Chapter Heading
For we have thought the longer thoughts
And gone the shorter way.
And we have danced to devil's tunes
Shivering home to pray;
To serve one master in the night,
Another in the day.
Commentary
Happy new year!
Note: The allusion is to Longfellow’s “My Lost Youth”:
A boy's will is the wind's will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.
– http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/poems/heminw6.html
Today’s poem exemplifies admirably Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s statement that “Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but rather when there is nothing more to take away.” ‘Chapter Heading’ is a startlingly powerful look at the eternal conflict between the spirit and the flesh, and man’s complex relationship with God.
Part of the poem’s power lies, I think, in its very sparseness - a line like “shivering home to pray” says more in four words than many a more extended passage might have done, and does so with far greater an impact. Furthermore, the imagery is visceral rather than ‘rational’, using words like “danced” and “shivering” to emphasise sensation over thought, evoking the ancient fear of darkness with its reference to night and day - and, thereby, limning the tangled framework of primitive emotions that underlies and motivates the most rational of religions.
Links
A biography of Hemingway:
http://www.nobel.se/literature/laureates/1954/hemingway-bio.html
The Hemingway Foundation:
— Martin
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From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.
Kevin3x · 28 September 2003
I like his works, they are very intresting and they are fun to read.
LA&Parker · 2 June 2007
I believe there is a typo in the third line; it should read - devils’ - plural possessive, instead of “devil’s.” This suggestion is from reading “Ernest Hemingway, Complete Poems” revised edition, edited by Nicholas Georgiannis, page thirty-four.
Take Care,
Parker