Suddenly I saw the cold and rook-delighting heaven
That seemed as though ice burned and was but the more ice,
And thereupon imagination and heart were driven
So wild that every casual thought of that and this
Vanished, and left but memories, that should be out of season
With the hot blood of youth, of love crossed long ago;
And I took all the blame out of all sense and reason,
Until I cried and trembled and rocked to and fro,
Riddled with light. Ah! when the ghost begins to quicken,
Confusion of the death-bed over, is it sent
Out naked on the road, as the books say, and stricken
By the injustice of the skies for punishment?
W B Yeats
Quoted in Terra Incognita by Sara Wheeler
(Corrections supplied by Uncle James)
Sara Wheeler described an encounter that I enjoyed. She said that seasoned Antarctic explorer remarked that for all the years of exploration, and discovery in the Antarctic, much of the work was meaningless. Wheeler sees this as a picture of life, set in clearer perspective in the cold vastness of the continent. So much struggle, so much courage, for so little meaning. I thought of Ecclesiastes. And then she described the sight of azure blue glacier ice, and sastrugi...and she is entranced and inspired.
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