Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
will/word
English answer:
resolve/pledge
Added to glossary by
Yvonne Gallagher
Jan 8, 2017 09:06
7 yrs ago
English term
will/word
English
Art/Literary
General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
Hello everyone,
Poet and playwright Archibald MacLeish defines this place for the potential quantum leader, “the hero in the play"
Who shall be the hero in the play?
And where, upon what stone or throne or will or
Word or plinth or power shall he stand
To still the world to peace again; to poise
Eternity upon a turning pole
Again: to make us men:
To make us whole?
Do I understand correctly that "will" and "word" do not mean some kind of pedestal/throne and mean instead something like "order"?
Thank you.
Poet and playwright Archibald MacLeish defines this place for the potential quantum leader, “the hero in the play"
Who shall be the hero in the play?
And where, upon what stone or throne or will or
Word or plinth or power shall he stand
To still the world to peace again; to poise
Eternity upon a turning pole
Again: to make us men:
To make us whole?
Do I understand correctly that "will" and "word" do not mean some kind of pedestal/throne and mean instead something like "order"?
Thank you.
Change log
Jan 13, 2017 10:07: Yvonne Gallagher Created KOG entry
Responses
+1
5 hrs
Yvonne Gallagher
Ireland
Ireland
Native in English
&
English
Specializes in field
Ireland
right word, right place. everytime
Native in: English (Variants: US, Canadian, Irish, UK) 
Works in: French to English, Spanish to English, English, and 1 more.
Related KudoZ points
:
659
Selected
resolve/pledge
also intent/vow/declaration and other synonyms are possible.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/will
(in particular:)
3. A desire, purpose, or determination, especially of one in authority: It is the sovereign's will that the prisoner be spared.
"Word" is about a pledge/declaration/commitment of the leader
This whole passage is about a leader, from one who is declared leader or crowned on a stone (see below) or makes pronouncements from a throne, a plinth or other position of power. The will or word of the leader are likened to these positions of power where he will take his stance
"To still the world to peace again; to poise
Eternity upon a turning pole
Again: to make us men:
To make us whole?"
BTW the "stone" being referred to is most likely the Stone of Destiny or Lia Fáil (AKA the Coronation Stone/Stone of Scone) supposedly brought to Ireland by Jeremiah in 583 BC and from there to Scotland and later to England and now returned to Scotland
http://www.philipcoppens.com/stone_destiny.html
http://asis.com/users/stag/stone.html
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Note added at 6 hrs (2017-01-08 15:23:31 GMT)
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Also, children in play will also stand on a stone and declare themselves to be "King of the Castle"
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Note added at 10 hrs (2017-01-08 19:39:06 GMT)
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I'd really need more context to be sure of this. I don't know this work very well as I read it years ago and don't have it here to reread. But this review of it may help you decide?
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detai...
"MacLeish said several times that in the long poem "Actfive," published in Actfive and Other Poems in 1948, he tried to come to terms with his and the world's experiences in the immediately preceding years: the challenge and suffering of World War II, the opportunities and failures of the peace, the loss of so many faiths. Conquistador had offered an implicit choice between god, hero, and man; "Actfive," in its three scenes, redefines and makes that choice. With the God gone, the King dethroned, and Man murdered—all in elegiac, characteristically despairing lines—the heroes of the age are then thrust forward in their emptiness through sardonically abrupt rhythms. They give way, in turn, to "the shapes of flesh and bone," in whose moving, subtly musical, indirect voices MacLeish's long involvement with Matthew Arnold is fulfilled. The result is a poetic affirmation, "humanist and existentialist," according to Luytens, for an even darker, more confused, post-Arnoldian time.
So I imagine it's "play" as in: who will play the role of hero now? Are all heroes dead? (and we'd normally just say "children in play"without an article). But like most poetry, multiple meanings are possible. i just wanted to point out the significance of a/the stone, even in children's play! But a hero is needed to return peace and balance to the world...
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Note added at 5 days (2017-01-13 10:04:04 GMT) Post-grading
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Glad to have helped
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/will
(in particular:)
3. A desire, purpose, or determination, especially of one in authority: It is the sovereign's will that the prisoner be spared.
"Word" is about a pledge/declaration/commitment of the leader
This whole passage is about a leader, from one who is declared leader or crowned on a stone (see below) or makes pronouncements from a throne, a plinth or other position of power. The will or word of the leader are likened to these positions of power where he will take his stance
"To still the world to peace again; to poise
Eternity upon a turning pole
Again: to make us men:
To make us whole?"
BTW the "stone" being referred to is most likely the Stone of Destiny or Lia Fáil (AKA the Coronation Stone/Stone of Scone) supposedly brought to Ireland by Jeremiah in 583 BC and from there to Scotland and later to England and now returned to Scotland
http://www.philipcoppens.com/stone_destiny.html
http://asis.com/users/stag/stone.html
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 6 hrs (2017-01-08 15:23:31 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Also, children in play will also stand on a stone and declare themselves to be "King of the Castle"
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 10 hrs (2017-01-08 19:39:06 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
I'd really need more context to be sure of this. I don't know this work very well as I read it years ago and don't have it here to reread. But this review of it may help you decide?
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detai...
"MacLeish said several times that in the long poem "Actfive," published in Actfive and Other Poems in 1948, he tried to come to terms with his and the world's experiences in the immediately preceding years: the challenge and suffering of World War II, the opportunities and failures of the peace, the loss of so many faiths. Conquistador had offered an implicit choice between god, hero, and man; "Actfive," in its three scenes, redefines and makes that choice. With the God gone, the King dethroned, and Man murdered—all in elegiac, characteristically despairing lines—the heroes of the age are then thrust forward in their emptiness through sardonically abrupt rhythms. They give way, in turn, to "the shapes of flesh and bone," in whose moving, subtly musical, indirect voices MacLeish's long involvement with Matthew Arnold is fulfilled. The result is a poetic affirmation, "humanist and existentialist," according to Luytens, for an even darker, more confused, post-Arnoldian time.
So I imagine it's "play" as in: who will play the role of hero now? Are all heroes dead? (and we'd normally just say "children in play"without an article). But like most poetry, multiple meanings are possible. i just wanted to point out the significance of a/the stone, even in children's play! But a hero is needed to return peace and balance to the world...
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 5 days (2017-01-13 10:04:04 GMT) Post-grading
--------------------------------------------------
Glad to have helped
Example sentence:
http://asis.com/users/stag/stone.html
Note from asker:
| Thank you, Gallagy. And could I specify one thing regarding your remark "children in play will also stand on a stone"? So "play" in "Who shall be the hero in the play?" means "game" or "play" as in "The chldren were playing outside", not "play" as performed by actors in a theatre? |
| Thank you again, Gallagy. |
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Many thanks to everyone.
Thank you, Gallagy."
+1
30 mins
Margarida Martins Costelha
Portugal
Portugal
Native in English
&
English
Works in field
Portugal
25 YEARS OF HAPPY CLIENTS
Native in: English (Variant: UK) 
, Portuguese (Variant: European/Portugal)
Works in: Portuguese to English, English to Portuguese, French to English, and 7 more.
Related KudoZ points
:
3
inclination/principle
Yes, I agree that they refer to principles, not thrones or pedestals.
As I understand it, "stone or throne or will or word or plinth or power" are all factors which the hero can use as foundations ("base") for his/her actions.
As I understand it, "stone or throne or will or word or plinth or power" are all factors which the hero can use as foundations ("base") for his/her actions.
+1
17 hrs
Juan Arturo Blackmore Zerón
Mexico
Mexico
Mexico
Confianza, certeza, creatividad.
Native in: Spanish (Variant: Mexican)
Works in: English to Spanish, Italian to Spanish, French to Spanish, and 6 more.
decree/signal
Will: decree, purpose, order, command. Word: signal, maxim and also order, command as in will.
Peer comment(s):
| neutral |
B D Finch
: This is about poetic meanings, not just quoting a dictionary.// I b****y well hope so! I take it you limit yourself to doggerel, e.g. your translation of the effort by Sergeant Joyce Kilmer.
8 hrs
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Do you really know about poetry in English?
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| agree |
acetran
1 day 8 hrs
|
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Thanks Acetran!
|
+4
3 hrs
intent / powerful proclamation or promise
Yes, you are right that they "do not mean some kind of pedestal/throne", but wrong to think they "mean instead something like "order". "Will" means intent (a stronger term than "intention") that may be the intent of a single person, an interest group or the people in general. "Word" is, in this sense, a proclamation of what should be or a promise.
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Note added at 1 day2 hrs (2017-01-09 11:44:27 GMT)
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As noted in my comment on Gallagy's answer, religious allusions may also be intended: Word may be positioned deliberately to have a capital "W", see the Gospel of John for its use as divine will or even divinity itself:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
St Peter's name means "stone" and is associated with a house (i.e. the church) being built upon rock and not upon sand. There is also the metaphorical use of "cornerstone" in a non-religious, but similar, context.
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Note added at 1 day5 hrs (2017-01-09 14:23:35 GMT)
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It seems that McLeish was a person concerned with religion and involved in his local church. His play JB is about Job and whether god is good. He would, given the religiosity of the US, have been likely to expect his readers and audiences to pick up biblical and religious references.
https://thevalueofsparrows.com/2014/06/20/job-archibald-macl...
"Then, that winter morning some forty-odd years ago, I read a sermon MacLeish had given in his church in Farmington, Connecticut, as included in the Glatzer volume. In it, he explains what he was trying to say about God, Man, and suffering in his play."
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 day2 hrs (2017-01-09 11:44:27 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
As noted in my comment on Gallagy's answer, religious allusions may also be intended: Word may be positioned deliberately to have a capital "W", see the Gospel of John for its use as divine will or even divinity itself:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
St Peter's name means "stone" and is associated with a house (i.e. the church) being built upon rock and not upon sand. There is also the metaphorical use of "cornerstone" in a non-religious, but similar, context.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 day5 hrs (2017-01-09 14:23:35 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
It seems that McLeish was a person concerned with religion and involved in his local church. His play JB is about Job and whether god is good. He would, given the religiosity of the US, have been likely to expect his readers and audiences to pick up biblical and religious references.
https://thevalueofsparrows.com/2014/06/20/job-archibald-macl...
"Then, that winter morning some forty-odd years ago, I read a sermon MacLeish had given in his church in Farmington, Connecticut, as included in the Glatzer volume. In it, he explains what he was trying to say about God, Man, and suffering in his play."
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Peter Simon
1 hr
|
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Thanks Peter
|
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| agree |
Charles Davis
: I think this is essentially what these words are intended to mean
21 hrs
|
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Thanks Charles
|
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| agree |
María
23 hrs
|
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Thanks Maria
|
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| neutral |
Yvonne Gallagher
: why religion when the context is about leadership? Nothing to do with building churches at all imo
23 hrs
|
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Of course it's nothing to do with building churches! The point is that this is one of many associations evoked by these words in particular and the language of the piece in general.
|
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| agree |
katsy
23 hrs
|
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Thanks katsy
|
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