Monday, February 20, 2006
Poem #7: A Fragment
In the X-Files episode "The Field Where I Died," Mulder has a past life experience, and the show opens with Mulder's voiceover - a quote from Robert Browning's poem "Paracelsus" about a famous alchemist who spent his life looking for the mythic Philosopher's Stone which granted immortality. The poem is extremely long, and very rarely studied unless you're taking a graduate class on Browning. But this fragment is wonderful:At times I almost dream
I too have spent a life the sage's way,
and tread once more familiar paths. Perchance
I perished in an arrogant self reliance
an age ago; and in that act a prayer
for one more chance went up so earnest, so
instinct with better light led in by death,
that life was not blotted out -- not so completely
but scattered wrecks enough of it remain,
dim memories, as now, when once more seems
the goal in sight again."
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About Me
- Kelli McBride
- Oklahoma
- ABD, Associate Professor of Language Arts & Humanities at an Oklahoma 2-year college; web site designer; devoted aunt to Lauren.
7 comments:
You know, I never watched the show, but if it came on again, I think I would. It's kind of like Wings... I never watched it until it went to reruns. go figure.
Oh man, I like that.
I watch very little television, but I LOVE the Browning.
X-Files was magnificent. I miss it so much, and I hardly watched it once Mulder left. It was never the same. I have some of my fav episodes on tape, and they still make me laugh or shudder. What a joy it was waiting for Friday night to see what intriguing twist, devilishly clever, or outright hilarious time Chris Carter had in for us.
And David Duchovny was so sexy and intelligent. Sigh.
I miss it, too, Kels. Hugs.
I watched it faithfully until it switched to Sunday nights.... for some reason, that day change made a huge difference. I stopped watching.
I still get creeped out by the episode with the mom under the bed that didn't have arms or legs and her sons were ... ack! Ick! That was gross! And they escaped!!!
Anyway, when can I see Blackadder????
I missed it a lot when it moved to Sunday night, too! I always thought it was because Sunday nights were about scrambling to get kids ready for school. But I can't remember if they were even in school yet.