http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/02/random-poetry-08/ Thu, 12 Jan 2012 08:40:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/02/random-poetry-08/#comment-2885 Kent Johnson Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:54:14 +0000 http://pf/harriet/?p=717#comment-2885 Well, so much for the Elizabethans... Kent Well, so much for the Elizabethans…
Kent
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]]> http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/02/random-poetry-08/#comment-2884 Alicia (AE) Tue, 19 Feb 2008 08:31:37 +0000 http://pf/harriet/?p=717#comment-2884 Interesting thoughts... It puts me in mind of the sortes Virgilianae--the method of fortune telling by opening the Aeneid of Virgil at random to any passage. Of course, fortune telling by chance in fact is based on the notion that seeming randomness is not chance at all, but guided by fate or providence. This is precisely why many religious denominations are AGAINST games of chance, because what appears to be randomness is in fact a forbidden glimpse into the mind of Providence. Quite a paradox! I wonder if some of these poetries based on randomness have at their heart a similar unspoken paradox. (I'm more Epicurean myself, and all for the swerve of free will.) Interesting thoughts… It puts me in mind of the sortes Virgilianae–the method of fortune telling by opening the Aeneid of Virgil at random to any passage. Of course, fortune telling by chance in fact is based on the notion that seeming randomness is not chance at all, but guided by fate or providence. This is precisely why many religious denominations are AGAINST games of chance, because what appears to be randomness is in fact a forbidden glimpse into the mind of Providence. Quite a paradox! I wonder if some of these poetries based on randomness have at their heart a similar unspoken paradox. (I’m more Epicurean myself, and all for the swerve of free will.)
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