{"id":3656,"date":"2017-07-27T13:42:57","date_gmt":"2017-07-27T17:42:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/?p=3656"},"modified":"2020-10-23T23:12:12","modified_gmt":"2020-10-24T03:12:12","slug":"a-man-whose-god-laughs-little","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/a-man-whose-god-laughs-little\/","title":{"rendered":"“A man whose God laughs little . . .”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A recent social media discussion among members of the Class of 1968 recalled Horace Thorner, English master from 1943 to 1970, a scholar whose breadth of interests and talents was truly extraordinary.\u00a0 Thorner was a poet of frequent insight and technical virtuosity.\u00a0 Some of his work has already appeared on this blog.\u00a0 (See “The Round World Squared.”<\/strong><\/em>)\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n

For the school’s 125th anniversary in 1966, Thorner was asked to write a celebratory “Ode to Williston.”\u00a0 Commemorative poetry is tricky; it is hard to avoid either hyperbole or mawkishness.\u00a0 Thorner was reasonably \u2014 though not entirely \u2014 successful.\u00a0 But his chapter on founder Samuel Williston is especially perceptive; Thorner, writing for an audience that perhaps expected the old hagiographic legend, captures the essential conflicts in the man better than others have managed using many more words (see “The Button Speech”<\/strong><\/em> ).<\/a><\/p>\n

II. The Founder\n\nWho was this man?\u00a0 There is no simple rule\n     To separate the warm flesh and the blood\nFrom such another statue, pale and cool,\n\nAs since the time of ancient Athens stood\n     In lifeless grandeur in the public square,\nDefying time and tempest, lightning, flood,\n\nBut never living, never quite the bare,\n     The unadorned, the simple human truth,\nStanding in unabashed completeness there.\n\nIndeed, he was ambitious as a youth,\n     A start for marble statues, but God's will\nTo spoil his eyes left him uncouth,\n\nCompared to what he wanted for his goal,\n     To preach, just as his father had, to strive\nWith old New England devils for the soul.\n\nHe had his children, none of whom would live,\n     And felt God's wrath, but trusted and was brave,\nAdopted others Emily would love \u2014\n\nA stern man but a just one and no slave\n     To outward polish in his speech or act,\nNever forgetting that his father gave\n\nA life of service to the church, a fact\n     That well accounts for all the generous years\nHe took such care his parish never lacked.\n\nWe see the flesh through marble, know his fears\n     To board a ship on Sunday well may show\nA man whose God laughed little, lived on tears.\n\nHe may have driven bargains hard.  We know\n     The history of most great fortunes proves\nThe man who rises, steps on some below,\n\nAnd afterwards he finds that it behooves\n     That he appease his conscience by his tithes.\nSome great philanthropists had cloven hooves.\n\nBut whether conscience prospers or it writhes,\n     The good it does lives after it, and so\nThey well deserve their shining laurel wreathes.\n\nWilliston wrote his conscience long ago\n     Into the charter of his school.  The words\nStill shine upon the fading page and glow\n\nWith all the brightness of crusader's swords.\n     \"Knowledge without goodness\" \u2014 so they read \u2014\n\"Is powerless to do good.\"  The phrase affords\n\nAn insight to the sturdy heart and head\n     Of Williston, for they were words he chose,\nAlthough, indeed, they had been elsewhere said.\n\nOn this foundation, then, the school arose\n     Between the winding river and the hill\nThat speak God's strength in action and repose.\n\nHorace E. Thorner\nNaples, Italy, February 1966<\/pre>\n
All eight sections of Horace Thorner’s “Ode to Williston” are too long to publish here.\u00a0 Readers who would like copies of the entire poem may email archives@williston.com.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Samuel Williston<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A recent social media discussion among members of the Class of 1968 recalled Horace Thorner, English master from 1943 to 1970, a scholar whose breadth of interests and talents was truly extraordinary.\u00a0 Thorner was a poet of frequent insight and technical virtuosity.\u00a0 Some of his work has already appeared on this blog.\u00a0 (See “The Round … Continue reading “A man whose God laughs little . . .”<\/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":[164,138,12],"tags":[179,440,144,5],"class_list":["post-3656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faculty","category-founders","category-williston-academy","tag-horace-thorner","tag-ode-to-williston","tag-poetry","tag-samuel-williston"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3656"}],"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=3656"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4993,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3656\/revisions\/4993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}