “certain Slant” to it that “oppresses, like the Heft / Of Cathedral Tunes.”
Something as weightless as “light” feels heavy to the speaker.
The weight of “Cathedral Tunes” would be quite profound, sound being heavier than light, but to the speaker that “certain Slant” causes the light to be as heavy as that heavy sound coming from the gigantic organs that deliver church music.
Because church music is meant to be uplifting, the speaker’s words become paradoxical: how can an inspirationally uplifting hymn be oppressive?
The profundity of the “Cathedral Tunes” causes the speaker to experience a “Heavenly Hurt.” She confirms, however, that the “hurt” leaves no scar, because it is inside;
it is the soul that is affected by the oppression or “Heavenly Hurt.” The speaker says that the pain is on the inside “Where the meanings are.”
“Meaning” is very important to all human beings, whether they are yet aware of that fact or not. The speaker is keenly aware of the soul’s sensitivities to the “meanings” of physical things and events,
and she is aware that they are internal— not external.
The speaker declares that no one can teach another how to become aware of the mystical attributes of the yearning for meaning. While “Despair” leads one in that direction,
and the desire is universal, it comes to each one as simply as breathing. One’s spiritual development has to be right before one can entertain such divine cravings.
When the strong spiritual desire for understanding the nature of reality comes, everything seems to stop and listen. She speaker dramatizes that utter stillness by claiming, “Shadows—hold their breath.”
The quietness implied by “shadows holding their breath” is astounding; it is a miracle of striking awareness, undetectable to most and unceasingly secure to but a few.
Then the speaker avows that when the sense of melancholy goes, when the “[h]eavenly hurt” lightens into understanding, it is “like the Distance / On the look of Death.”
Of course, it is not death itself, but merely like the blank stare that none can fathom, save those who can distinguish that profound melancholy in the “certain Slant of light” on “Winter Afternoons—.”
There's a certain Slant of light
From:
Jimmy George (jg-ltuil@lntecc.com)
Sent: Mon 5/25/09 1:17 PM
To:
Thomas Samuel (tomsabb@yahoo.com)
Dear Thoma,
I understood this poem in totality. But "Contours of which extend in both temporal directions" is not clear.
Recently I heard from a person that there are 3 impurities (3 malams) with which normal people live: -
The illusion of the Individual as a seperate entity who sees "Others" everywhere
The illusion about "distance"
The effort we put in to overcome 'Distance"
I now understand you have overcome the 'Distance" because "the Contours extend no more to anywhere"
Your poem belongs to the class where the latent or subliminal content is small. There is nothing that might surprise the reader, or indeed the writer himself.
There is a small number of poems which, in different ways, reach beyond everyday consciousness and in Dryden's words, " move the sleeping images of things toward the light, thereby
creating meanings, not hitherto available, that can inform, strengthen and help to direct our own developing mental life."
Example:
There's a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons -
That oppresses, like the Heft
Of Cathedral Tunes -
Heavenly Hurt, it gives us -
We can find no scar,
But internal difference,
Where the meanings are -
None may teach it - Any -
' Tis the Seal Despair -
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the Air -
When it comes, the Landscape listens -
Shadows - hold their breath -
When it goes, ' tis like the Distance
On the look of Death -
The winter light "oppresses", "hurts", "afflicts", because it is transient, because the landscape it lights up is black, but above all because it is non human, an inescapable reminder of how alien is the World that we try to domesticate and humanize, whereas it goes its own ways, ineluctably, like death. This poet's reticences, where lesser poets would diffuse and defuse by explicitness, enable her to bring into consciousness some very important " internal differences" " where the Meanings are". I am afraid, your poem is explicit and the surprise element defused.
Remember, " By intuition, Mightiest Things Assert themselves - and not by terms -
The poet's deepest insights, wrung from personal experience of joy and terror, "cannot be made comprehensible to others by instruction".
Let's meditate.
Jimmy
----- Original Message -----
From: Thomas Samuel
To: Jimmy George
Sent: Sunday, May 24, 2009 10:58 AM
Subject: Re: 1 Corinthians 13
There was a flame in me
Contours of which extend in both temporal directions..
However hard I may try
To express it in words,
There was always something amiss in words
And in words alone, there is always something a miss.
I miss it no longer again
Once I have immersed myself in that flame,
Contours of which extend no more to anywhere
The fire has engulfed me
And a new alchemy has begun.
Words are props that you may do away with as you alike
From: jg-ltuil@lntecc.comTo: tomsabb@yahoo.comSubject: 1 Corinthians 13Date: Wed, 20 May 2009 18:08:11 +0530
Dear Sir,
Thought is notoriously richer, more various, less distinct than words. There is an intractability inherent in language itself to the whole quality and complexity of our intimate feelings.
It is this intractability that we in words have to wrestle with.
Verbalizing seems to be a two-sided process in which both sides are simutaneously active. On the one hand human experience includes an infinite variety of shades and patterns of feeling, attitude, desire, interest and discrimination. On the other hand language provides a vast range of subtle ways by which to refer to such experiences. When we speak or write, experience in some way merges with, and emerges in the form of patterns of language. But in some minds the language processes reflect not only the main experience, in statements that could be more or less paraphrased, but also much subtler features of the preverbal experience, and features of which the writer may have no awareness except thro' the overtones of what he finds himself writing.Even then he may well fail to notice what he has said.
It is the music of the completed poem - including of course the rhythm, corresponding to the pulsations of energy in its obscure origins - that conveys so much of its non-paraphrasable meaning.
Example:
1 Corinthians 13
The Bible
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love,I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not love,I am nothing.And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor,and though I give my body to be burned and have not love,it profith me nothing.Love suffereth long and is kind.Love envieth not.Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doeth not behave itself unseemly.Seeketh not her own.Is not easily provoked.Thinketh no evil.Rejoiceth not in inequity, but rejoiceth in the truth.Bareth all things.Believeth all things.Hopeth all things.Endureth all things.Love never fails.But where there be propheses they shall fail,whether there be tounges, they shall cease,whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.For we know in part, and we prophesy in part,but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.When I was a child I spake as a child,I understood as a child, I fought as a child,but when I became a man I put away childish things.For now we see though a glass dark plain, but then face to face.Now I know in part, but then shall I know even also as I am known.And now abideth faith, hope, love - these three, but the greatest of these is love.
This is a preamble to what I would tell you later.
Jimmy
----- Original Message -----
From: Thomas Samuel
To: Jimmy George
Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 11:08 AM
Subject: Vishnusankalpam and a little dose of Memeology
eda jimmy,
Your Vishnu Sankalpam full edition is great.
I think you write Malayalam very lucidly and I love it.
sometimes, I feel that I have lost this kind of lucidity in writing Malayalam. May be you can be my Malayalam guru...
Evolution of consciousness levels is a dynamic experience .. when we do our own soul searching helped by Gayatri Mantram or Lord's prayer, we move or levitate towards greener and greener pastures of consciousness.
But this experience is tasted in its full flavour and intensity by a few like you in my circle of friends...and I am deeply grateful to you for that.
Look at some of our friends 30 years before and now.. Can you really notice any stages awakening in them? May be there are a few cases of minor shifts of consciousness in some... But there could be some cases of major shifts as well.. Jimmy, you and I can help many others.. Do not underestimate your potential or become diffident...
Of course, both of us have little time at our disposal for such divine intercourses.. But, I think it is no excuse.. I think we need to do better justice to ourselves..
I was reading a book on Biology recently and it talks about different stages of awakening in humanity through the shifts of Memes embedded in our DNA. Memes are like genes that carry a collective blue print of our evolution in DNA.. Genes are individual imprints and memes are collective imprints..
It says that there are 8 levels of awakening in thinking of humanity..
They are:
BEIGE: If the thinking is automatic, the structures are loose bands. The process is survivalistic. The characteristics of such thinking is based on survival instincts. Distinct self is barely awakened. Food, water, safety, sex , warmth etc have priority,
These kinds of people form into survival bands to perpetuate life.
PURPLE:
If the thinking is animistic, the structures will be tribal. The process will be circular. Such people obey the desires of spirit beings and mystical signs, show allegiance to chiefs, elders, ancestors and the clan. They preserve sacred objects, palces , events, rites etc.. In South Africa even now, we have a clan of this group called Sangomas.. They believe in pleasiong spirits., we have plenty of examples in India too.
RED:
If the thinking is egocentric, the structures are empires, the process is exploitative:
This is the third awakening of humanity. The basic theme is " Be what you are and do what you want".
There are plenty of people on this planet who are RED.
their charecteristics and actions are:
The world is a jungle full of predators and threats.
Breaks free from any domination or constraints to please self as self desires
Stands tall, expects attention, demands respect, and calls the shots
Enjoys self to the fullest right now without any remorse
Aggressive
Kind of James Bond characters!
BLUE:
If the thinking is absolutistic,the structures are pyramidal. The process is authoritarian.
Most of the corporate structures are still like this.
A lot of today's mankind is in this stage of awakening.
This order enforces a code of conduct based on absolutistic principles . They believe in righteous living that produces stability and future reward.
Impulsivity of RED is controlled through guilt; everybody has their proper place. Laws, morality build the social structure.
Even Islamic fundamentalists and Churches show these characteristics.
ORANGE:
This is the 5th awakening. Here the thinking is multiplistic and the process is strategic and the structures are delegative. The basic theme of such people is " Act in your own self-interest by playing the game to win"
They believe in optimism, risk taking, self-reliance. Societies of such people prosper through strategy, technology and competitiveness..
Many reputed organizations today are embracing this awakening. There are sprouts of this awakening in my company ABB too. Many copoprate thinking people subscribe today to this awakening..
GREEN:
This is a communitarian Meme.
The thinking is realtivistic and the structures are egalitarian and the process is consensual.
There is a minority in the making now embracing this awakening.. I think I have transited through this phase in this lifetime. The basic theme is " seek peace in inner self and explore with others, the caring dimensions of the community.
Feeling, sensitivity and caring supercede cold rationality in such people. Such people reach decisions through reconciliation and consensus process.
Nelson Mandela did it in South Africa. Jimmy Carter is another example. Rahul Gandhi is awakening in this mode.. May be I am guessing.
The world is yet to see many Mandelas!
YELLOW:
If the thinking is systemic, the structures are interactive. The process is integrative. This is the 7th awakening: "Live fully and responsibly as you are and become"is the basic theme of such people. Easier said than done though!! In this, the thinking is systemic, structures are interactive and the process is integrative..
In this wakening, flexibility, functionality, spontaneity have the highest priority.
I remember a lot of instances in which three of us you , me and Thanki have exhibited this characteristics and enjoyed it fully. May be we should capture the liveliness of the moments more intesely., The only problem is that we need some stimulation from alcohol to get there.. we should transcend the alcoholism to enjoy this more intensely.. don't you agree? Such people value the magnificience of existence over material possessions.
I believe we three have something common here and we should cherish it..
I think 3 of us have come to this 7th awakening ..
TURQUOISE
This is the great awakening the 8th one.
The basic theme is " experience the wholeness of existence through mind and spirit". In this awakening, the thinking is holistic, the structures are global, the process is flowing and ecological.
Such people can feel the throbs of anything ..Earth is not just a planet for them . It is Gaia a living organism and they can feel the vibes and synchronize with it.
In quiet moments, I have got glimpses of this experience and I am getting more and more..
May be you agree with me.. Energy and information permeate the whole environment
Where will you place our friends in different stages of awakening through the 30 years. It will be interesting to know!! some of them have migrated to higher levels. Some stay put.
