When Poet Ponders What Fate Delivers

Quotes: -- " deus ex machina " ""Aristotle praised Euripides, however, for generally ending his plays with bad fortune, which he viewed as correct in tragedy, and somewhat excused the intervention of a deity by suggesting that "astonishment" should be sought in tragic drama:[19] *** Irrationalities should be referred to what people say: That is one solution, and also sometimes that it is not irrational, since it is probable that improbable things will happen. *** Such a device was referred to by Horace in his Ars Poetica (lines 191–2), where he instructs poets that they should never resort to a "god from the machine" to resolve their plots "unless a difficulty worthy of a god's unraveling should happen" [nec deus intersit, nisi dignus uindice nodus inciderit; nec quarta loqui persona laboret].[20]"" ******* When Poet Ponders What Fate Delivers Alas! Could Fate have dealt a better hand Than waking on this beach of cold white sand Marooned, in this flowing ghostly cloud I that was once so gallant and so proud Now fleeing into a certain black doom A victim of the Sister's spinning loom. Those years ago, when hope was my best friend Youth my dessert, success my blessed end I rose wondering how this all could be I now downtrodden, life having to flee A victim of my pride my great excess Sad caricature of vanity's mess. With my boat sank, I here freezing alone All my self-respect, my wealth now all gone My sweet beautiful love where has she fled All cast aside, no longer would we wed She a rare soul, her body so divine I here staring at the cold salty brine. Why had Fate to me this sad lot gifted From glory now into the pits shifted And my deep weeping prayers, of no use I crying in the dark, lost as a goose Help, when in the hell would it arrive This great horror, would I still be alive? Sun now rising, spreading its golden rays I walking, promising to change my ways Found a road, desolate beach far behind What tricks fright plays on a sorrowing mind What luck, I found my good friends just ahead Life turned around, gone that dreaded dread! Deus ex machina as Nietzsche once said Was the gods feeding man his feeble bread Or was it Venus panning such a plot That mankind always sought an easy lot Had it came from Socratic winds, a breeze That simplest was to take life at ones ease? I thought Euripides, sent gift this morn To me a poet so oft given scorn And in that moment, that gods had beset I was sure that a god I had once met Spoke kindly, promising a future gift That was last night, why had it came so swift? Robert J. Lindley, 2-12-2021 ( Within Realm Of Possibilities, A Divine Gift ) Note: Definition of "deus ex machina" 1: a god introduced by means of a crane (see CRANE entry 1 sense 3a) in ancient Greek and Roman drama to decide the final outcome 2: a person or thing (as in fiction or drama) that appears or is introduced suddenly and unexpectedly and provides a contrived solution to an apparently insoluble difficulty … the shipwreck, far from being a tragic peripety, is the deus ex machina which makes it possible for Defoe to present solitary labour … as a solution to the perplexities of economic and social reality. — Ian Watt