Please reply to this post to answer Question 3 of "The Art of Poetry".
In the last stanza, what do parts such as "a mirror to the same" and "inconstant Heraclitus" mean, and what does the stanza mean as a whole? (Heraclitus, by the way, was a Greek philosopher.)
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Please reply to this post to answer Question 2 of "The Art of Poetry".
Ulysses was the Roman name of the famous hero in The Odyssey, and Ithaca was the place which he ruled. Why do you think Borges mentions these, and why does he call art "a green eternity, not wonders"? Please reply to this post to answer Question 1 of "The Art of Poetry".
In the first four stanzas, Borges begins each with "To...". Do you think there is any significance in this repetition? Also, choose one of these first four stanzas and tell what you think it means. This poem by Borges is called "The Art of Poetry".
To gaze at a river made of time and water And remember Time is another river. To know we stray like a river and our faces vanish like water. To feel that waking is another dream that dreams of not dreaming and that the death we fear in our bones is the death that every night we call a dream. To see in every day and year a symbol of all the days of man and his years, and convert the outrage of the years into a music, a sound, and a symbol. To see in death a dream, in the sunset a golden sadness--such is poetry, humble and immortal, poetry, returning, like dawn and the sunset. Sometimes at evening there's a face that sees us from the deeps of a mirror. Art must be that sort of mirror, disclosing to each of us his face. They say Ulysses, wearied of wonders, wept with love on seeing Ithaca, humble and green. Art is that Ithaca, a green eternity, not wonders. Art is endless like a river flowing, passing, yet remaining, a mirror to the same inconstant Heraclitus, who is the same and yet another, like the river flowing. Discussion Questions 1. In the first four stanzas, Borges begins each with "To...". Do you think there is any significance in this repetition? Also, choose one of these first four stanzas and tell what you think it means. 2. Ulysses was the Roman name of the famous hero in The Odyssey, and Ithaca was the place which he ruled. Why do you think Borges mentions these, and why does he call art "a green eternity, not wonders"? 3. In the last stanza, what do parts such as "a mirror to the same" and "inconstant Heraclitus" mean, and what does the stanza mean as a whole? (Heraclitus, by the way, was a Greek philosopher.) | JLB Poem BlogHere is the page where poems by Borges can be discussed. Please reply to the posts concerning the poem. Categories |
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