Research Catalog
Secrets of the oracle : a history of wisdom from Zeno to Yeats
- Title
- Secrets of the oracle : a history of wisdom from Zeno to Yeats / W. David Shaw.
- Author
- Shaw, W. David (William David)
- Publication
- Toronto ; Buffalo : University of Toronto Press, c2009.
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| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person. | Text | Use in library | JFE 10-2385 | Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315 |
Details
- Description
- x, 387 p.; 24 cm.
- Summary
- "What is wisdom? Where does it come from? Where can we find it? And what does it mean in our lives? In Secrets of the Oracle, W. David Shaw explores these questions by turning to the works of wisdom writers, whose words retain their meaning and transformative power even centuries after they were written." "Wisdom literature exists in two shaping forms - the aphorism, geared towards the past, and the oracle, a revolutionary impulse looking to the future. Secrets of the Oracle discusses both types of wisdom, finding them in the works of poets and philosophers from Tennyson and Zeno to Yeats and George Berkeley, from Browning and Schleiermacher to T.S. Eliot and F.H. Bradley. The book also discusses the contribution to wisdom of Jesus and the author of Ecclesiastes, of Abraham Lincoln and Norman Maclean. Part celebration of wisdom found and part lament for wisdom lost, Secrets of the Oracle is convincing in its assertion that wisdom articulates what is and offers creative visions of the future."--BOOK JACKET.
- Subjects
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references (p. [361]-373) and index.
- Contents
- Pt. 1, An owl for Apollo : wisdom and the poets. Descent of the owl : philosophy among the poets ; Tennyson and Zeno : three infinities ; How poets die to time : the sublime oracle ; Making peace with time : the beautiful oracle ; The ruins of time : the grotesque oracle -- Pt. 2, Homage to wisdom : from Delphi to zen. Wisdom and the logos : John's Gospel to Four quartets ; Gnostic wisdom : parable and koan ; Paradox and oracle : crucible versus mirror ; Copy-speech and counter-love : Wordsworth and Frost ; 'A river runs through it' and Joyce's 'The dead' -- Pt. 3, Owls, bulls, and serpents : wisdom or guile?. The wise owl : George Eliot's arrested wit ; The serpent of irony : wisdom or guile? ; Groucho Marx to Bernard Shaw : the Irish bull ; Oracles of wit : Oscar Wilde and Northrop Frye -- Pt. 4, Wisdom at Gettysburg : rewriting the oracles. From Delphi to Gettysburg : changing the covenant ; Coleridge and Huxely : experiment or decree? ; Evolving oracles : Newman, Browning, and Shakespeare ; An underground oracle : 'look in your heart and write'.
- Call Number
- JFE 10-2385
- ISBN
- 9781442640344
- 1442640340
- LCCN
- 2009292677
- OCLC
- 427676488
- Author
- Shaw, W. David (William David)
- Title
- Secrets of the oracle : a history of wisdom from Zeno to Yeats / W. David Shaw.
- Imprint
- Toronto ; Buffalo : University of Toronto Press, c2009.
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references (p. [361]-373) and index.
- Research Call Number
- JFE 10-2385