A River Runs Through It (1992)
Directed by Robert Redford
Produced by
Jake Eberts
Robert Redford
Patrick Markey
Screenplay by Richard Friedenberg
Based on
A River Runs Through It
1976 novella
by Norman Maclean
Starring
Craig Sheffer
Brad Pitt
Tom Skerritt
Brenda Blethyn
Emily Lloyd
Narrated by Robert Redford (uncredited)
Music by Mark Isham
Cinematography Philippe Rousselot
Edited by Robert Estrin
Lynzee Klingman
Distributed by Columbia Pictures(USA)
Pathé(UK)
Release dates October 9, 1992
Running time
123 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $43,440,294
A River Runs Through It is a 1992 American film directed by Robert Redford and starring Craig Sheffer, Brad Pitt, Tom Skerritt, Brenda Blethyn, and Emily Lloyd. It is a period drama based on the semi-autobiographical novella A River Runs Through It (1976) written by Norman Maclean (1902–90), adapted for the screen by Richard Friedenberg.
Set in and around the city of Missoula in western Montana, the story follows two sons of a Presbyterian minister—one studious and the other rebellious—as they grow up and come of age in the Rocky Mountain region during a span of time from roughly World War I (1917–18) to the early days of the Great Depression (1929–41), including part of the Prohibition era (1919–33).
The film won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography in 1993 and was nominated for two other Oscars, for Best Music, Original Score and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film grossed $43,440,294 in US domestic returns.
Plot summaryA River Runs Through It is the true story about the Maclean brothers, Norman (Craig Sheffer) and Paul (Brad Pitt), growing up in Missoula, Montana with their father, John (Tom Skerritt), a Presbyterian minister. A common theme in the film is the men's love of fly fishing for trout in the Blackfoot River and how it impacted their lives. The film is told from Norman's point of view, with director Robert Redford as narrator.
The story begins with the brothers learning to fish from their father, a preacher who treats fishing as a sacred act. The boys become accomplished fishermen as a result. Norman and Paul are home taught and must adhere to the strict moral and educational code of their father. However, whenever they get a chance they enjoy practicing the art of fly fishing. As they grow older, it becomes clear that Norman is the more disciplined and studious brother, while Paul is the fun loving, wild one and the more talented fly fisherman.
Norman attends a July 4th dance with his friends after returning home from six years away at Dartmouth, where he meets his future wife, Jesse Burns. Paul has become a reporter at a newspaper in Helena, the state capital. He has angered many of the locals by falling behind in a big poker game at Lolo, a hamlet near Missoula with a popular bar that is also a front for gambling and prostitution, and by dating a beautiful Blackfoot Indian woman, Mabel, who is deemed to be of an inferior race by the community. Paul gets arrested after fighting a man who insulted her, and Norman is awakened in the middle of the night by a phone call from the police to come bail Paul out of jail.
After Norman and Jesse go on several dates, she insists that Norman make an effort to get along with her brother Neal, who is back in Montana, visiting from California. Norman and Paul do not like the self-centered Neal, who tells tall tales of socializing with film stars in Hollywood, but at Jesse's insistence they invite him to go fishing. Neal shows up drunk with a woman (a part-time prostitute) he met at a bar the evening before. Norman and Paul decide to fish anyway and return to their car hours later to find Neal and his ladyfriend "Rawhide" have drunk all their beer and passed out naked in the sun.
Norman returns a painfully sunburned Neal home, where Jesse is waiting for them. She is angry that the brothers did not fish with Neal. When Norman asks Jesse to drive him home, he tells her that he is falling for her. She drives away angry but a week later asks Norman to come to the train station to see Neal off back to California. After the train departs, Neal shows Jesse a letter from the University of Chicago that is a job offer for an English Literature teaching position. Norman asks Jesse to marry him.
When Norman tells Paul about the job offer and marriage proposal, he also urges Paul to come with him and Jesse to Chicago. Paul tells Norman that he will never leave Montana. Just before leaving for Chicago, Norman, Paul and their father go fly fishing one last time as a family. Paul catches a huge fish that carries him down the river. John proudly tells his son Paul what a wonderful fisherman he has become, much to Paul's delight. They pose for pictures with the huge fish for their mother.
Soon after the fishing excursion, Norman is again contacted by the police. They tell him that Paul has been found beaten to death in an alley, and that all the bones in his right hand have also been broken. Norman goes home and tells his parents the sad news. The story then jumps ahead a few years to a sermon being given by John with Mrs. Maclean, Norman, Jesse and their two children in attendance. The narrator mentions that John dies soon after this sermon. The last scene is of Norman as an old man, back in the Montana river where he used to fish with his family many years ago. He mentions that nearly everyone from his youth is dead, and that he is haunted by waters.
Cast
The Redeemer Lutheran Church in Livingston, Montana, used for the Presbyterian church scenes.Although both the book and movie are set in Missoula and on the Blackfoot River, it was filmed in 1991 in south central Montana in Livingston and Bozeman, and on the nearby upper Yellowstone, Gallatin, and Boulder Rivers. The waterfall shown is Granite Falls in Wyoming. The church scenes were filmed in the Redeemer Lutheran Church in Livingston.
An article published in the Helena Independent Record in July 2000 and based on recollections of people who knew both brothers noted a number of specifics about the Macleans — notably various chronological and educational details about Paul Maclean's adult life — that differ somewhat from their portrayal in the film and novella.[7]
MusicMark Isham, who would go on to compose the scores to most Robert Redford-directed films, composed the musical score for the film. Originally, Elmer Bernstein was hired to score the film. However, after Redford and Bernstein disagreed over the tone of the music, Bernstein was replaced by Isham. Rushed for time, Isham completed the score within four weeks at Schnee Studio of Signet Sound Studios in Hollywood, CA. Upon release, the music was met with positive reviews earning the film both nominations for Grammy and Academy awards. The A River Runs Through It (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) was released on October 27, 1992.
In some home video releases of the film, Elmer Bernstein is credited as the film's composer despite his score being rejected during post-production.
Set in and around the city of Missoula in western Montana, the story follows two sons of a Presbyterian minister—one studious and the other rebellious—as they grow up and come of age in the Rocky Mountain region during a span of time from roughly World War I (1917–18) to the early days of the Great Depression (1929–41), including part of the Prohibition era (1919–33).
The film won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography in 1993 and was nominated for two other Oscars, for Best Music, Original Score and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film grossed $43,440,294 in US domestic returns.
Plot summaryA River Runs Through It is the true story about the Maclean brothers, Norman (Craig Sheffer) and Paul (Brad Pitt), growing up in Missoula, Montana with their father, John (Tom Skerritt), a Presbyterian minister. A common theme in the film is the men's love of fly fishing for trout in the Blackfoot River and how it impacted their lives. The film is told from Norman's point of view, with director Robert Redford as narrator.
The story begins with the brothers learning to fish from their father, a preacher who treats fishing as a sacred act. The boys become accomplished fishermen as a result. Norman and Paul are home taught and must adhere to the strict moral and educational code of their father. However, whenever they get a chance they enjoy practicing the art of fly fishing. As they grow older, it becomes clear that Norman is the more disciplined and studious brother, while Paul is the fun loving, wild one and the more talented fly fisherman.
Norman attends a July 4th dance with his friends after returning home from six years away at Dartmouth, where he meets his future wife, Jesse Burns. Paul has become a reporter at a newspaper in Helena, the state capital. He has angered many of the locals by falling behind in a big poker game at Lolo, a hamlet near Missoula with a popular bar that is also a front for gambling and prostitution, and by dating a beautiful Blackfoot Indian woman, Mabel, who is deemed to be of an inferior race by the community. Paul gets arrested after fighting a man who insulted her, and Norman is awakened in the middle of the night by a phone call from the police to come bail Paul out of jail.
After Norman and Jesse go on several dates, she insists that Norman make an effort to get along with her brother Neal, who is back in Montana, visiting from California. Norman and Paul do not like the self-centered Neal, who tells tall tales of socializing with film stars in Hollywood, but at Jesse's insistence they invite him to go fishing. Neal shows up drunk with a woman (a part-time prostitute) he met at a bar the evening before. Norman and Paul decide to fish anyway and return to their car hours later to find Neal and his ladyfriend "Rawhide" have drunk all their beer and passed out naked in the sun.
Norman returns a painfully sunburned Neal home, where Jesse is waiting for them. She is angry that the brothers did not fish with Neal. When Norman asks Jesse to drive him home, he tells her that he is falling for her. She drives away angry but a week later asks Norman to come to the train station to see Neal off back to California. After the train departs, Neal shows Jesse a letter from the University of Chicago that is a job offer for an English Literature teaching position. Norman asks Jesse to marry him.
When Norman tells Paul about the job offer and marriage proposal, he also urges Paul to come with him and Jesse to Chicago. Paul tells Norman that he will never leave Montana. Just before leaving for Chicago, Norman, Paul and their father go fly fishing one last time as a family. Paul catches a huge fish that carries him down the river. John proudly tells his son Paul what a wonderful fisherman he has become, much to Paul's delight. They pose for pictures with the huge fish for their mother.
Soon after the fishing excursion, Norman is again contacted by the police. They tell him that Paul has been found beaten to death in an alley, and that all the bones in his right hand have also been broken. Norman goes home and tells his parents the sad news. The story then jumps ahead a few years to a sermon being given by John with Mrs. Maclean, Norman, Jesse and their two children in attendance. The narrator mentions that John dies soon after this sermon. The last scene is of Norman as an old man, back in the Montana river where he used to fish with his family many years ago. He mentions that nearly everyone from his youth is dead, and that he is haunted by waters.
Cast
- Craig Sheffer as Norman Maclean
- Brad Pitt as Paul Maclean
- Tom Skerritt as Reverend John Maclean
- Brenda Blethyn as Clara Maclean
- Emily Lloyd as Jessie Burns
- Edie McClurg as Mrs. Burns
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Young Norman Maclean
- Vann Gravage as Young Paul Maclean
- Nicole Burdette as Mabel
- Susan Traylor as Rawhide
- Michael Cudlitz as Chub
- Rob Cox as Conroy
- Buck Simmonds as Humph
- Stephen Shellen as Neal Burns
The Redeemer Lutheran Church in Livingston, Montana, used for the Presbyterian church scenes.Although both the book and movie are set in Missoula and on the Blackfoot River, it was filmed in 1991 in south central Montana in Livingston and Bozeman, and on the nearby upper Yellowstone, Gallatin, and Boulder Rivers. The waterfall shown is Granite Falls in Wyoming. The church scenes were filmed in the Redeemer Lutheran Church in Livingston.
An article published in the Helena Independent Record in July 2000 and based on recollections of people who knew both brothers noted a number of specifics about the Macleans — notably various chronological and educational details about Paul Maclean's adult life — that differ somewhat from their portrayal in the film and novella.[7]
MusicMark Isham, who would go on to compose the scores to most Robert Redford-directed films, composed the musical score for the film. Originally, Elmer Bernstein was hired to score the film. However, after Redford and Bernstein disagreed over the tone of the music, Bernstein was replaced by Isham. Rushed for time, Isham completed the score within four weeks at Schnee Studio of Signet Sound Studios in Hollywood, CA. Upon release, the music was met with positive reviews earning the film both nominations for Grammy and Academy awards. The A River Runs Through It (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) was released on October 27, 1992.
In some home video releases of the film, Elmer Bernstein is credited as the film's composer despite his score being rejected during post-production.
Rock Me To Sleep Mother
"Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight,"Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight,
Make me a child again just for to-night!
Mother, come back from the echoless shore,
Take me again to your heart as of yore;
Kiss from my forehead the furrows of care,
Smooth the few silver threads out of my hair;
Over my slumbers your loving watch keep;--
Rock me to sleep, mother,—rock me to sleep!
"Backward, flow backward, O tide of the years!
I am so weary of toil and of tears,--
Toil without recompense, tears all in vain,--
Take them, and give me my childhood again!
I have grown weary of dust and decay,--
Weary of flinging my soul-wealth away;
Weary of sowing for others to reap;--
Rock me to sleep, mother,—rock me to sleep!
"Tired of the hollow, the base, the untrue,
Mother, O mother, my heart calls for you!
Many a summer the grass has grown green,
Blossomed and faded, our faces between:
Yet, with strong yearning and passionate pain,
Long I to-night for your presence again.
Come from the silence so long and so deep;--
Rock me to sleep, mother,—rock me to sleep!
"Over my heart, in the days that are flown,
No love like mother-love ever has shone;
No other worship abides and endures,--
Faithful, unselfish, and patient like yours:
None like a mother can charm away pain
From the sick soul and the world-weary brain.
Slumber's soft calms o'er my heavy lids creep;--
Rock me to sleep, mother,—rock me to sleep!
"Come, let your brown hair, just lighted with gold,
Fall on your shoulders again as of old;
Let it drop over my forehead to-night,
Shading my faint eyes away from the light;
For with its sunny-edged shadows once more
Haply will throng the sweet visions of yore;
Lovingly, softly, its bright billows sweep;--
Rock me to sleep, mother,—rock me to sleep!
"Mother, dear mother, the years have been long
Since I last listened your lullaby song:
Sing, then, and unto my soul it shall seem
Womanhood's years have been only a dream.
Clasped to your heart in a loving embrace,
With your light lashes just sweeping my face,
Never hereafter to wake or to weep;--
Rock me to sleep, mother,—rock me to sleep!
by Elizabeth Akers Allen
Born Elizabeth Anne Chase on October 9, 1832, in Strong, Maine. She grew up in Farmington, Maine, where she attended Farmington Academy. She began to write at the age of fifteen, under the pen name "Florence Percy", and in 1855 published under that name a volume of poems entitled Forest Buds. In 1851 she married Marshall S. M. Taylor, but they were divorced within a few years. In subsequent years she travelled through Europe; in Rome she became acquainted with the feminist Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis. While in Europe she served as a correspondent for the Portland Transcript and the Boston Evening Gazette. She started contributing to the Atlantic Monthly in 1858. She married Paul Akers, a Maine sculptor whom she had met in Rome, in 1860; he died in 1861. In 1865 she married E. M. Allen, of New York. In 1866 a collection of her poems was published in Boston. She died on August 7, 1911 in Tuckahoe, New York.
Norman goes to Dartmouth College in 1919
Dartmouth College (/ˈdɑːrtməθ/ DART-məth) is a private, Ivy League, research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Incorporated as the "Trustees of Dartmouth College", it is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution. Dartmouth College was established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, a Congregational minister. After a long period of financial and political struggles, Dartmouth emerged in the early 20th century from relative obscurity, into national prominence.
Dartmouth College (/ˈdɑːrtməθ/ DART-məth) is a private, Ivy League, research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Incorporated as the "Trustees of Dartmouth College", it is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution. Dartmouth College was established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, a Congregational minister. After a long period of financial and political struggles, Dartmouth emerged in the early 20th century from relative obscurity, into national prominence.
"Bye Bye Blackbird" is a song published in 1926 by the American composer Ray Henderson and lyricist Mort Dixon. It is considered a popular standard and was first recorded by Sam Lanin's Dance Orchestra in March 1926,[1] followed by Nick Lucas and Gene Austin the same year.
Meaning of the lyrics
There is much speculation about the meaning of the song. At least two commentators (using the same source) attribute the song to a prostitute's leaving the business and going home to her mother. As such, it is the opposite of "House of the Rising Sun," where the prostitute returns to the business. The reason for the song's apparent ambiguity is that the opening verse and the verses about the bluebird are rarely sung.
Another explanation is that the blackbird represents unhappiness, sad, gloomy times. The bluebird, on the other hand, represents happiness (e.g., the well-known Bluebird of Happiness) and sunshine. In short, blackbird, symbolically, is the antithesis or antonym of bluebird. The audience in those days (1926) would have understood the symbolism. In this case, the singer has had bad times, probably in the city, where "no one understands me" and where there are hard luck stories galore. Now he wants to leave the big city, which has only brought him sadness, and return to his girlfriend in the country who still loves and understands him. It is unlikely that an adult male would return to his mother, as is suggested in the other narrative. It's the faithful girlfriend at home who still loves him to whom he wants to return. He asks her to turn on the light (another possible symbol) at home because he is coming back to where his happiness was and is. Given the mores, even in the loose roaring twenties, it seems unlikely that the song refers to a prostitute. If the song were about prostitution, it is doubtful that the song would have been popular among the general public in those days. As for the claim that the bluebird verses, sung in minor, were dropped because of ambiguity, it was common years afterward to drop verses which were not as melodically memorable. For example, everyone one can probably hum the "In the Good Old Summertime" verses, but who remembers the intro? The intro is seldom played nowadays. Dropping verses later which were not melodically strong was done with countless songs from that period.
Meaning of the lyrics
There is much speculation about the meaning of the song. At least two commentators (using the same source) attribute the song to a prostitute's leaving the business and going home to her mother. As such, it is the opposite of "House of the Rising Sun," where the prostitute returns to the business. The reason for the song's apparent ambiguity is that the opening verse and the verses about the bluebird are rarely sung.
Another explanation is that the blackbird represents unhappiness, sad, gloomy times. The bluebird, on the other hand, represents happiness (e.g., the well-known Bluebird of Happiness) and sunshine. In short, blackbird, symbolically, is the antithesis or antonym of bluebird. The audience in those days (1926) would have understood the symbolism. In this case, the singer has had bad times, probably in the city, where "no one understands me" and where there are hard luck stories galore. Now he wants to leave the big city, which has only brought him sadness, and return to his girlfriend in the country who still loves and understands him. It is unlikely that an adult male would return to his mother, as is suggested in the other narrative. It's the faithful girlfriend at home who still loves him to whom he wants to return. He asks her to turn on the light (another possible symbol) at home because he is coming back to where his happiness was and is. Given the mores, even in the loose roaring twenties, it seems unlikely that the song refers to a prostitute. If the song were about prostitution, it is doubtful that the song would have been popular among the general public in those days. As for the claim that the bluebird verses, sung in minor, were dropped because of ambiguity, it was common years afterward to drop verses which were not as melodically memorable. For example, everyone one can probably hum the "In the Good Old Summertime" verses, but who remembers the intro? The intro is seldom played nowadays. Dropping verses later which were not melodically strong was done with countless songs from that period.
Joe Crocker
Miles Davis
My LMU roommate's mom singing "Bye Bye Blackbird."
And, my LMU roommate's father Bobby Troup
Amy Winehouse
John Lawrence Sullivan (October 12, 1858 – February 2, 1918), also known as the Boston Strong Boy, was an American boxer recognized as the first Heavyweight Champion of gloved boxing, holding the title from February 7, 1882, to 1892. He is generally recognized as the last heavyweight champion of bare-knuckle boxing under the London Prize Ring Rules.
Izaak Walton (c. 1594– 15 December 1683) was an English writer. Best known as the author of The Compleat Angler, he also wrote a number of short biographies that have been collected under the title of Walton's Lives.
“Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood,”
by William Wordsworth
Summary
In the first stanza, the speaker says wistfully that there was a time when all of nature seemed dreamlike to him, “apparelled in celestial light,” and that that time is past; “the things I have seen I can see no more.”
In the second stanza, he says that he still sees the rainbow, and that the rose is still lovely; the moon looks around the sky with delight, and starlight and sunshine are each beautiful. Nonetheless the speaker feels that a glory has passed away from the earth.
In the third stanza, the speaker says that, while listening to the birds sing in springtime and watching the young lambs leap and play, he was stricken with a thought of grief; but the sound of nearby waterfalls, the echoes of the mountains, and the gusting of the winds restored him to strength. He declares that his grief will no longer wrong the joy of the season, and that all the earth is happy. He exhorts a shepherd boy to shout and play around him.
In the fourth stanza, he addresses nature’s creatures, and says that his heart participates in their joyful festival. He says that it would be wrong to feel sad on such a beautiful May morning, while children play and laugh among the flowers. Nevertheless, a tree and a field that he looks upon make him think of “something that is gone,” and a pansy at his feet does the same. He asks what has happened to “the visionary gleam”: “Where is it now, the glory and the dream?”
In the fifth stanza, he proclaims that human life is merely “a sleep and a forgetting”—that human beings dwell in a purer, more glorious realm before they enter the earth. “Heaven,” he says, “lies about us in our infancy!” As children, we still retain some memory of that place, which causes our experience of the earth to be suffused with its magic—but as the baby passes through boyhood and young adulthood and into manhood, he sees that magic die.
In the sixth stanza, the speaker says that the pleasures unique to earth conspire to help the man forget the “glories” whence he came.
In the seventh stanza, the speaker beholds a six-year-old boy and imagines his life, and the love his mother and father feel for him. He sees the boy playing with some imitated fragment of adult life, “some little plan or chart,” imitating “a wedding or a festival” or “a mourning or a funeral.” The speaker imagines that all human life is a similar imitation.
In the eighth stanza, the speaker addresses the child as though he were a mighty prophet of a lost truth, and rhetorically asks him why, when he has access to the glories of his origins, and to the pure experience of nature, he still hurries toward an adult life of custom and “earthly freight.”
In the ninth stanza, the speaker experiences a surge of joy at the thought that his memories of childhood will always grant him a kind of access to that lost world of instinct, innocence , and exploration.
In the tenth stanza, bolstered by this joy, he urges the birds to sing, and urges all creatures to participate in “the gladness of the May.” He says that though he has lost some part of the glory of nature and of experience, he will take solace in “primal sympathy,” in memory, and in the fact that the years bring a mature consciousness—“a philosophic mind.”
In the final stanza, the speaker says that this mind—which stems from a consciousness of mortality, as opposed to the child’s feeling of immortality—enables him to love nature and natural beauty all the more, for each of nature’s objects can stir him to thought, and even the simplest flower blowing in the wind can raise in him “thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.”
Wordsworth’s Immortality Ode, as it is often called, is written in eleven variable ode stanzas with variable rhyme schemes, in iambic lines with anything from two to five stressed syllables. The rhymes occasionally alternate lines, occasionally fall in couplets, and occasionally occur within a single line (as in “But yet I know, where’er I go” in the second stanza).
If “Tintern Abbey” is Wordsworth’s first great statement about the action of childhood memories of nature upon the adult mind, the “Intimations of Immortality” ode is his mature masterpiece on the subject. The poem, whose full title is “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood,” makes explicit Wordsworth’s belief that life on earth is a dim shadow of an earlier, purer existence, dimly recalled in childhood and then forgotten in the process of growing up. (In the fifth stanza, he writes, “Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting.../Not in entire forgetfulness, / And not in utter nakedness, /But trailing clouds of glory do we come / From God, who is our home....”)
While one might disagree with the poem’s metaphysical hypotheses, there is no arguing with the genius of language at work in this Ode. Wordsworth consciously sets his speaker’s mind at odds with the atmosphere of joyous nature all around him, a rare move by a poet whose consciousness is so habitually in unity with nature. Understanding that his grief stems from his inability to experience the May morning as he would have in childhood, the speaker attempts to enter willfully into a state of cheerfulness; but he is able to find real happiness only when he realizes that “the philosophic mind” has given him the ability to understand nature in deeper, more human terms—as a source of metaphor and guidance for human life. This is very much the same pattern as “Tintern Abbey” ’s, but whereas in the earlier poem Wordsworth made himself joyful, and referred to the “music of humanity” only briefly, in the later poem he explicitly proposes that this music is the remedy for his mature grief.
The structure of the Immortality Ode is also unique in Wordsworth’s work; unlike his characteristically fluid, naturally spoken monologues, the Ode is written in a lilting, songlike cadence with frequent shifts in rhyme scheme and rhythm. Further, rather than progressively exploring a single idea from start to finish, the Ode jumps from idea to idea, always sticking close to the central scene, but frequently making surprising moves, as when the speaker begins to address the “Mighty Prophet” in the eighth stanza—only to reveal midway through his address that the mighty prophet is a six-year-old boy.
Wordsworth’s linguistic strategies are extraordinarily sophisticated and complex in this Ode, as the poem’s use of metaphor and image shifts from the register of lost childhood to the register of the philosophic mind. When the speaker is grieving, the main tactic of the poem is to offer joyous, pastoral nature images, frequently personified—the lambs dancing as to the tabor, the moon looking about her in the sky. But when the poet attains the philosophic mind and his fullest realization about memory and imagination, he begins to employ far more subtle descriptions of nature that, rather than jauntily imposing humanity upon natural objects, simply draw human characteristics out of their natural presences, referring back to human qualities from earlier in the poem.
So, in the final stanza, the brooks “fret” down their channels, just as the child’s mother “fretted” him with kisses earlier in the poem; they trip lightly just as the speaker “tripped lightly” as a child; the Day is new-born, innocent, and bright, just as a child would be; the clouds “gather round the setting sun” and “take a sober coloring,” just as mourners at a funeral (recalling the child’s playing with some fragment from “a mourning or a funeral” earlier in the poem) might gather soberly around a grave. The effect is to illustrate how, in the process of imaginative creativity possible to the mature mind, the shapes of humanity can be found in nature and vice-versa. (Recall the “music of humanity” in “Tintern Abbey.”) A flower can summon thoughts too deep for tears because a flower can embody the shape of human life, and it is the mind of maturity combined with the memory of childhood that enables the poet to make that vital and moving connection.
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.”
― Rumi
“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
“Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get. Life should be touched, not strangled. You’ve got to relax, let it happen at times, and at others move forward with it.”
― Ray Bradbury
“Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.”
― Alan W. Watts
“Life is a journey. Time is a river. The door is ajar”
― Jim Butcher, Dead Beat
“I'm simply saying that there is a way to be sane. I'm saying that you can get rid of all this insanity created by the past in you. Just by being a simple witness of your thought processes.
It is simply sitting silently, witnessing the thoughts, passing before you. Just witnessing, not interfering not even judging, because the moment you judge you have lost the pure witness. The moment you say “this is good, this is bad,” you have already jumped onto the thought process.
It takes a little time to create a gap between the witness and the mind. Once the gap is there, you are in for a great surprise, that you are not the mind, that you are the witness, a watcher.
And this process of watching is the very alchemy of real religion. Because as you become more and more deeply rooted in witnessing, thoughts start disappearing. You are, but the mind is utterly empty.
That’s the moment of enlightenment. That is the moment that you become for the first time an unconditioned, sane, really free human being.”
― Osho
“Life is more or less a lie, but then again, that's exactly the way we want it to be.”
― Bob Dylan
“The way out is through the door. Why is it that no one will use this method?”
― Confucius
“The truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away, I'm looking for the truth," and so it goes away. Puzzling.”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
“I have lived with several Zen masters -- all of them cats.”
― Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
Like
“Not being tense but ready.
Not thinking but not dreaming.
Not being set but flexible.
Liberation from the uneasy sense of confinement.
It is being wholly and quietly alive, aware and alert, ready for whatever may come.”
― Bruce Lee, Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable.”
― Seneca, The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca: Essays and Letters
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“Letting go is the lesson. Letting go is always the lesson. Have you ever noticed how much of our agony is all tied up with craving and loss?”
― Susan Gordon Lydon, The Knitting Sutra: Craft as a Spiritual Practice
“Flow with whatever may happen, and let your mind be free: Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.”
― Zhuangzi, Nan-Hua-Ch'en-Ching, or, the Treatise of the transcendent master from Nan-Hua
“Only the hand that erases can write the true thing.”
― Meister Eckhart
“...it's like this. Sometimes, when you've a very long street ahead of you, you think how terribly long it is and feel sure you'll never get it swept. And then you start to hurry. You work faster and faster and every time you look up there seems to be just as much left to sweep as before, and you try even harder, and you panic, and in the end you're out of breath and have to stop--and still the street stretches away in front of you. That's not the way to do it.
You must never think of the whole street at once, understand? You must only concentrate on the next step, the next breath, the next stroke of the broom, and the next, and the next. Nothing else.
That way you enjoy your work, which is important, because then you make a good job of it. And that's how it ought to be.
And all at once, before you know it, you find you've swept the whole street clean, bit by bit. what's more, you aren't out of breath. That's important, too... (28-29)”
― Michael Ende, Momo
“It's like you took a bottle of ink and you threw it at a wall. Smash! And all that ink spread. And in the middle, it's dense, isn't it? And as it gets out on the edge, the little droplets get finer and finer and make more complicated patterns, see? So in the same way, there was a big bang at the beginning of things and it spread. And you and I, sitting here in this room, as complicated human beings, are way, way out on the fringe of that bang. We are the complicated little patterns on the end of it. Very interesting. But so we define ourselves as being only that. If you think that you are only inside your skin, you define yourself as one very complicated little curlique, way out on the edge of that explosion. Way out in space, and way out in time. Billions of years ago, you were a big bang, but now you're a complicated human being. And then we cut ourselves off, and don't feel that we're still the big bang. But you are. Depends how you define yourself. You are actually--if this is the way things started, if there was a big bang in the beginning-- you're not something that's a result of the big bang. You're not something that is a sort of puppet on the end of the process. You are still the process. You are the big bang, the original force of the universe, coming on as whoever you are. When I meet you, I see not just what you define yourself as--Mr so-and- so, Ms so-and-so, Mrs so-and-so--I see every one of you as the primordial energy of the universe coming on at me in this particular way. I know I'm that, too. But we've learned to define ourselves as separate from it. ”
― Alan W. Watts
“But when you're in front of an audience and you make them laugh at a new idea, you're guiding the whole being for the moment. No one is ever more him/herself than when they really laugh. Their defenses are down. It's very Zen-like, that moment. They are completely open, completely themselves when that message hits the brain and the laugh begins. That's when new ideas can be implanted. If a new idea slips in at that moment, it has a chance to grow.”
― George Carlin, Last Words
“Many have died; you also will die. The drum of death is being beaten. The world has fallen in love with a dream. Only sayings of the wise will remain.”
― Kabir, The Bijak of Kabir
“The world is filled with love-play, from animal lust to sublime compassion.”
― Alan W. Watts
“Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending time and space?”
― D.T. Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture
“Where there are humans,
You'll find flies,
And Buddhas.”
― Kobayashi Issa
“Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this, walking, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is Zen.”
― Bodhidharma, The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma
“Too lazy to be ambitious,
I let the world take care of itself.
Ten days' worth of rice in my bag;
a bundle of twigs by the fireplace.
Why chatter about delusion and enlightenment?
Listening to the night rain on my roof,
I sit comfortably, with both legs stretched out.”
― Ryokan
“If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse, but over time it does calm, and when it does, there's room to hear more subtle things - that's when your intuition starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more. Your mind just slows down, and you see a tremendous expanse in the moment. You see so much more than you could see before. It's a discipline; you have to practice it.”
― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
“When the mind is exhausted of images, it invents its own.”
― Gary Snyder, Earth House Hold
“I discovered that it is necessary, absolutely necessary, to believe in nothing. That is, we have to believe in something which has no form and no color--something which exists before all forms and colors appear... No matter what god or doctrine you believe in, if you become attached to it, your belief will be based more or less on a self-centered idea.”
― Shunryu Suzuki
“When it is understood that one loses joy and happiness in the attempt to possess them, the essence of natural farming will be realized. The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.”
― Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution
“Silence is the language of Om. We need silence to be able to reach our Self. Both internal and external silence is very important to feel the presence of that supreme Love.”
― Amit Ray, Om Chanting and Meditation
“Haiku is not a shriek, a howl, a sigh, or a yawn; rather, it is the deep breath of life.”
― Santōka Taneda, Mountain Tasting: Haiku and Journals of Santoka Taneda
and rightdoing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.”
― Rumi
“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
“Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get. Life should be touched, not strangled. You’ve got to relax, let it happen at times, and at others move forward with it.”
― Ray Bradbury
“Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.”
― Alan W. Watts
“Life is a journey. Time is a river. The door is ajar”
― Jim Butcher, Dead Beat
“I'm simply saying that there is a way to be sane. I'm saying that you can get rid of all this insanity created by the past in you. Just by being a simple witness of your thought processes.
It is simply sitting silently, witnessing the thoughts, passing before you. Just witnessing, not interfering not even judging, because the moment you judge you have lost the pure witness. The moment you say “this is good, this is bad,” you have already jumped onto the thought process.
It takes a little time to create a gap between the witness and the mind. Once the gap is there, you are in for a great surprise, that you are not the mind, that you are the witness, a watcher.
And this process of watching is the very alchemy of real religion. Because as you become more and more deeply rooted in witnessing, thoughts start disappearing. You are, but the mind is utterly empty.
That’s the moment of enlightenment. That is the moment that you become for the first time an unconditioned, sane, really free human being.”
― Osho
“Life is more or less a lie, but then again, that's exactly the way we want it to be.”
― Bob Dylan
“The way out is through the door. Why is it that no one will use this method?”
― Confucius
“The truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away, I'm looking for the truth," and so it goes away. Puzzling.”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
“I have lived with several Zen masters -- all of them cats.”
― Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
Like
“Not being tense but ready.
Not thinking but not dreaming.
Not being set but flexible.
Liberation from the uneasy sense of confinement.
It is being wholly and quietly alive, aware and alert, ready for whatever may come.”
― Bruce Lee, Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable.”
― Seneca, The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca: Essays and Letters
Like
“Letting go is the lesson. Letting go is always the lesson. Have you ever noticed how much of our agony is all tied up with craving and loss?”
― Susan Gordon Lydon, The Knitting Sutra: Craft as a Spiritual Practice
“Flow with whatever may happen, and let your mind be free: Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.”
― Zhuangzi, Nan-Hua-Ch'en-Ching, or, the Treatise of the transcendent master from Nan-Hua
“Only the hand that erases can write the true thing.”
― Meister Eckhart
“...it's like this. Sometimes, when you've a very long street ahead of you, you think how terribly long it is and feel sure you'll never get it swept. And then you start to hurry. You work faster and faster and every time you look up there seems to be just as much left to sweep as before, and you try even harder, and you panic, and in the end you're out of breath and have to stop--and still the street stretches away in front of you. That's not the way to do it.
You must never think of the whole street at once, understand? You must only concentrate on the next step, the next breath, the next stroke of the broom, and the next, and the next. Nothing else.
That way you enjoy your work, which is important, because then you make a good job of it. And that's how it ought to be.
And all at once, before you know it, you find you've swept the whole street clean, bit by bit. what's more, you aren't out of breath. That's important, too... (28-29)”
― Michael Ende, Momo
“It's like you took a bottle of ink and you threw it at a wall. Smash! And all that ink spread. And in the middle, it's dense, isn't it? And as it gets out on the edge, the little droplets get finer and finer and make more complicated patterns, see? So in the same way, there was a big bang at the beginning of things and it spread. And you and I, sitting here in this room, as complicated human beings, are way, way out on the fringe of that bang. We are the complicated little patterns on the end of it. Very interesting. But so we define ourselves as being only that. If you think that you are only inside your skin, you define yourself as one very complicated little curlique, way out on the edge of that explosion. Way out in space, and way out in time. Billions of years ago, you were a big bang, but now you're a complicated human being. And then we cut ourselves off, and don't feel that we're still the big bang. But you are. Depends how you define yourself. You are actually--if this is the way things started, if there was a big bang in the beginning-- you're not something that's a result of the big bang. You're not something that is a sort of puppet on the end of the process. You are still the process. You are the big bang, the original force of the universe, coming on as whoever you are. When I meet you, I see not just what you define yourself as--Mr so-and- so, Ms so-and-so, Mrs so-and-so--I see every one of you as the primordial energy of the universe coming on at me in this particular way. I know I'm that, too. But we've learned to define ourselves as separate from it. ”
― Alan W. Watts
“But when you're in front of an audience and you make them laugh at a new idea, you're guiding the whole being for the moment. No one is ever more him/herself than when they really laugh. Their defenses are down. It's very Zen-like, that moment. They are completely open, completely themselves when that message hits the brain and the laugh begins. That's when new ideas can be implanted. If a new idea slips in at that moment, it has a chance to grow.”
― George Carlin, Last Words
“Many have died; you also will die. The drum of death is being beaten. The world has fallen in love with a dream. Only sayings of the wise will remain.”
― Kabir, The Bijak of Kabir
“The world is filled with love-play, from animal lust to sublime compassion.”
― Alan W. Watts
“Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending time and space?”
― D.T. Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture
“Where there are humans,
You'll find flies,
And Buddhas.”
― Kobayashi Issa
“Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this, walking, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is Zen.”
― Bodhidharma, The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma
“Too lazy to be ambitious,
I let the world take care of itself.
Ten days' worth of rice in my bag;
a bundle of twigs by the fireplace.
Why chatter about delusion and enlightenment?
Listening to the night rain on my roof,
I sit comfortably, with both legs stretched out.”
― Ryokan
“If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse, but over time it does calm, and when it does, there's room to hear more subtle things - that's when your intuition starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more. Your mind just slows down, and you see a tremendous expanse in the moment. You see so much more than you could see before. It's a discipline; you have to practice it.”
― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
“When the mind is exhausted of images, it invents its own.”
― Gary Snyder, Earth House Hold
“I discovered that it is necessary, absolutely necessary, to believe in nothing. That is, we have to believe in something which has no form and no color--something which exists before all forms and colors appear... No matter what god or doctrine you believe in, if you become attached to it, your belief will be based more or less on a self-centered idea.”
― Shunryu Suzuki
“When it is understood that one loses joy and happiness in the attempt to possess them, the essence of natural farming will be realized. The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.”
― Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution
“Silence is the language of Om. We need silence to be able to reach our Self. Both internal and external silence is very important to feel the presence of that supreme Love.”
― Amit Ray, Om Chanting and Meditation
“Haiku is not a shriek, a howl, a sigh, or a yawn; rather, it is the deep breath of life.”
― Santōka Taneda, Mountain Tasting: Haiku and Journals of Santoka Taneda