As the final rippling interplay of the Amen chorus dies away, you are left reflecting on the words. Most come from Isaiah and they’re a mixed bag. Some are sublime…He was despised, despised of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
…especially the deliberately understated “acquainted”. On the other hand, bathos may be only a crotchet or two away…
How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace.
…raising a number of anatomical questions. I was familiar with both the above but this was the first time I was aware of the implications of…
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain...
… so paradise will look like Lincolnshire superimposed with a New York street grid pattern. Climbers not welcome. If Yahweh doesn’t like gradients or curves (Motorcyclists, too, it seems will not be welcome) why did he create them?
6 comments:
hot flat and crowded!
For some reason I recall that you quoted those lines from Isaiah to good effect in the Handel context at least 30 years ago in a rather ugly pub on the corner of a street in London called Bowling Green Lane. They are worth repeating and form a benign furrow in the mind. Hard though to separate them from the music.
Maybe its Ragnarök or the attack of the killer glaciers (sounds like a B-movie title, huh?!).
I bet if Isaiah had had a motorcycle, he'd have left the mountains and hills quite alone. Lack of vision, is all it is.
Hattie: We must be talking about another version of paradise and/or Lincolnshire. However I'd accept your four-word summary as a good working definition of hell.
Plutarch: Repeating oneself is a sign of growing old. A lapse of 30 years is no excuse.
RW (zS): If it were, and if it came on a DVD, I'd immediately check the back the back of the box to find the duration. Definitely a story that would run and run... make that crawl and crawl.
Julia: Wouldn't fancy sharing a narrow Herefordshire lane with a motorbiking Isaiah - he'd reckon he could see round the next (five thousand) corners. The question is would he, or would he not, wear a crash helmet?
Some of Lincolnshire is very pleasant motorcycling.
There is also the (apocryphal)bible quote which appeals to Triumph riders since "the roar of David's triumph could be heard throughout the land".
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