Poetry, The Rhythm of Time
“And it hung bleeding from the Cross.”
Bobby Sands (1954–1981) Irish volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Rhythm of Time
Context: It wept by the waters of Babylon,
And when all men were a loss,
It screeched in writhing agony,
And it hung bleeding from the Cross. It died in Rome by lion and sword,
And in defiant cruel array,
When the deathly word was ‘Spartacus’
Along the Appian Way.
Joanna Newsom (1982) American musician
Divers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divers_(Joanna_Newsom_album) (2015)
Patrick Henry (1736–1799) attorney, planter, politician and Founding Father of the United States
As quoted in The Debates in the Several States Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution also known as Elliot's Debates, Jonathan Elliot, edit. (1941) J. B. Lippincott Co., pp. 168-169, originally published in 1836
1780s
G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English mystery novelist and Christian apologist
Poems (1917), The Great Minimum
Context: It is something to have wept as we have wept,
It is something to have done as we have done,
It is something to have watched when all men slept,
And seen the stars which never see the sun.
It is something to have smelt the mystic rose,
Although it break and leave the thorny rods,
It is something to have hungered once as those
Must hunger who have ate the bread of gods.
Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet
"Ali in Battle" in Ch. 20 : In Baghdad dreaming of Cairo
The Essential Rumi (1995)
Context: I am God's Lion, not the lion of passion....
I have no longing
except for the One.
When a wind of personal reaction comes,
I do not go along with it.
There are many winds full of anger,
and lust and greed. They move the rubbish around,
but the solid mountain of our true nature stays where it's always been.
Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007) Swedish filmmaker
Algot Frövik (Allan Edwall) in Winter Light (1962).
Films
Context: When Jesus was nailed to the cross — and hung there in torment - he cried out — "God, my God! Why hast thou forsaken me?" He cried out as loud as he could. He thought that his heavenly father had abandoned him. He believed everything he'd ever preached was a lie. The moments before he died, Christ was seized by doubt. Surely that must have been his greatest hardship? God's silence.
“The loss of one lion alone drew a tear from mighty Caesar's eye.”
Magni quod Caesaris ora...
unius amissi tetigit jactura leonis.
v, line 27 (tr. J. H. Mozley)
Silvae, Book II
Mark Ames (1965) American writer and journalist
Part VI: Welcome to the Dollhouse, page 239.
Going Postal: Rage, Murder, and Rebellion, From Reagan's Workplaces to Clinton's Columbine and Beyond (2005)
Context: Cruel and callous when on top, afraid and smiling all the way to the grave when not- that pretty much sums up the post-Reagan zeitgeist. And if you're not just as cheerful as the rest, "you've got some personal problems." You're a weirdo if you complain. It's your own fault if you're traumatized by a massacre. It's your own fault if you're poor. It's your own fault if you get downsized, overworked, bullied, and fail. Get over it.
