Re: Heidegger's use of the word "polis"



On Sat, 11 Nov 1995, Iain Thomson wrote:

> And my blue guitar? If I were a poet, I suppose I might have some
> clue as to what that is supposed to mean...

I cannot bring a world quite round,
Although I patch it as I can.

I sing a hero's head, large eye
And bearded bronze, but not a man,

Although I patch him as I can
And reach through him almost to man.

If to serenade almost to man
Is to miss, by that, things as they are,

Say that it is the serenade
Of a man that plays a blue guitar.

Ah, but to play man number one,
To drive the dagger in his heart,

To lay his brain upon the board
And pick the acrid colors out,

To nail his thought across the door,
Its wings spread wide to rain and snow,

To strike his living hi and ho,
To tick it, tock it, turn it true,

To bang it from a savage blue,
Jangling the metal of the strings...

So that's life, then: things as they are?
It picks its way on the blue guitar.

Wallace Stevens

The Man With the Blue Guitar is much longer and very beautiful and well
worth reading, even if your introduction to it was not the most auspicious.
Please continue with your work on Heidegger, which is no more
self-indulgent than snide potshots or lengthy poetry quotes are. If I
don't feel like reading any particular posting, I go on to the next one,
and I imagine most of the other members of the list are capable of doing
the same.

Jim McFarland


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  • Re: Heidegger's use of the word "polis"
    • From: Iain Thomson
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