{"id":15,"date":"2013-01-06T17:51:15","date_gmt":"2013-01-06T22:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toulmin.org\/?p=15"},"modified":"2013-01-06T18:49:46","modified_gmt":"2013-01-06T23:49:46","slug":"eponymous-poem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toulmin.org\/?p=15","title":{"rendered":"Eponymous poem…."},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, so that is that.\u00a0 Now we must dismantle the tree,
\nPutting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes —
\nSome have got broken — and carrying them up to the attic.
\nThe holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt,
\nAnd the children got ready for school.\u00a0 There are enough
\nLeft-overs to do, warmed-up, for the rest of the week —
\nNot that we have much appetite, having drunk such a lot,
\nStayed up so late, attempted — quite unsuccessfully —
\nTo love all of our relatives, and in general
\nGrossly overestimated our powers.\u00a0 Once again
\nAs in previous years we have seen the actual Vision and failed
\nTo do more than entertain it as an agreeable
\nPossibility, once again we have sent Him away,
\nBegging though to remain His disobedient servant,
\nThe promising child who cannot keep His word for long.
\nThe Christmas Feast is already a fading memory,
\nAnd already the mind begins to be vaguely aware
\nOf an unpleasant whiff of apprehension at the thought
\nOf Lent and Good Friday which cannot, after all, now
\nBe very far off.\u00a0 But, for the time being, here we all are,
\nBack in the moderate Aristotelian city
\nOf darning and the Eight-Fifteen, where\u00a0Euclid’s geometry
\nAnd\u00a0Newton’s mechanics would account for our experience,
\nAnd the kitchen table exists because I scrub it.
\nIt seems to have shrunk during the holidays.\u00a0 The streets
\nAre much narrower than we remembered; we had forgotten
\nThe office was as depressing as this.\u00a0 To those who have seen
\nThe Child, however dimly, however incredulously,
\nThe Time Being is, in a sense, the most trying time of all.
\nFor the innocent children who whispered so excitedly
\nOutside the locked door where they knew the presents to be
\nGrew up when it opened.\u00a0 Now, recollecting that moment
\nWe can repress the joy, but the guilt remains conscious;
\nRemembering the stable where for once in our lives
\nEverything became a You and nothing was an It.
\nAnd craving the sensation but ignoring the cause,
\nWe look round for something, no matter what, to inhibit
\nOur self-reflection, and the obvious thing for that purpose
\nWould be some great suffering.\u00a0 So, once we have met the Son,
\nWe are tempted ever after to pray to the Father;
\n“Lead us into temptation and evil for our sake.”
\nThey will come, all right, don’t worry; probably in a form
\nThat we do not expect, and certainly with a force
\nMore dreadful than we can imagine.\u00a0 In the meantime
\nThere are bills to be paid, machines to keep in repair,
\nIrregular verbs to learn, the Time Being to redeem
\nFrom insignificance.\u00a0 The happy morning is over,
\nThe night of agony still to come; the time is noon:
\nWhen the Spirit must practice his scales of rejoicing
\nWithout even a hostile audience, and the Soul endure
\nA silence that is neither for nor against her faith
\nThat God’s Will will be done, That, in spite of her prayers,
\nGod will cheat no one, not even the world of its triumph.<\/p>\n

–W.H. Auden, Christmas Oratorio<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, so that is that.\u00a0 Now we must dismantle the tree, Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes — Some have got broken — and carrying them up to the attic. The holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt, And the children got ready for school.\u00a0 There are enough Left-overs to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-epiphany","category-poetry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toulmin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toulmin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toulmin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toulmin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toulmin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/toulmin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18,"href":"https:\/\/toulmin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions\/18"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toulmin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toulmin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toulmin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}