Frederick Turner and The Reason of the Sun

I have been feeling ill for the last couple of days so my class attendance has been abysmal. In an effort to redeem myself in the eyes of Professor Sexson and the class I will attempt to get a decent blog entry in this week.

I have just left the auditorium where myself and others listened to Frederick Turner read a portion of The Undiscovered Country as well as some other poems. First off, I would like to say that if Mr. Turner ever decided to enter the business of reading books for audio tapes, I would probably buy whatever literature he was recording, even if it was the latest Dan Brown novel, because that's how pleasant it is to listen to him read out loud. I wish I had recorded his rendition of the Wordsworth poem for repeated listening, for it was simply a wonderful auditory pleasure to hear it in such a fashion.

Secondly, I was unable to write down many of the lines that caught my attention, but I managed to scribble down a few that particularly drew my favor. The first was, "begins to lose the reason of the sun." Now I cannot tell you where at in The Undiscovered Country this line appears or whom or what it pertains to, all I know is that it struck me enough to jot it down in relatively ineligible handwriting. Historically, the sun has stood as a symbol of enlightenment, so "losing the reason of the sun" is an altogether striking statement, and it immediately brought King Lear to mind. Lear's descent into madness is surrounded by a literal swirling tempest, which also serves as a metaphor for both the state of his mind as well as his court. This storm seems to be completely opposite of the clear logos that the sun symbolizes, and "losing the reason of the sun" is an utterly accurate assessment of Lear's mental state.

"His book on time has turned into one odd mess," was the second Turner quotation I had written. Now, mind you these may not be completely accurate transcriptions of his poem, but I tried my best to keep up with his reading. This was another quote that I thought related to Lear. The Fool makes a point of saying to Lear that he has grown old, but not wise. Lear's book on time turned disastrous for him near the end. And how could one not term the conclusion of King Lear as "one odd mess"? Perhaps I just have Lear on the brain, but I would love to ask Turner if The Undiscovered Country could serve as a description, or metaphor, for Lear's own state of mind.