The Soul, Unguarded Now, poems by R Frost G M Hopkins and W B Yeats

The Soul, Unguarded Now, poems by R Frost G M Hopkins and W B Yeats. 00:00 Robert Frost Nothing gold can stay 01:05 Gerard Manley Hopkins As kingfishers catch fire 02:39 William Butler Yeats When you are old In this video David Bell (intaglio etchings) and John McWade (narration) interpret three short poems. Rebecca Livingston provides a fine musical context. In the associated artist books of the prints, Terry Wall has written about the literary contexts of each. For all three reflections and more about the project visit https://kiwiconnexion.nz/view/view.php?id=2066 The first is given here. Reflection on Nothing Gold Can Stay In the simplest but polished language Robert Frost examines the human condition. The day serves as an image for life which he sees as innocent and maybe pure at the outset. Dawn is the privileged moment of beauty and goodness which decay into ugliness and falsehood. Gold focuses the freshness and innocence of first rays that are uncontaminated by time. The golden sheen of original radiance, gives way to faded and disrupted experience. The poem traces the inevitable transitory nature of life with its disappointment and pain, and sometimes anguish and despair. Perhaps this mirrors the poet’s personal journey of depression related to family bereavements. The mention of Eden references the doctrine of the Fall in which the image of God in each person is tarnished, damaged or in more radical theologies, even broken or lost entirely. Is this pessimism or merely a robust realism? Does the poem leave room for personal growth that comes through age and reflection? David Bell notes that Robert Frost's vivid word picture of Eden sinking to grief remains a stark reminder of the problems facing this and future generations in terms of climate change and degradation of the world-wide environment. Poetry for our times, although all three poets were born in 19th century. Yeats and Frost lived into the 20th century. Implicit in Frost and Yeats poems' is an exploration of the transitory nature of human life, yet the hint of something more tangible. This is, of course, explicit in Gerard Manley Hopkins' As Kingfishers catch fire. In this human purpose is tangible by being and by becoming what we are in God's eye. The Practical Theology Channel and kiwiconnexion offers wisdom choices for better daily living. Spirituality, Christian thought and church history, as well as a special emphasis on John Wesley and Methodism.