Friday 12 June 2020

'The first fear...'

Coming across this poem by Kay Ryan, I couldn't help thinking that, although it contains wisdom of far wider application, it also has something interesting to say about the response to the Covid epidemic. We seem to be having a deal of trouble unflattening our raft...


We're Building The Ship As We Sail It
The first fear
being drowning, the
ship’s first shape
was a raft, which
was hard to unflatten
after that didn’t
happen. It’s awkward
to have to do one’s
planning in extremis
in the early years -
so hard to hide later:
sleekening the hull,
making things
more gracious.

5 comments:

  1. Wonderful poem. Thanks, nige!

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  2. I noticed another instance of the metaphor, not by a poet but by a philosopher: https://dc20011.blogspot.com/2020/04/sailors.html . I wonder whether there is a common source, but can't now think what it could be.

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  3. Yes, thanks for that George. These images of sailing and staying afloat do apply very widely. Here's Michael Oakeshott on the business of governance: 'In political activity, then, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea: there is neither harbour for shelter, nor floor for anchorage, neither starting place nor appointed destination. The enterprise is to keep afloat on an even keel: the sea is both friend and enemy: and the seamanship consists in using the resources of a traditional manner of behaviour in order to make a friend of every hostile occasion.'

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  4. The other day I read and enjoyed this analysis by Kay Ryan of Larkin's poem about a funeral in Ireland:

    https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2020/04/09/all-love-all-beauty/#.XpB89R-sPNk.twitter

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  5. Thanks Zoe – that's wonderful.

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