A Soul In Ev'ry Stone

[j minnich]

>
>    Well, I just finished reading GR last night for the first time.  Thanks to 
>this list [and the sources you've pointed me to], I even feel like I might
have 
>a good start at understanding the damn thing.  I know I'll be coming back
to it 
>soon, though, it's just too good to put on the bookshelf for long.
>    But there's just one last question I have: what do y'all think the Final 
>Song means?  Here it is:
>
>"There is a hand to turn the time,
>Though thy glass today be run,
>Till the light that hath brought the Towers low
>Find the last poor Pret'rite one...
>Till the Riders sleep by ev'ry road,
>All through our crippl'd Zone,
>With a face on ev'ry mountainside,
>And a soul in ev'ry stone...
>
>Now everybody "
>
>

It reminds me of something Emerson wrote about the balance-beam of justice,
but I can't find the passage now to quote it.  Maybe someone else remembers
the source.  It also reminds me of the Von Braun quote at the beginning of
the novel in a particular way: both passages are hopeful statements of
dubious truth.  Red herrings, if you will.  I wonder if TRP intended 'em
this way.  -j minnich
---------------------------------------------------------------
...The poet is dead.
Nor will ever again hear the sea lions 
Grunt in the kelp at Point Lobos.
Nor look to the south when the grunion 
Run the Pacific, and the plunging
Shearwaters, insatiable, 
Stun themselves in the sea.  
   -Wm. Everson