Analysis of The Immeasurable Measure of Alchemical Measure
Karl Constantine FOLKES 1935 (Portland)
PREFACE:
“Double, double, toil and trouble.
Let our passions burn and bubble.
From this dust and soil of stubble.
Cleanse us now of all the rubble.”
The value of metaphysical poetry
is immeasurable;
beyond any human estimate or gauge.
Its wealth, its measure, its meter,
its absolute computation,
can ne’er be defined or delineated.
Metaphysical poetry is undefinable.
Once it’s demarcated or defined,
it is already being transformed.
The irony of human measurements!
We cannot outline the value
of that which is alchemical;
of that which is transformative;
and is ever cleansing;
of that which is truly alchemical
as ouroboros of integration.
The value of metaphysical poetry
exceeds the wisdom of the metaphysician.
The metaphysician is merely an agent;
a servant of the metaphysical process.
The metaphysician as alchemist,
is, as if it were, a poet;
a poet possessed with a rare coin;
a poet possessed with a rare gem;
a priceless, alembic gemstone;
a metaphysical ‘bitcoin’ of priceless value.
A priceless ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ coin
of rare currency and mintage;
whose value perpetually increases
each moment it is humanly assessed.
A marketplace bitcoin is a fragmented token;
a crypto-market token of fiscal manipulation;
much unlike that of alchemical poetry:
a superlative wholesome coin of the psyche,
illuminating the caverns of the mind
with compassionate understanding.
Immeasurable in value, alchemical poetry,
bears these healing properties:
Spiritual love, providential guidance;
and profound appreciation of the divine.
We cannot estimate or assess
the spiritual extent of metaphysical poetry.
We cannot assess its innate quality.
Its value is immeasurable.
Its value and effects surpass the physical;
surpass all human judgments.
We can place no finite value
on that which manifests ‘uncertainty principles’;
on that which is ever transforming;
on that which transforms us in the process.
We cannot measure that
which is beyond our own measures.
We cannot measure that
which is the very barometer —
of our own human measurements;
whose wealth is beyond our own measures.
Dwelling in a world of matter,
we focus on the corporeal;
on what is known by the five senses:
Seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching.
But there exists a superior realm;
a realm of greater existentialism;
a more divine ‘Chaucerian’ realm —
beyond the physical.
An alchemical realm of Higher Order.
There, measurements surpass the mortal.
Our measurements are physical.
Those of alchemical poetic coinage,
are in the domain of the metaphysical;
beyond all human measurements.
Metaphysical poetry is transformative.
It strives after the Godly.
It is an alembic of transformation.
As calcination, it initiates us,
ever into higher states of consciousness;
leading to our purification.
So then by fire, water, air and earth,
we steadily move on to excel;
to attain the art of our ascension;
alchemically our individuation.
POSTFACE:
“Double, double, toil and trouble.
Let our passions burn and bubble.
From this dust and soil of stubble.
Cleanse us now of all the rubble.”
Scheme | aBBBB Cbxdex bfxg hbijbe Cexk xxlmxh lxxx eeccfj cxxx kccbbg hxjk NoNdgo dbxj pmpbdb bxbg iceaae xxee aBBBB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (23%) |
Metre | 10 10101010 110101010 11101110 11111010 01010100100 10100 01101010011 11110110 110010 1110110100 010010011 111101 110101001 0100110100 1101010 11111 11111 011010 1111101 111010 01010100100 01010101 01110110 0101001001 011100 11110010 010011011 010011011 01011 00100111010 010010011 11100010 11001000010 1101110001 01011010010 01010101100010 101111100 001001011010 0100010101 10100010 01000101100 1110100 1000101010 00100101001 110100101 010000110100100 11001101100 11010100 110001010100 0111010 1111110 111100100100 111110010 111011001 110101 110110110 110101 110100100 110110100 1110110110 10001110 110101 111110110 1010101010 1101001001 011101 010111 010100 11111010 110001010 101001100 11101010 10001100100 01110100 010010011 1110010 11111010 11101001 10011011100 101100010 1111010101 110011101 10101110010 0100101 1 10101010 110101010 11101110 11111010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 3,116 |
Words | 573 |
Sentences | 39 |
Stanzas | 18 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 6, 4, 6, 4, 6, 4, 6, 4, 6, 4, 6, 4, 6, 4, 6, 4, 5 |
Lines Amount | 90 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 137 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 27 |
About this poem
As the modern Internet and the present state of technology advance digitally we, as a species of ‘Homo Sapiens,’ are steadily and increasingly so exponentially, experiencing the atomization of human society on a global scale to the extent that we have become robotically aware (perhaps unaware?) of the increasing devaluation of that which historically and traditionally has connected us as civil communities, societies, nations and nationalities. Today, we yearn to return to things of lasting cultural value. Metaphorical alchemical poetry, serving humanity as a transformative agent of human societies, offers that hope to restore the world to attain a renaissance of moral and ethical wealth. That is the overriding incentive for my composing poetry for our contemplation and for our self-reflection. Postscript: Subsequent to my having composed this poem and having posted it online on poetry.com I have discovered via the curiosity of Internet research conducted by me on Tuesday, September 19, 2023, that a similar and much earlier commentary on the immeasurable essence of God, and relating to the metaphysical theological poetry of George Herbert (1593-1633), English poet, orator and priest of the Church of England, has been made by the Reverend Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, Archdeacon of Liverpool of the Parish of Saint James, Liverpool, United Kingdom, in which she reveals how the nature of God and of the Divine Love of God in the poetical works of George Herbert, in his poem, “The Agony,” is described as beyond human measure, emphasizing this fact of the Divine in this parsimonious manner: “How can we measure the immeasurable….” Describing the divine sacrificial love of Christ on the cross for humanity, as expressed by the penitent worshiper in the sacrament of the Holy Communion or The Lord’s Supper, George Herbert, in the third and final stanza of his “Agony” poem, states passionately: “Who knows not Love, let him assay, And taste that juice, which on the crosse a pike Did set again abroach; then let him say if ever he did taste the like. Love in that liquor sweet and most divine, Which my God feels as blood; but I, as wine.” In great awe of the Divine, I declare that my more recently composed poem, that I have named “The Immeasurable Measure of Alchemical Measure,” pales in comparison with the immeasurable awe and majesty of God. By the mysterious virtues of synchronistic vision, I am blessed to have encountered a medium and guidance that points to the divine power and authority of the Holy Spirit. more »
Written on September 12, 2023
Submitted by karlcfolkes on September 12, 2023
Modified by karlcfolkes on September 30, 2023
- 2:52 min read
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"The Immeasurable Measure of Alchemical Measure" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/168807/the-immeasurable-measure-of-alchemical-measure>.
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