I don’t understand the poem "Prayer for the Horizon" I also included it, its short so if you never read it?
PRAYER FOR THE HORIZON
I wish you, first, an unimpeded view
with a boundary in it, between seen and unseen,
a line to hold onto when you’re feeling sick,
something to aim for but which retreats
as fast as you travel. May you stay undeceived
and see, not a line, but a curve of the earth:
an elegant offing that leads beyond fear
out to Vasco’s discoveries. It’s three:
visible, sensible, rational – lines
for what we may calculate and what we can’t.
In fog, I wish you mercury sight,
artificial horizon, so that you know
where not to be, quickly. I wish you the gift
of knowing where your own knowing ends.
And finally, I ask: when you reach
the event horizon from which your light
will no longer reach us and space, highly curved,
will hide you for ever, that you watch me arrive –
you shouldn’t see me, but you will –
marching with flashing lighthouses, buoys,
to the edge of your singularity
with fleets of full-rigged ceremonial ships
and acres of scintillating sea.
What is the theme?
What does it suggest about idealism and truth?
Vasco refers to Vasco da Gama, who lived at the same time as Christopher Columbus and actually did discover the shipping trade route to India, (but went south around Africa and then east while Columbus had sailed west.)
Mercury is the Greek god with wings on his feet, fog would not slow him down. "The visual journey of the Mercury symbol ends at an equal-armed cross. This is the final stage of solidification of thought. This indicates our thoughts have become manifest in the material world. We could say Mercury is a midwife to thoughts conceived in the ephemeral world," (whatsyoursign.com)
An event horizon is half astrophysics and half science fiction. The idea is that near a black hole, gravity is so strong that not even light can escape, so you could never see what happens past that point.
This poem was commissioned for the Verb radio show on the BBC. That alone indicates that the purpose of the poem was to try to get you thinking about literary stuff. They think they are all brilliant intellectuals on that show.
The thing about a horizon is that you can travel and travel and travel, but you never reach it. It is always ahead of you– (and behind and all around.)That is the theme, the journeying. I don’t think the poem says much about truth though,
February 25th, 2010 at 8:48 am
Vasco refers to Vasco da Gama, who lived at the same time as Christopher Columbus and actually did discover the shipping trade route to India, (but went south around Africa and then east while Columbus had sailed west.)
Mercury is the Greek god with wings on his feet, fog would not slow him down. "The visual journey of the Mercury symbol ends at an equal-armed cross. This is the final stage of solidification of thought. This indicates our thoughts have become manifest in the material world. We could say Mercury is a midwife to thoughts conceived in the ephemeral world," (whatsyoursign.com)
An event horizon is half astrophysics and half science fiction. The idea is that near a black hole, gravity is so strong that not even light can escape, so you could never see what happens past that point.
This poem was commissioned for the Verb radio show on the BBC. That alone indicates that the purpose of the poem was to try to get you thinking about literary stuff. They think they are all brilliant intellectuals on that show.
The thing about a horizon is that you can travel and travel and travel, but you never reach it. It is always ahead of you– (and behind and all around.)That is the theme, the journeying. I don’t think the poem says much about truth though,
References :
http://www.whats-your-sign.com/mercury-symbol.html