Malachai

Though I haven’t really written that much lately, I have been almost constantly thinking about this poem. I am including it as I believe it brings up how different opinions can be. In truth, I find the poem almost horrifying just as much as it is enthralling. It is simply mind-boggling how different people can percieve some things. Anyway here it is:

 

Some Verses On The Burning Of Our House
            -July 10 1666

by Anne Bradstreet (c.1612-1672)

 

In silent night when rest I took,

For sorrow near I did not look,

I waken’d was with thundring noise

And Piteous shrieks of dreadful voice.

That fearful sound of fire and fire,

Let no man know is my Desire.

 

I, starting up, the light did spy,

And to my God my heart did cry

To strengthen me in my Distress,

And not to leave me succourless.

Then coming out beheld a space,

The flames consume my dwelling place.

 

And when I could no longer look,

I blest his Name that gave and took,

That laid my goods now in the dust:

Yea so it was, and so ‘twas just.

It was his own: it was not mine;

Far be it that I should repine.

 

He might of all justly bereft,

But yet sufficient for us left.

When by the Ruins oft I past,

My sorrowing eye aside did cast,

And here and there the places spy

Where oft I sate, and long did lye.

 

Here stood that Trunk, and there that chest;

There lay that store I counted best:

My pleasant things in ashes lye,

And them behold no more shall I.

Under thy roof no geust shall sit,

Nor at thy Table eat a bit.

 

No pleasant tale shall ‘ere be told,

Nor things recounted done of old.

No Candle ‘ere shall shine in Thee,

Nor bridegroom’s voice ere heard shall be.

I find this poem simply haunting. Think about the implications of what has happened. This woman has just had everything stripped from her. Everything she finds special, has been burned to a crisp, including her husband. Thus she has absolutly nothing. Not a single thing other than the cloths she wears belongs to her now. This woman, and everything she has ever worked to accomplish is in shambles. She does not have a home. Just imagine. One day, you go home to find that your house and everything in it is gone, and your family lies dead. I do not think I would be the same kind of person if I came home to be greeted by such a scene. I would probably never recover from something like that .One would think this woman to be horrified. She is in a way, but at the same time she actually believes that this fire was just and right. It was the will of god that her house and husband should burn, and none can queston His reasons. This kind of mentality is sick. There is almost nothing else to describe it. Even worse is that people believed in this kind of thing. The Puritan movement was huge, and each and every time they were ruined, they bowed and thanked God from the bottom of their hearts. I truly believe that this self deception, if anything, is evil. Even just the mentality, is almost unspeakable. If something like this happened to me, I would mourn to an incredible level. I wouldn’t go and write a poem about how I’m sad, but it’s ok, because God thinks so. This kind of deception, simply wrecked these people, and centuries later, I can only find myself feeling sad for them and the hardships the endured in the name of God. Truly I pity them.

Sam Writes:

I guess my rambling pretty much can be summed up with the idea that evil is nothing more than a sense of opinion.

I believe that this is an accurate identification of evil. Many people in the world seem to believe that evil is a distinctive entity, that has an easily discernable line. This quote however argues this. This quote pretty much says that evil is what people pertain it to be. Thus, evil has no distinctive boundaries- it can be almost anything, depending on who defines it. Evil truly is nothing more than an opinion, to which there are many different levels. Everything depends upon what people belive is evil. For example, during the Nouremburgh trials, when asked why the nazis had consiously killed millions of people, the officails stated that they believed that what they were doing was right and just. To the rest of the world however, they are percieved as the appitamy of evil. This is why I agree with Sam’s statement. Anything in the world can be evil, depending on what someone thinks.

 To me, evil is everything and anything that consiously seeks to harm others. There are exeptions to this rule of course. There is justice, which seeks to make evil atone for its actions. I believe that evil is spawned from living things. As humans, we have a stronger grasp upon the dimentions and the workings of evil as it has been partially responsible for many misfortunes throughout our existance. Every living thing in the world has some sort of evil within it. Humans kill eachother over trivialties, or because someone else tells them to. I firmly believe that evil is a product of the existance of life, and that while not all things are evil, even what is good has this potential.

In the modern world there are many types of evil. There are those of politics that cause countries to war with each other. One such example would be that of the war in Iraq. This war was spawned of cultural hatred. That hate led a select few of the arab world to strike at the United States. The result led to war. This anger and hatred came from normal people, who decided that they would kill in revenge for other’s luxury. This is true evil, and even today, it exists in our world.

                                                      -Malachai