I can only hear his voice when reading or hearing "Little Gidding" and am similarly bound to associate Cavafy's "Ithaca" with this Shakespearean journey.
When you set out for Ithaca
ask that your way be long,
full of adventure, full of instruction.
The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - do not fear them:
such as these you will never find
as long as your thought is lofty, as long as a rare
emotion touch your spirit and your body.
The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - you will not meet them
unless you carry them in your soul,
unless your soul raise them up before you.
Ask that your way be long.
At many a Summer dawn to enter
with what gratitude, what joy - ports seen for the first time;
to stop at Phoenician trading
centres,
and to buy good merchandise,
mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensuous perfumes of every kind,
sensuous perfumes as lavishly as you can;
to visit many Egyptian cities,
to gather stores of knowledge from the learned.
Have Ithaka always in your mind.
Your arrival there is what you are destined for.
But don't in the least hurry the journey.
Better it last for years,
so that when you reach the island you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to give you wealth.
Ithaka gave you a spendid journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She hasn't anything else to give you.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka hasn't deceived you.
So wise you have become, of such experience,
that already you'll have understood what these Ithacas mean.
Angela Breckenridge, PhD #F Saint John Court
New Orleans, LA 70119
From: "Barker, Michael" <Michael_Barker@spe.sony.com>
To: "katey.gilligan@gmail.com" <katey.gilligan@gmail.com>; "winedale-l@lists.wikimedia.org" <winedale-l@lists.wikimedia.org>
Sent: Thu, August 19, 2010 9:11:22 AM
Subject: Re: [Winedale-l] Poetry Doc Read to Us in 1994, I Remember Now, Here's for You
Just astounding.
Thank you, Kathy.
m
From: winedale-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org
To: alums
Sent: Wed Aug 18 22:51:38 2010
Subject: [Winedale-l] Poetry Doc Read to Us in 1994, I Remember Now, Here's for You
LITTLE GIDDING
(No. 4 of 'Four Quartets')
T.S. Eliot
V
What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from. And every phrase
And sentence that is right (where every word is at home,
Taking its place to support the others,
The word neither diffident nor ostentatious,
An easy commerce of the old and the new,
The common word exact without vulgarity,
The formal word precise but not pedantic,
The complete consort dancing together)
Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a beginning,
Every poem an epitaph. And any action
Is a step to the block, to the fire, down the sea's throat
Or to an illegible stone: and that is where we start.
We die with the dying:
See, they depart, and we go with them.
We are born with the dead:
See, they return, and bring us with them.
The moment of the rose and the moment of the yew-tree
Are of equal duration. A people without history
Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern
Of timeless moments. So, while the light fails
On a winter's afternoon, in a secluded chapel
History is now and England.
With the drawing of this Love and the voice of this
Calling
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always—
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.
--
Katey Gilligan
Masters in Science
Technology Commercialization
Red McCombs School of Business
The University of Texas at Austin