my mind wanders... on a thought of a green sunset

Thursday, February 16, 2006

The Rhodora

There was a debate in the class about what is beauty all about. Get a grip, we lost. The winner was the beheld side, we, the beholder side lost.

Before you could even tell what I am talking about, let’s view the poem that started it all.

The Rhodora: On Being Asked, Whence Is the Flower?
In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes,
I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods,
Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook,
To please the desert and the sluggish brook.
The purple petals, fallen in the pool,
Made the black water with their beauty gay;
Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool,
And court the flower that cheapens his array.
Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why This charm is wasted on the earth and sky,
Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing,
Then Beauty is its own excuse for being:
Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose!
I never thought to ask, I never knew:
But, in my simple ignorance, suppose
The self-same Power that brought me there brought you.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Now you read the poem, our dutiful English teacher asked us a question that caused the first draws of confusion within the topic secluded above.

“Is an object beautiful due to its beholder, or depends on the beheld?”

What argument was she trying to propose? She made us understand the poem, especially the underlined one in The Rhodora. She is trying to say that even though the beauty of the rhodora is wasted the flower remains beautiful.

The debate was worse - we were actually bringing down the torrent of Mrs. Soriano herself. But, I was not debating the topic, I was merely explaining the essence of why the debate was particularly unnecessary.

She said that we are all asleep. We are asleep, and the sun rises. We did not see the sun, but the sun is still beautiful. This is the natural beauty. However how can beauty be told as beautiful unless someone holds the idea for you? Our side did a worse job in defending the issue, so we lost, and the beheld side celebrated their victory. I simply smiled at the event (Niñowell was already bummed about what’s happened, he defended the beholder side for a long time) and told Hagar the one who was tormented by the issue she was trying to defend with me) that the debate was useless. 7 of the intelligent people realized that. How minds can be narrow enough.

Here are some views:

According to me: “Beauty needs a grip to be realized. It is there, but it is not seen well, someone needs a beholder to replenish the idea for beauty itself.”

According to Loribelle: “Beauty depends on the beholder. Beauty is possessed by the beheld. See the difference? They were actually fighting over non-coplanar issues. The debate should have never existed.

Beauty needs an explanation, not an argument.

The debate’s over, I don’t care. This is a post to tell how errors reveal meaning to other errors and constituent answers. Ciao~

my mind fleeted at :10:11 pm ;