Fa-So-La-La
Here is a truly excellent C.S.Lewis poem that is quickly becoming one of my favorites. Here's a bit of info to make the last stanza mean more-- The Manicheaens were an early church (200--500-ish) cult that said there were some people in the world who had special knowledge and divinity in them, and that these people spread light wherever they went (and other people were unimportant). It was very similiar to the Gnostic heresy, but with more of an emphasis on a sort of scientific mysticism.
Impenetince
All the world's wiseacres up in arms against them
Shan't detach my heart for a single moment
From the man-like beasts of the earthy stories--
Badger and Moly.
Rat the oarsmen, neat Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle,
Benjamin, pert Nutkin, or (ages older)
Henryson's shrill Mouse, or the Mice the Frogs once
Fought with in Homer.
Not that I'm so crazed as to think the creatures
Do behave that way, nor at all deluded
By some half-false sweetness of early childhood
Sharply remembered.
Look again. Look well at the beasts, the true ones.
Can't you see?. . . cool primness of cats, or coney's
Half indignant stare of amazement, mouse's
Twinkling adroitness,
Tipsy bear's rotundity, toad's complacence. . .
Why! they all cry out to be used as symbols
Masks for Man, cartoons, parodies by Nature
Formed to reveal us
Each to each, not fiercely, but in her gentlest
Vein of household laughter. And if the love so
Raised- it will no doubt- spills over on the
Actual achetypes,
Who's the worse for that? Marry, gup! Begone you
Fusty kill-joys, new Manicheaens! Here's a
Health to Toad Hall, here's to the Beaver doing
Sums with the Butcher!
Can anyone tell me what 'Henryson's shrill mouse' and 'the Mice the Frogs once Fought with in Homer' are? And I wonder if this poem or Narnia came first? There is kind of a mesh of ideas.
[The Queen elucidates helpfully: Robert Henryson was an English medieval poet who penned the tale of the town mouse and the country mouse. For more information, see: http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/morfab.htm#three
As for the Homer reference, an ancient mock epic exists, The Battle of Mice and Frogs, which is a parody of the Iliad. Many attribute it to Homer. See a translation here:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/homer/frogmice.htm
The Queen will now resume the pursuit of repose. ]
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1 comment:
Now now, while I did not remember all of this, and it does greatly add to the message of the poem, what I said is also true and does make sense! :-)
The Manichaens considered themslves the spiritual elite-- everyone else was foolish and unworthy. This poem is not only about loving 'the man-like beasts of the earthy stories' but also about loving the 'actual archtypes.' It is part of our Christian duty of love to honor even the most foolish of God's children, the Toads and Peter Rabbits, and this is somthing the snobbish Manichaens did not do. Just my perspective-- I found yours most most interesting, Bonnie Kate. Yes, I have figured out who you are! :-)
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