Missing Words
Sometimes, I find it remarkable how entropy works in the minds of men. Whether it is laziness, or a shying away from duty, or an aversion to the unpleasant or dissonant, men will delete, expunge, elide, abbreviate and distort. I shall give two examples from relatively well-known pieces of literature.
I:
Be Thou my Breastplate, my Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.
This third verse of the 8th-century Irish hymn, Be Thou My Vision, is hardly ever sung today. Perhaps the modern eye shies away from 'breastplate', obsessed as the modern mind is with prudery; perhaps it is the violence implied in the first line. Who knows? But as the middle verse of the hymn, it is intended to be the 'hinge' of the work. Without it, the transition from second verse ('Thou my great Father') to fourth ('Thou mine Inheritance') is jarring. Then again, you never know what you've missed if you have never had it.
II:
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Another third verse. Apparently, only the Marines sing this verse anymore at all, these days. In fact, from what I've seen, only the first verse of The Star-Spangled Banner is sung during most national-level events in the United States. I suspect it's because some of the words of the second verse seem so... covert.
On the shore, dimly seen thro' the mist of the deep
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
What indeed?
I:
Be Thou my Breastplate, my Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.
This third verse of the 8th-century Irish hymn, Be Thou My Vision, is hardly ever sung today. Perhaps the modern eye shies away from 'breastplate', obsessed as the modern mind is with prudery; perhaps it is the violence implied in the first line. Who knows? But as the middle verse of the hymn, it is intended to be the 'hinge' of the work. Without it, the transition from second verse ('Thou my great Father') to fourth ('Thou mine Inheritance') is jarring. Then again, you never know what you've missed if you have never had it.
II:
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Another third verse. Apparently, only the Marines sing this verse anymore at all, these days. In fact, from what I've seen, only the first verse of The Star-Spangled Banner is sung during most national-level events in the United States. I suspect it's because some of the words of the second verse seem so... covert.
On the shore, dimly seen thro' the mist of the deep
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
What indeed?
etched with acid at 4:24:00 pm
5 Comments:
Hmm perhaps the US should consider singing the second verse more to fit into their whole "anti-terror" thing.. I can already imagine people proclaiming that that which is concealed and disclosed is like internal dissidence.
Interestingly, after the release of the S3 booklet, I recalled that a certain Italian became powerful because the Italians wanted a "strong government" (coughs) and that certain Italian once claimed that propaganda must be aimed at the lowest intellectual level of the spectrum that it intends to reach. (cough cough)
=)
Honestly, I've no idea why the third verse of Be Thou My Vision is hardly sung. In fact, there's no reason for it to be.
in days of yore, from western shore...
I find it remarkable too, the way entropy works in the minds of men - things get more and more complicated, and then we self-organise. Chaos theory at work! =) and when we do a really really good job of it, this self-organisation can occasionally lead to revelation and genius. and of course, more entropy as a result of this genius, as the whole world is once again thrown into confusion, revolution as a result of revelation e.g. einstein and his theory of relativity.
and thus the cycle continues. =)
ahhh the laws of thermodynamics.
and chaos theory should be a law. (notice how that rhmyes) ;).
"Nature and Nature's Laws were hid in Night;
God said, 'Let Newton be!' and all was light.
'Twas not to last: the Devil, shouting, 'Ho!
Let Einstein be!' restored the status quo."
IMO, the other verses of the Star Spangled Banner are a bit unwieldy as an anthem ... but I think removing verse 3 is unjustifiable (I mean, Paul's letter about putting on the armour of God is rather similar in tone.)
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