William Blake - Poetry

Next up is William Blake's very famous poem, 'Tyger! Tyger!'.

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame they fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder; and what art,
Could twist the sinews of they heart?
And when they heart began to beat,
What dread hand? and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

The 'burning bright' imagery is incredibly potent.  I like the idea of questioning exactly how a Creator would go about making such a savage and beautiful beast.  If you assign roles of good and evil to animals, it's hard to see how tigers and lambs can come from the same source.  (Of course if you go the 'circle of life' route, then it all makes sense pretty quickly.)
I've known this poem for years and I'lll now admit that I'm bothered by the lack of rhyme with the word 'symmetry'.  I'm sure there has been a phonetic shift since this was written but it really does clang in my modern ears.  Probably best to just get over it.

Biography of Nichomacus

Very little is known of the life of Nichomacus.  It is believed that he lived sometime around 100AD.  That figure is based on clues from his writing; who he did and did not mention.  He was probably from a Greek city in the area of Palestine.  He probably studied at Alexandria, in Egypt.
He was an important popularizer of Neo-Pythagoreanism, publishing books on Harmonics and Arithmetic.  It is believed that he also wrote 'An Introduction to Geometry' and a 'Life of Pythagoras' but those works are now lost.  It's possible that he also wrote about Plato and may have written an 'Introduction to Astronomy'.
His 'Introduction to Arithmetic' was used as a text book into the Middle Ages.  Which must make it one of the most studied math books in all of history.  Nichomachus was considered part of the 'golden chain' of true philosophers (or at least that was claimed by a a fifth-century Neo-Platonist named Proclus).
In short, we don't know much about him personally, but he played a key role in spreading the knowledge of Greek mathematicians into later ages.

John Newton - Poetry

The next poem in the book is by John Newton and is one of the most recognized songs in the world.  The poem is 'Amazing Grace' and the book says that the melody probably originated from African slaves.

Amazing Grace! how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear;
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils, and snares
I have already come;
'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures.

I've sung the first stanza many times but I don't know if I was ever aware of the rest of it.  Somehow I've never really thought of the theme of 'grace' with it.  Amazing, considering that it's literally in the opening line.  But the familiar sometimes remains unexamined.
In this poem, grace teaches fear but also relieves fear.  It is precious and sweet.  In the third stanza grace saves the poet from 'dangers, toils, and snares' and will lead him home.  This is heady stuff, and I can only try to imagine how powerful it must have been to the slaves on the ships.

Author Timeline

For the first time in year two, we dip into AD.

BC
Homer 7th or 8th Cent(?)
Aeschylus 525-456
Sophocles 497-405
Herodotus 484-425
Plato 428-347
Aristotle 384-322
Lucretius 99-55
AD
Nicomachus 60-120
Marcus Aurelius 121-180
Hobbes 1588-1679
Milton 1608-1674
Pascal 1623-1662
Swift 1667-1745
Rousseau 1712-1778
Kant 1724-1804
Mill 1806-1873

Readings for May

Only one this month.

Nicomachus: Introduction to Arithmetic link

Plato Vs Aristotle Revisited

I've been thinking about this post earlier in the month where I quoted Ayn Rand on how Aristotle 'paved the way' for the golden ages in Western civilization.  As I said then, I don't know enough of the philosophical history behind the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, etc., to really comment on how true that is.  (I still don't, but I'd find some really solid analysis on this to be fascinating.)  I did think quite a bit on the approach that each one encourages towards learning.
Plato is famous for presenting the Socratic method, in which a pupil is asked a series of questions in hopes of finding true answers.  The Aristotle approach (well, the surviving records) are very much lecture notes.  Plato makes the student work and continually ask questions about what they believe.  Aristotle gives you the answers so that you can learn them.  If we look just at this aspect, I'd have to give the nod to Plato.  I'd much rather have a culture that respects questioning wisdom than one that simply applies the knowledge that has been given to it.
Which isn't to say that I'm all that fond of rejecting received knowledge simply because it is received.

The writings of Aristotle are like a guide book from a very wise man.  In more than 2000 years, I can't see any large improvements over his writings on drama.  Which is amazing!  I can see how he inspires a pure scientific approach.  He looks at what is and tries to explain that.  This is the 'objective' viewpoint that so inspired Rand.
The writings of Plato ask us to consider things.  His approach produces questions and sharpens definitions.  Sometimes the discussion goes into unproductive areas, but not always.  With good guidance, the method has obvious benefits.
I'd be very surprised if Western thought hadn't benefited greatly from both writers.

Why Read Old Books?

A very good article on what lessons we can take from classic Greek and Roman sources and how to apply those lessons today.  Fair warning: it gets political.  Still worth reading.  I hadn't thought of this interpretation, but of course it's true:

How many times has the natural hitter on the bench sulked at the novelty that the cousin of the coach is batting cleanup? How often has the talented poet suddenly turned to drink because the toast of the salon got rich with his drivel? He should read his Homer: the self-destructive Achilles should have enjoyed more influence among the dense Achaeans than did the university president Agamemnon. By any just heroic standard, Ajax, not Odysseus, the Solyndra lobbyist, should have won the armor of the dead Achilles.
In the tragic world, thousands of personal agendas, governed by predictable human nature, ensure that things do not always quite work the way they should. We can learn from classics that most of us are more likely to resent superiority than to reward it, to distrust talent than to develop it. With classical training, our impatient youth might at least gain some perspective that the world is one where the better man is often passed over — precisely because he is the better man. Classics remind us that our disappointments are not unique to our modern selves. While we do not passively have to accept that unfairness (indeed Achilles and Ajax implode over it), we must struggle against it with the acceptance that the odds are against us.