Heheheheheh

Just got the latest Time of Nick.

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As an unrelated observation, I wonder about the poetic merits of the line:

“And on the eyeballs of the blind
To pour celestial day.”

The focus of attention on the eyeballs doesn’t seem right, you know? for all they’re blind.

6 thoughts on “Heheheheheh

  1. Yes, which may just be a reaction of moderns . . . that is always a consideration—maybe Doddridge waded through seas of eyeballs all the time and it was nothing to him . . . but it seems it could use a little more subtlety of expression.

  2. Perhaps it was Pope who waded through the seas of eyeballs:

    The Savior comes! by ancient bards foretold:
    Hear him, ye deaf, and all ye blind, behold!
    He from thick films shall purge the visual ray,
    And on the sightless eyeball pour the day:
    ’Tis he th’ obstructed paths of sound shall clear,
    And bid new music charm th’ unfolding ear:
    The dumb shall sing, the lame his crutch forego,
    And leap exulting like the bounding roe.

    I initially found it strange as well, but I wonder if the lack of subtlety is deliberate. I see similar strange focus on the anatomical parts in thoughts like, “…and the ears of the deaf unstopped”, “…the mute tongue shout for joy”, or “And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin.”

    I do not know for sure, but I wonder if the prophecies deliberately refer to anatomical specifics as a sign to how we might interpret these and expect to see them fulfilled. I am leaning that way in light of the very vivid New Testament narratives that seem to be (at least partial) fulfillments.

    I recall an account of spit and and dirt rubbed on eyes, though I confess I do not know if it was applied to the eyeballs or eyelids. At any rate, I am certain it was not the “eyes of the heart”. Also there was an occasion wherein “he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha.’ ”

    Maybe Messrs. Pope and Doddridge did it well. To say

    “Hear him, ye deaf, and all ye blind, behold!”

    or

    “Ye blind behold your Savior come”

    is far different than

    “…on the sightless eyeball pour the day”

    or

    “And on the eyeballs of the blind To pour celestial day.”

  3. It may be as you say. I don’t think what you are suggesting in the paragraph after the quotation is similar though. The problem isn’t vividness or anatomicalness. The problem is that it is all the wrong word.

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