{"id":1521,"date":"2013-01-19T00:32:30","date_gmt":"2013-01-19T04:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/?p=1521"},"modified":"2014-06-07T07:54:11","modified_gmt":"2014-06-07T11:54:11","slug":"the-round-world-squared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/the-round-world-squared\/","title":{"rendered":"The Round World Squared"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Horace Edward Thorner (1909-1981) taught English at Williston Academy from 1943 to 1970, and served as the school’s Librarian.\u00a0 For ten years prior to coming to Williston, he was a practicing psychologist.\u00a0 Such bald biographical data insufficiently describes a multifaceted scholar, collector of and dealer in rare books, antiques, and atrocious puns, coach of the Williston Chess Team, and, simply, a fine teacher.<\/p>\n

A prolific author, Thorner’s writings include verse translations of Homer’s Iliad<\/em> and the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam,<\/em> a play, The Man Who Shot God,<\/em> many works of criticism and history, and several volumes of poetry.\u00a0 He is unique among our faculty for having been an elected fellow of both the Royal Society of London and the National Institute of Arts and Letters.<\/p>\n

In 1965-66 Thorner, on sabbatical from Williston, traveled around the world.\u00a0 To supplement, or perhaps supersede, his camera, he carried a notebook in which he recorded his impressions in verse.\u00a0 These he collected in The Round World Squared<\/em> (Hawthorne Publications, 1979).\u00a0 In the introduction he commented, “Each of the poems was written on the spot at the time, proving nothing more, perhaps, than that a man like me does well to keep on moving.”<\/p>\n

Here are two selections, the first recorded in the National Archeological Museum in Athens, the second in Bangkok.<\/p>\n

The Mask of Agamemnon\r\n\r\nThe golden mask of Agamemnon glares\r\nOut of its crystal case upon the world,\r\nEach golden hair in place, the gold beard curled,\r\nA tribute to the good Herr Schliemann's cares.\r\nThe careful spade came on it unawares.\r\nAfter some centuries, all banners furled,\r\nThe image woke.  No tides of battle swirled.\r\nNo longer must it face the Trojan spears\r\nAs did the living King.  The haughty glance\r\nNo longer seeks out Paris in the field.\r\nThe wounds of flesh and spirit, both are healed.\r\nHelen and Clytemnestra and ill chance\r\nHave died, and so the great King looks at us,\r\nWeighed in the scales of the almighty Zeus.\r\n\r\n\u00a9 1979, Horace E. Thorner<\/pre>\n
To a Thai Classical Dancer\r\n\r\nYou come to me from far-off ages,\r\nAeons of jungle-birds and sun,\r\nBorn of some sun-god's loves and rages,\r\nRainbows and thunder, fleshed in one,\r\n\r\nOne mortal form of deathless beauty,\r\nOne rhythmic sway of sea and shore\r\nOne siren song that tells me duty\r\nIs to be happy and no more.\r\n\r\nOne loving curve of luring fingers,\r\nOne heart-deep call of bell and drum,\r\nOne instant, and the magic lingers\r\nThrough all my days and nights to come.\r\n\r\nWhere would you call me from my troubles?\r\nWhat paradise of date or palm,\r\nWhat crystal waterfall which bubbles\r\nOver the ivory of your arm;\r\n\r\nWhat dawn or sunset, gold and amber;\r\nWhat flash of blue and scarlet wing;\r\nWhat little smile shall I remember\r\nUntil I cease remembering?\r\n\r\nI shall remember a green chamber,\r\nA throne-room for some jungle god.\r\nThat I was he, I shall remember,\r\nThat moment when I saw you nod.\r\n\r\nWhen in the twilight, spark and ember\r\nMade a starred heaven like that above\r\nAnd you and I were God and Love . . .\r\nThat is the lie I shall remember.\r\n\r\n\u00a9 1979, Horace E. Thorner<\/pre>\n
\"\"<\/a>We welcome your comments and questions!\u00a0 Please use the form below.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Horace Edward Thorner (1909-1981) taught English at Williston Academy from 1943 to 1970, and served as the school’s Librarian.\u00a0 For ten years prior to coming to Williston, he was a practicing psychologist.\u00a0 Such bald biographical data insufficiently describes a multifaceted scholar, collector of and dealer in rare books, antiques, and atrocious puns, coach of the … Continue reading The Round World Squared<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[91,164,12],"tags":[179,144],"class_list":["post-1521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archivists-bookshelf","category-faculty","category-williston-academy","tag-horace-thorner","tag-poetry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1521"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1521"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2640,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1521\/revisions\/2640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}