a realization i had a while ago, since i moved into the dorms: the past is long and lingering. the future is far and unpredictable. but the present is an instant.
if you think about it, "now" really is a millisecond, if it even is that. tomorrow is the future, so is an hour later, a minute later, and even a second later. by the time i type the letter 'r' (like so), another second has passed, and now that action lives in the past. we talk about the present like it's a long span of time, but is it really? a second before was the past, a second next is the future, and the moving milliseconds are the now. the present passes so fast it's almost nonexistent.
i memorized this poem for my poetry class, and ironically, it had to do with time. i believe i've shared it with you through my poetry site (though i have not linked the famous poet). but i don't think it'd hurt to type it here as well.
carpe diem - robert frost
Age saw two quiet children
Go loving by at twilight,
He knew not wheter homeward,
Or outward from the village,
Or (chimes were ringing) churchward.
He waited (they were strangers)
Till they were both out of hearing
To bid them both be happy.
"Be happy, happy, happy,
And seize the day of pleasure."
The age-long theme is Age's.
'Twas Age imposed on poems
Their gather-roses burden
To warn against the danger
That overtaken lovers
From being overflooded
With happiness should have it
And yet not know they have it.
But bid life seize the present?
It lives less in the present
Than in the future always,
And less in both together
Than in the past. The present
Is too much for the senses,
Too crowding, too confusing--
Too present to imagine.
by his words, i feel that he's saying many valuable points to aid my opinion. the past and the future are imaginable. we wish we had done something right or better in the past, which is a form of imagination, asking yourself, "what if?". the future is always being imagined and envisioned, because we are all unsure of what life will bring us (and divination, i think, is a pseudoscience). but the present, like frost mentioned, is incapable of being thought of, unable to be forseen or forgotten.
frost also mentions that the future lives more than the present, and the past lives more than the future and present put together. could he be talking about the millions of people who gaze longingly into the past? i am one to fit the category, and i reallly think he is right. the past is really easy to be compared to, because it is the only sure thing we know. we can't compare anything to the future, because we don't know. we yearn for facts and reasoning to understand the "why" we ask ourselves. and the past is a very solid reference, whether we like it or not.
and i think it's okay to look at the past. but the past shouldn't hinder us from looking into the future.
i'd like to thank frost for this enlightenment. read the poem again. there are so many other things he mentions, so many other facts that help to express the meaning of the poem. this is one of my favorite poems i've ever read. a simple poem for such a complex topic. frost does it again.
name: mai sharona
birthday: december 5, 1984 (currently 20)
high school: canyon
college: uc davis
regiment: golden warrior
band-uh: up yooo!
email: water the flower
thought: listen and silent consist of the same letters.
