Free Will and Raising Children "Your Children are not Your Children"

[Buddy]

Sorry for the delay getting back - personal/family/financial problems abound from time to time.

By way of elaboration of the hexameter formula, I was referring to a popular, sing-song type of format that is pleasing to the mind and thus just as capable of 'turning off' the mind's critical input monitoring function as hypnosis is.

The hexameter formula example:

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
Hexameter
Hex*am"e*ter\, n. [L., fr. Gr. ? of six meters; (sc. ?) hexameter verse; "e`x six + ? measure: cf. F. hexam[`e]tre. See Six, and Meter.] (Gr. & Lat. Pros.) A verse of six feet, the first four of which may be either dactyls or spondees, the fifth must regularly be a dactyl, and the sixth always a spondee. In this species of verse are composed the Iliad of Homer and the [AE]neid of Virgil. In English hexameters accent takes the place of quantity.

Leaped like the | roe when he | hears in the | woodland the | voice of the | huntsman. --Longfellow.

Strongly it | bears us a- | long on | swelling and | limitless | billows, Nothing be- | fore and | nothing be- | hind but the | sky and the | ocean. --Coleridge.


The concern for the value/consequence ratio of 'some' poetry is very old and traces back to Plato and Aristotle's time. I was first exposed to this in Objectivism.

A inkling of this:

* In sum, Plato's 4 arguments against Poetry are:
1. Poets compose under inspiration, not by using reason
2. Poetry is ignorant about what it teaches, and thus teaches the wrong things
3. Poetry is a mimesis (imitation), at 2 removes from the "really real" (that is, from the world of the Forms)
4. Poetry encourages the wrong emotions in the audience
* Poetry is tossed out of the Republic, but with a challenge
o Plato has now raised clearly the question of why representations of people suffering is a pleasurable experience
o Moreover, he has clearly linked this to the irrational side of one's being, thus setting it in the context of the "ancient quarrel between poetry and philosophy".

And then, Aristotle, Plato's most famous student,takes up this challenge, point by point!

For an elaboration, see:

_http://classics.uc.edu/~johnson/tragedy/plato&aristotle.html


I would like to emphasize that I do not, and cannot, refer to 'all poetry' with this view and I have no issues with prose and anything of Kahlil Gibran's that I have read.
Thanks for the questions and comments.


edit -

...but as I recall there is a difference between poetry and prose. Poetry has a meter, verse and rhyme. Prose is considered a "writing style". "The Prophet" is prose. Read the offered work, "On Children", and you will notice there is no rhyme or meter. I thought it was worth noting that Gibran's work is largely prose.

Yes, of course and I agree. The third sentence of my original post was simply a transition to a completely different aspect of the poetry/prose art form that I thought might be interesting to consider. Sorry If I wasn't very clear.

 

[Buddy]

Poems can also play a role in distributing B influences. So, would Buddy be willing to elaborate further? :)

Yes, any art form and anyONE can play a role in distributing 'any' influences. It may be useful to consider the composer's intent in a piece as well as the artistry involved.

Consider this bit of 'confession':
"I, myself, have sat and conjured up similar good-sounding and good-feeling trash as a way to induce my own painful joy and to elicit similar feelings in others while believing my efforts would bring me 'rewards in heaven'."

...in the context of the following post and thread:

http://www.cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=3994.msg68345#msg68345

 

[Bar Kochba]

Beautiful poem. A subject every parent can relate to. It's one thing to try to teach your children right from wrong as best as you know how; its quite another to try to sheild them from your own personal defects and dramas which, as kids, they shouldn't have to deal with...my own childhood definitely influenced some of my most crippling programs. Or perhaps I'm passing blame. Great poem tho!