Musing on poems 시 음미하기

        (written in 2003)

 A long time ago, I enjoyed reading and studying poetry. I also published two collections of bilingual poems written by myself in the 1990s. However, I forgot stylistic techniques like iambic tetrametre, rhythm, rhyme scheme, blank verse, etc. I don't remember many things that I was eager to learn. What is left with me is sensibility and compassion. Especially since I entered my congregation, there is not enough time to enjoy and muse on poetry. Of course, I keep writing, but I feel it's not enough.

 Then, I received a book entitled "The Poetry and Art of William Blake" from my former professor, who published this book on the occasion of his retirement at Hannam University early this year. Being a humanist by himself with firm purpose and ideals, he dedicated his whole life to his students while teaching English poems. His majors were William Blake and Romanticism. Reading through that book, a flood of memories came back to my life. William Blake truly wanted,

 

"To see a world in a grain of sand

And a Heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And Eternity in an hour."

 

That's exactly what I want here and now. William Blake(1757-1827), a mystic poet and artist, saw God looking through the window in a vision at age 4. At age 18, he again saw angels sitting on the branches of a tree. Such imagination, vision, freedom, and mysticism were his codes of writing and painting. He wrote his poems on the songs of Innocence and Experiences to sew the "two contrary states of the human soul".

 The main source of his writing was the Bible, especially Genesis, John, and Revelation. He confessed that the Hebrew Bible and the Gospels of Jesus were not allegories but eternal visions or imaginations of all that exists. He also said that the "Old and New Testament are the great code of art." The tree of life and mystery were his favorite topics. Making use of his imagination, he combined mysticism and symbolism to bring about the marriage of heaven and hell, innocence and experience, childhood and manhood, eternity and the fall as in his poems, "The Lamb" and "The Tiger".

  Thomas De Quincey once distinguished the literature of knowledge and the literature of power. The literature of knowledge is that of technology and science while the literature of power is that of empowering humans, fundamental emotion, and sensibility. The Bible surely belongs to the power of literature. The Bible has influenced the world with great inner power. It pervades all literature. Nothing can substitute it. It's interesting to see that William Blake knew that the Bible has such power.

 Among his poems, "Infant Joy" tells the simple joy of an innocent world where everybody is equal, free, and natural:

 

"Infant Joy"

 

"I have no name:

"I am but two days old."

What shall I call thee?

"I happy am,

"Joy is my name."

Sweet joy befall thee!

 

Pretty joy!

Sweet joy but two days old.

Sweet joy I call thee:

Thou dost smile,

I sing the while,

Sweet joy befall thee!

 

In comparison with this pure world, he pointed out the world filled with the "sick rose":

 

"Sick Rose"

 

"O Rose, thou art sick,

 The invisible worm

 That flies in the night

 In the howling storm

 

 Has found out thy bed

 Of crimson joy,

 And his dark secret love

 Does thy life destroy."

 

Realizing our inner sickness, we shall have to look for something lofty as the following poem, "Ah Sun-flower" expresses:

 

"Ah Sun-flower"

 

Ah Sun-flower! weary of time,

Who countest the steps of the Sun,

Seeking after that sweet golden clime

Where the traveler's journey is done;

 

Where the youth pined away with desire,

And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow,

Arise from their graves and aspire,

Where my Sun-flower wishes to go.

 The Korea Times/ Thoughts of the Times/ Sept. 20, 2003