Don Perrett wrote:
> Poetry of Joyce Kilmer
> Trees and Other Poems
> To add to the concept of science text vs. literary license. I submit the
> following.
>
> Trees
>
> (For Mrs. Henry Mills Alden)
>
> I think that I shall never see
> A poem lovely as a tree.
>
> A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
> Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
>
> A tree that looks at God all day,
> And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
>
> A tree that may in Summer wear
> A nest of robins in her hair;
>
> Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
> Who intimately lives with rain.
>
> Poems are made by fools like me,
> But only God can make a tree.
>
> While this poem in no way was intended to be a factual scientific text to
> describe a tree, it can be proven scientifically that a tree does in fact
> have it's roots(hungry mouth) in the ground(earth's breast). It is also a
> "fact" that trees stand high up, closer to God(per se) than we. Also fact,
> birds do land and live in trees. Fact: trees do get snowed on and
> requires(intimately lives) rain. And just as anyone can write a poem, only
> God could inspire the Bible.
>
> Point: Language, culture, history, science does not change the fact that
> while the Bible was not intended to be a science book, it has and will
> continue to be proven by science and historians alike. This is all the more
> reason to be in wonder of God and how he is able to speak through us using
> our own words but speaking the truth and "fact".
Well, no. A trees has no "mouth," "hair," or "bosom" or eyes with
which to "look at God." The earth has no "breast." & one doesn't compare
poems with trees by the ways they look.
& if I left it at that I would rightly be criticized for being totally
insensitive to poetry & indeed to language itself. The poem connveys some
truth about the world & about ourselves but it is not a scientific document and
an attempt to "harmonize" it with a text on botany would just result in
silliness. _A fortiori_, an attempt to interpret the true & authoritative text
of Gen.1 as scientifically correct by pretending that the days are geological
epochs &c is a waste of time.
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
"The Science-Theology Interface"
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