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Tyre -- Bayard Taylor

       
(Poem #1333) Tyre
 The wild and windy morning is lit with lurid fire;
 The thundering surf of ocean beats on the rocks of Tyre, --
 Beats on the fallen columns and round the headland roars,
 And hurls its foamy volume along the hollow shores,
 And calls with hungry clamor, that speaks its long desire:
 "Where are the ships of Tarshish, the mighty ships of Tyre?"

 Within her cunning harbor, choked with invading sand,
 No galleys bring their freightage, the spoils of every land,
 And like a prostrate forest, when autumn gales have blown,
 Her colonnades of granite lie shattered and o'erthrown;
 And from the reef the pharos no longer flings its fire,
 To beacon home from Tarshish the lordly ships of Tyre.

 Where is thy rod of empire, once mighty on the waves, --
 Thou that thyself exalted, till Kings became thy slaves?
 Thou that didst speak to nations, and saw thy will obeyed, --
 Whose favor made them joyful, whose anger sore afraid, --
 Who laid'st thy deep foundations, and thought them strong and sure,
 And boasted midst the waters, Shall I not aye endure?

 Where is the wealth of ages that heaped thy princely mart?
 The pomp of purple trappings; the gems of Syrian art;
 The silken goats of Kedar; Sabæa's spicy store;
 The tributes of the islands thy squadrons homeward bore,
 When in thy gates triumphant they entered from the sea
 With sound of horn and sackbut, of harp and psaltery?

 Howl, howl, ye ships of Tarshish! the glory is laid waste:
 There is no habitation; the mansions are defaced.
 No mariners of Sidon unfurl your mighty sails;
 No workmen fell the fir-trees that grow in Shenir's vales
 And Bashan's oaks that boasted a thousand years of sun,
 Or hew the masts of cedar on frosty Lebanon.

 Rise, thou forgotten harlot! take up thy harp and sing:
 Call the rebellious islands to own their ancient king:
 Bare to the spray thy bosom, and with thy hair unbound,
 Sit on the piles of ruins, thou throneless and discrowned!
 There mix thy voice of wailing with the thunders of the sea,
 And sing thy songs of sorrow, that thou remembered be!

 Though silent and forgotten, yet Nature still laments
 The pomp and power departed, the lost magnificence:
 The hills were proud to see thee, and they are sadder now;
 The sea was proud to bear thee, and wears a troubled brow,
 And evermore the surges chant forth their vain desire:
 "Where are the ships of Tarshish, the mighty ships of Tyre?"
-- Bayard Taylor
           (1825-1878)

The fascination of ancient civilisations is hard to resist; the tales and
legends of vanished glory have left an indelible mark on mankind's
collective imagination.  Samarkand, Damascus, Babylon, Carthage - the
names are richly evocative, conjuring up entire chains of association by
their mere mention. We've explored this before - the Lays of Ancient Rome
theme, and the poetic journey along the Silk Road both rank among my
favuorite Minstrels themes, and today's poem is a worthy addition to their
ranks.

Tyre, for me, shall ever be associated with Kipling's magnificent lines

   Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
   Is one with Nineveh and Tyre

and Taylor has appealed to the same image, the same sense of loss for a
vanished greatness. I was particularly gratified by the fact that he has
not shied away from a certain extravagance of imagery - I feel that the
poem's subject calls for it, and a more restrained approach would not have
done it justice.

Links:

  Biography:
    http://www.poetry-archive.com/t/taylor_bayard.html

  A brief history of Tyre:
    http://www.1upinfo.com/encyclopedia/T/Tyre.html

  The Ancient Roman theme:
    Poem #489, Poem #491, Poem #493, Poem #494

  And the Silk Road theme:
    Poem #526 (rest of the theme summarised in the commentary)

martin

11 comments: ( or Leave a comment )

Roberts Linda said...

This stirs echos of "Ozymandias", with the line "Look on my works, ye mighty
and despair!" I think the Romantics and the Victorians were both fond of the
device of fallen ancient civilizations to illustrate the ephemeral nature of
life and glory.

Martin DeMello said...

"What is your desire? Would you have a tale of the Caliph of Bagdad? Or
from the siege of Troy? A reading from Aristophanes? From Firdausi? Or
would you hear of far seas and lands unknown to the Byzantines?

"Can there be such?" He lifted a supercilious eyebrow. "Byzantium is the
center of the world!"

"Ah...?"

"You doubt it, vagabond?"

"I was remembering Rome, Carthage, Babylon, Nineveh... each in its own time
the center of the world, all ruins now."

He was amused. "Do you imagine this city will be as those? You jest."

"Had I asked in any of those cities, would anyone have believed they
someday would lie in ruins? Each age is an age that is passing, and cities,
my friend, are transitory things. Each is born from the dust; each matures,
grows older, then it fades and dies. A passing traveler looks at a mound of
sand and broken stones and asks 'What was here?' and his answer is only an
echo or a wind drifting sand."

-- Louis L'Amour, "Walking Drum"
(as posted by dougk to alt.quotations)

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British grammar school and path of social mobility

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Society was never just, from the beginning it has some kind of stratification. Class-based ( based on resources or idea of haves or haves not, simply putting rich and poor ) stratification is common among model capitalist societies, the same goes for British society which consists of class-based stratification.

Grammar school the idea
The idea of grammar school is quite simple, these schools are state secondary schools, fully funded by the state. The selection process comprises an examination called 11- plus (students of age 11 appear in it). The education students get here is free, unlike private schools where they have to pay. The grammar school wants to create a more just and inclusive society. It focuses on the social mobility of economically weaker sections of the community.
Does grammar school increase social mobility?
In the British parliament, the idea of a more selective school ( grammar school ) is raised by plenty of leaders although some are opposing the idea of grammar schools. The government planned to expand the grammar school based on the examination of 11- and claiming it's going to pave the path of social mobility.
Kiran Eyre, a governor of a state school asserted that the notion of grammar school is not something progressive, there is no evidence to support that grammar school, improve the educational status of the weaker section.
Eyre, pointed out that selective education will widen the gap between the poor and the rich. School should be a microcosm of the whole of society. People of different colours, faith, background, and skills work together to establish a peaceful and harmonious world. Selective schools separate students of lower-income families from those of rich, if we let them study in the same school they get equal opportunities to improve their status.
On the other hand, these grammar schools are not enabling them to achieve social mobility as the acceptance rate of lower rag students is relatively inadequate. Only 3% of the students at grammar schools are qualified to get free meals which is an indicator of their social status. Some data indicate that high-achieving poor kids are not able to get into grammar schools. Of those who are top scorers 66% of them are from better-off families only 40% are from poor households.
Melissa Benn, the chairperson of the Comprehensive Future Group, talked about, how the government is making an effort to increase the number of poor students in grammar schools, however, asking grammar schools to admit more poor students only hampers the system of education to achieve equality.

We can say that the concept of the grammar school was not that empowering rather it will create a gap between haves and haves not.,if students from the rich class and poor study together, they will comprehend each other's lives and get equal opportunities to excel. The experts from the education field analysed that selective education systems only broaden the gap in society. True social mobility can be achieved by equal opportunity, not selective methods. As most grammar schools in England do not have proper representation of the disadvantaged group even though it was designed for the disadvantaged group.
reference
Adams, R. (2018, May 11). Education leaders oppose Tory plans to expand grammar schools. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/may/11/education-leaders-oppose-tory-plans-to-expand-grammar-schools

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