Re: for examle, a unicorn

From: David Preiss (david.preiss@yale.edu)
Date: Sun Aug 03 2003 - 20:57:23 PDT


Hi all,
A poem by one of my favorite poets that I think fits the interests of this
list, and somehow indirectly the most recent thread of discussion.
David

The Unknown Citizen
by W. H. Auden
(To JS/07/M/378/ This Marble Monument
Is Erected by the State)

He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an oldfashioned word, he was a
    saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn't a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every
    way.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it
    cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Installment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace; When there was war,
    he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of
    his generation.
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their
    education.

Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Cole" <mcole@weber.ucsd.edu>
To: <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2003 12:30 PM
Subject: for examle, a unicorn

>
> This poem contains many ideas that I use in my thinking and in my
> teaching. Make of it what you will.
> mike
>
> The Unicorn by Ranier Maira Rilke
>
> This is the creature there never has been.
> They never knew it, and yet, none the less,
> they loved the way it moved, its suppleness,
> its neck, its very gaze, mild and serene.
>
> Not there, because they loved it, it behaved
> as though it were. They always left some space.
> And in that clear unpeopled space they saved
> it lightly reared its head with scarce a trace
>
> of not being there. They fed it, not with corn,
> but only with the possibility
> of being. And that was able to confer
>
> such strength, its brow put for a horn. One horn.
> Whitely it stole up to a maid, -- to be
> within the silver mirror and in her.



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