REELY'S POETRY BLOG

Many of us are told it is wrong to envy very early in life, but just how big of an impression does it make? Starting off in Catholic school at age 6, I of course learned I wasn’t supposed to covet my neighbor’s goods. I happened to notice that my older brother was not deterred one whit from coveting other people’s stuff with impunity, particularly mine, so I don’t think it made that big of an impression on me.

When I was 13, I learned the poem, Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson. That poem did make a big impression on me. It not only illustrates just how deceiving appearances can be, it also demonstrates that money doesn’t buy happiness and that one never really knows what’s going on in another person mind.

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

read the rest here – there’s an audio reading and picture by Edouard Manet to go with it.

And here’s another poem about envy that gives a different set of reasons not to be jealous of other people that I found on Google Books. It was written by a gentleman named William A. Stephens who, while he never became a famous poet, had the distinction of contributing to Canada’s early poetry in the 1840’s by publishing the first volume of poetry in Upper Canada (Hamilton, and Other Poems, (Toronto, 1840).

ENVY NOT—A MORAL.

” Who can stand before Envy ?” — Solomon.
” Envy pines at good possessed.”—Cowper.

I envy Stanley Stone his wife —
A lovely woman she;
0! if I had her, I would have
A living luxury.

I envy Grey his handsome house,
Complete from sill to tile;
0 ! if I had it I would live
In such a handsome style.

1 envy Blue his two-in-hand;
What horses! what a rig!
If they were only mine I’d feel
So gentlemanly big.

I envy Brown those costly clothes,
His brilliant ring as well;
What right has he to dress so fine ?
The proud, conceited swell!

I envy Black his eloquence.
How he can plead a cause!
If I had such a tongue as his
I’d live upon applause !

I envy Green that wondrous voice.
Zounds! how the fellow sings!
If I had such a voice as his
I’d prouder be than kings.
Read the rest of this entry »

E. J. Pratt was a prominent Canadian poet in the early 20th century. Some of his poems are online at The University of Toronto Library.

One of these poems is Silences which starts out with these thought-provoking lines:

There is no silence upon the earth or under the earth like the silence
under the sea;
No cries announcing birth,
No sounds declaring death.

It’s just something that never occurred to me that in the depths of the sea life and death occur in absolute silence, silence that makes you feel as you read the poem that it is just routine, and very frightening to the human mind.

Then the poem moves on to higher forms of life and speculates that two human enemies might begin a friendship after giving passionate voice to their hostilities, and offers this sentiment:

for who would not prefer to be lustily damned than to be half-heartedly blessed?

I stopped to examine that statement since there are people who must live in silence, who cannot hear and/or speak. The poem continues:

No one need fear oaths that are properly enunciated, for they
belong to the inheritance of just men made perfect, and, for all we
know, of such may be the Kingdom of Heaven.
But let silent hate be put away for it feeds upon the heart of the hater.

Words do hurt, though. They can cause some pretty terrible wounds. Words also heal. That’s true, too, but I think I’ll remember this poem the next time I feel like letting loose with a ‘passionate’ oath and keep my mouth shut anyway.