seems like he's saying he's acted in kindness & love as a way to embody god & his will in our world, but he couldn't successfully enact the full kindness of god, only his scarred representation of the actual thing, thus: "emblems of kindness, but not the kindness they were emblems of."
seems like he's saying he's acted in kindness & love as a way to embody god & his will in our world, but he couldn't successfully enact the full kindness of god, only his scarred representation of the actual thing, thus: "emblems of kindness, but not the kindness they were emblems of."
I saw it as meaning the Elephant has tried to live virtue in the world, but virtue as seen by the people is not true virtue. What we see as symbols or acts of kindness are not actual kindness. "Trammels and rings" of our realities pervert the reality of kindness--she can't be kind because kindness to those she serves is an illusion.
I saw it as meaning the Elephant has tried to live virtue in the world, but virtue as seen by the people is not true virtue. What we see as symbols or acts of kindness are not actual kindness. "Trammels and rings" of our realities pervert the reality of kindness--she can't be kind because kindness to those she serves is an illusion.
It's the chaplain, not the Elephant, speaking. I think he's saying he's given his life to the Church (emblems of kindness) but not to God (the kindness they were emblems of)
It's the chaplain, not the Elephant, speaking. I think he's saying he's given his life to the Church (emblems of kindness) but not to God (the kindness they were emblems of)
what is you opinion on the line
"Lord, for sixty-so years I've surrendered my love, to emblems of kindness, and not the kindness they were emblems of..."
I love this line and it is really perplexing to me.
seems like he's saying he's acted in kindness & love as a way to embody god & his will in our world, but he couldn't successfully enact the full kindness of god, only his scarred representation of the actual thing, thus: "emblems of kindness, but not the kindness they were emblems of."
seems like he's saying he's acted in kindness & love as a way to embody god & his will in our world, but he couldn't successfully enact the full kindness of god, only his scarred representation of the actual thing, thus: "emblems of kindness, but not the kindness they were emblems of."
I saw it as meaning the Elephant has tried to live virtue in the world, but virtue as seen by the people is not true virtue. What we see as symbols or acts of kindness are not actual kindness. "Trammels and rings" of our realities pervert the reality of kindness--she can't be kind because kindness to those she serves is an illusion.
I saw it as meaning the Elephant has tried to live virtue in the world, but virtue as seen by the people is not true virtue. What we see as symbols or acts of kindness are not actual kindness. "Trammels and rings" of our realities pervert the reality of kindness--she can't be kind because kindness to those she serves is an illusion.
It's the chaplain, not the Elephant, speaking. I think he's saying he's given his life to the Church (emblems of kindness) but not to God (the kindness they were emblems of)
It's the chaplain, not the Elephant, speaking. I think he's saying he's given his life to the Church (emblems of kindness) but not to God (the kindness they were emblems of)
I have loved this line for so long. Figures, the irony of the universe would allow that It is actually from Yeats' poem Circus Animal's Desertion:
I have loved this line for so long. Figures, the irony of the universe would allow that It is actually from Yeats' poem Circus Animal's Desertion:
"Players and painted stage took all my love, And not those things that they were emblems of."
"Players and painted stage took all my love, And not those things that they were emblems of."