In the Dark Before Dawn PA

by Merton,Thomas

• ISBN13: 9780811216135
• ISBN10: 0811216136
• Edition: 00
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-04-17
• Publisher: New Directions

Summary

A new, broad, comprehensive view of the innovative poetry of the late, great Trappist monk and religious philosopher Thomas Merton. Poet, Trappist monk, religious philosopher, translator, social criticthe late Thomas Merton was all these things. Until now, no selection from his great body of poetry has afforded a comprehensive view of his varied and largely innovative work. In the Dark Before Dawn: New Selected Poems of Thomas Merton is not only double the size of Merton's earlier Selected Poems (1967), it also arranges his poetry thematically and chronologically, so that readers can follow the poet's multifarious interrelated lines of thought as well as his poetic development over the decades, from his college days in the 1930s to his untimely accidental death in Bangkok in 1968 during his personal Eastern pilgrimage. The selections are grouped under eight thematic headings"Geography's Landscapes," "Poems from the Monastery," "Poems of the Sacred," "Songs of Contemplation," "History's Voices: Past and Present," "Engaging the World," "On Being Human," "Merton and Other Languages."

Table of Contents

PREFACE	xv
INTRODUCTION	xxi
ONE GEOGRAPHY'S LANDSCAPES	1	(22)
The Night Train	3	(1)
Aubade: Lake Erie	4	(1)
The Ohio River-Louisville	4	(1)
Aubade-Harlem	5	(1)
Hymn of Not Much Praise for New York City	6	(3)
Figures for an Apocalypse
In the Ruins of New York	9	(2)
Landscape: Beast	11	(2)
The Heavenly City	13	(2)
Christopher Columbus	15	(3)
The Guns of Fort Knox	18	(1)
Darjeeling	19	(2)
Songs of Experience; India, One	21	(2)
TWO POEMS FROM THE MONASTERY	23	(26)
Holy Communion: The City	25	(1)
The Trappist Abbey: Matins	26	(1)
The Blessed Virgin Compared to a Window	27	(1)
How Long We Wait	28	(1)
A Letter to My Friends	29	(1)
Trappists, Working	30	(1)
After the Night Office-Gethsemani Abbey	31	(1)
The Trappist Cemetery-Gethsemani	32	(3)
Poem in the Rain and the Sun	35	(1)
Spring: Monastery Farm	36	(1)
The Reader	37	(1)
On a Day in August	38	(2)
Elegy for the Monastery Barn	40	(2)
Solitary Life	42	(1)
Elegy for a Trappist	43	(1)
Merlin and the Deer	44	(2)
The Old Monk Is Turned Loose	46	(1)
A Practical Program for Monks	47	(2)
THREE POEMS OF THE SACRED	49	(26)
Song	51	(1)
Sacred Heart 2	51	(1)
The Winter's Night	52	(1)
The Vine	53	(1)
The Biography	54	(2)
Advent	56	(1)
Carol	57	(1)
Ash Wednesday	57	(1)
On the Anniversary of My Baptism	58	(2)
Theory of Prayer	60	(2)
Senescente Mundo	62	(1)
Early Mass	63	(2)
Hagia Sophia	65	(7)
The Night of Destiny	72	(1)
[Untitled)	73	(2)
FOUR SONGS OF CONTEMPLATION	75	(28)
Evening	77	(1)
Song for our Lady of Cobre	78	(1)
Two States of Prayer	78	(1)
Evening: Zero Weather	79	(2)
The Sowing of Meanings	81	(1)
A Psalm	82	(2)
Elias-Variations on a Theme	84	(6)
In Silence	90	(1)
Stranger	91	(1)
Grace's House	92	(2)
Song for Nobody	94	(1)
Song: If You Seek...	95	(1)
O Sweet Irrational Worship	96	(2)
Night-Flowering Cactus	98	(1)
Love Winter When the Plant Says Nothing	99	(1)
Song: Contemplation	100	(1)
The Joy of Fishes	101	(2)
FIVE HISTORY'S VOICES: PAST AND PRESENT	103	(40)
Dirge for the World Joyce Died In	105	(1)
In Memory of the Spanish Poet Federico Garcia Lorca	105	(1)
An Elegy for Ernest Hemingway	106	(1)
Elegy for James Thurber	107	(1)
Rilke's Epitaph	108	(1)
Message to be Inscribed on Mark Van Doren's Hamilton Medal	109	(1)
Two British Airmen	110	(1)
Original Child Bomb	111	(8)
Paper Cranes	119	(1)
Chant to Be Used in Processions Around a Site with Furnaces	119	(4)
Epitaph for a Public Servant	123	(8)
A Picture of Lee Ying	131	(2)
And the Children of Birmingham	133	(2)
Picture of a Black Child with a White Doll	135	(1)
April 4th 1968	136	(2)
Seneca	138	(1)
Origen	138	(2)
Fall '66	140	(3)
SIX ENGAGING THE WORLD	143	(36)
The Philosophers	145	(1)
Tower of Babel	145	(2)
A Letter to America	147	(2)
from Cables to the Ace	149	(10)
from The Geography of Lograire	159	(13)
South I.	159	(2)
South III. Hymns of Lograire	161	(1)
North: Prologue: Why I Have a Wet Footprint on Top of My Mind	162	(1)
West I.: Day Six O'Hare Telephane	163	(8)
West III: Ghost Dance: Prologue	171	(1)
The Originators	172	(1)
Readings from Ibn Abbad (5, 7)	173	(1)
The Man of Tao	174	(1)
The Turtle	175	(2)
Where is Tao?	177	(2)
SEVEN ON BEING HUMAN	179	(42)
For My Brother: Reported Missing in Action, 1943	181	(1)
Freedom as Experience	182	(1)
Whether There Is Enjoyment in Bitterness	183	(1)
The Fall	184	(1)
A Carol	185	(2)
Antipoem 1	187	(1)
With the World in My Blood Stream	188	(3)
Untitled Poem	191	(3)
I Always Obey My Nurse	194	(2)
Louisville Airport	196	(2)
May Song	198	(2)
Aubade on a Cloudy Morning	200	(2)
Never Call a Babysitter in a Thunderstorm	202	(1)
Cherokee Park	203	(3)
Evening: Long Distance Call	206	(1)
Cancer Blues	207	(3)
Six Night Letters	210	(7)
For M. In October	217	(1)
For M. On a Cold Grey Morning	218	(3)
EIGHT MERTON AND OTHER LANGUAGES	221	(16)
Le Secret
Thomas Merton
The Riddle
Translation, Br. Paul Quenon	222	(4)
Je Crois en L'Amour
Thomas Merton
I Believe in Love
Translation, Br. Paul Quenon	226
Three Epigrams
Ernesto Cardenal	228	(1)
When the Shoe Fits
Chuang Tzu	229	(1)
The Birth of the Sun
Pablo Antonio Cuadra	230	(1)
The Two Palm Trees
Miguel Hernandez	230	(1)
Chagall
Raissa Maritain	231	(2)
Black Stone on Top of a White Stone
César Vallejo	233	(1)
Butterfly
Nicanor Parra	234	(1)
Poetry Ends with Me
Nicanor Parra	235	(2)
NOTES	237	(10)
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY	247	(2)
INDEX OF TITLES AND FIRST LINES	249