When nature wants a man

[backbreaker]

I am not a big poem person but I read this and thought it was very inspiring.

By Angela Morgan

When Nature wants to drill a man
And thrill a man,
And skill a man,
When Nature wants to mould a man
To play the noblest part;
When she yearns with all her heart
To create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall praise--​

Watch her method, watch her ways!
How she ruthlessly perfects
Whom she royally elects;
How she hammers him and hurts him
And with mighty blows converts him
Into trial shapes of clay which only Nature understands--​

While his tortured heart is crying and he lifts beseeching hands!--
How she bends, but never breaks,
When his good she undertakes....
How she uses whom she chooses
And with every purpose fuses him,
By every art induces him
To try his splendor out--
Nature knows what she's about.​

When Nature wants to take a man
And shake a man
And wake a man;
When Nature wants to make a man
To do the Future's will;
When she tries with all her skill
And she yearns with all her soul
To create him large and whole....
With what cunning she prepares him!
​

How she goads and never spares him,
How she whets him and she frets him
And in poverty begets him....
How she often disappoints
Whom she sacredly anoints,
With what wisdom she will hide him,
Never minding what betide him
Though his genius sob with slighting and his pride may not forget!
Bids him struggle harder yet.
Makes him lonely
So that only
God's high messages shall reach him
So that she may surely teach him
What the Hierarchy planned.​

Though he may not understand
Gives him [COLOR=orange ! important][FONT=&quot][COLOR=orange ! important][FONT=&quot]passions[/FONT][/FONT][/color][/color] to command--
How remorselessly she spurs him,
With terrific ardor stirs him
When she poignantly prefers him!​

When Nature wants to name a man
And fame a man
And tame a man;
When Nature wants to shame a man
To do his heavenly best....
When she tries the highest test
That her reckoning may bring--
When she wants a god or king!--
How she reins him and restrains him
So his body scarce contains him
While she fires him
And inspires him!
Keeps him yearning, ever burning for a tantalising goal--
Lures and lacerates his soul.
Sets a challenge for his spirit,
Draws it higher when he's near it--
Makes a jungle, that he clear it;
Makes a desert, that he fear it
And subdue it if he can--
So doth Nature make a man.​

Then, to test his spirit's wrath
Hurls a mountain in his path--
Puts a bitter choice before him
And relentless stands o'er him.
"Climb, or perish!" so she says....
Watch her purpose, watch her ways!​

Nature's plan is wondrous kind
Could we understand her mind ...
Fools are they who call her blind.
When his feet are torn and bleeding
Yet his spirit mounts unheeding,
All his higher powers speeding
Blazing newer paths and fine;
When the force that is divine
Leaps to challenge every failure and his ardor still is sweet
And [COLOR=orange ! important][FONT=&quot][COLOR=orange ! important][FONT=&quot]love[/FONT][/FONT][/color][/color] and hope are burning in the presence of defeat....​

Lo, the crisis! Lo, the shout
That must call the leader out.
When the people need salvation
Doth he come to lead the nation....
Then doth Nature show her plan
When the world has found--a man!
​

 

[ArcBound]

Yeah but I feel like as a race man has already conquered nature. We live in a relatively comfortable lifestyle compared to older times. We don't have to worry about big animals eating us or other people coming at us with swords or a lance. We worry about the getting the next generation iPhone or constantly of how we look to others. Stupid ****.

Basically we have no adversity. Nothing to challenge us and makes us grow spiritually into a man. You challenge muscle by putting weight on it so that it will grow. But nature's influence is not there to put weight on boys to turn them into men.

But I also liked the message the poem sent. That's why people will fall for real men.

 

[Julius_Seizeher]

Yes we live a comfortable lifestyle, and our growth is thus stunted.

But to think that we have conquered nature is a fool's errand. In a physical sense, this planet could kill all of us if it wanted to, and within 10,000 years it would be as if we never existed. Milllenia to us, a passing thought to earth.

In a metaphysical/psychological sense, we will NEVER conquer nature, for nature is what we are. At any time we may change the rudder or the sails, but the inner reasons and motives for doing so will never change.

Excellent poem. Our struggles are the fire that makes us into steel, they are what define us.

 

[Jules Verne]

When nature wants a man, nature calls for Ace Ventura.

 

[Atom Smasher]

ArcBound,

This poem is not really about "nature" at all. It is about the struggles a man must face in order to achieve authentic manhood.

You could plug in the word, "life" or any number of other words to represent an intelligence or set of laws and dynamics that are involved in shaping a man. In reality, that force or intelligence is really the fulcrum upon which a man leverages his life. HE is REALLY the intelligence who recognizes the forces that are seemingly against him but against which he hones his will and perseverence until he forges himself into a razor-sharp implement able to make his mark in the world in a meaningful and lasting way.

I find it interesting that a woman wrote this. Back in the day, women had an inkling of what it took to become and to be a man. Except for an extremely rare exception here or there, today's women don't even have the tiniest trace of understanding about this.

Like Backbreaker, I too find this poem inspiring.

 

[ArcBound]

ArcBound,

This poem is not really about "nature" at all. It is about the struggles a man must face in order to achieve authentic manhood.

You could plug in the word, "life" or any number of other words to represent an intelligence or set of laws and dynamics that are involved in shaping a man. In reality, that force or intelligence is really the fulcrum upon which a man leverages his life. HE is REALLY the intelligence who recognizes the forces that are seemingly against him but against which he hones his will and perseverence until he forges himself into a razor-sharp implement able to make his mark in the world in a meaningful and lasting way.

I find it interesting that a woman wrote this. Back in the day, women had an inkling of what it took to become and to be a man. Except for an extremely rare exception here or there, today's women don't even have the tiniest trace of understanding about this.

Like Backbreaker, I too find this poem inspiring.

True that but I was just trying to say that nature used to be the source of most struggles that men had to face, my bad. Kudos for backbreaker for finding it though..

 

[Atom Smasher]

There's a lot of merit to what you're saying, though, ArcBound.

One time when I was in my late 20's I fell asleep in my boat (a 16 foot Glasstron) on a very windy day of 35 mph gusts. I was anchored in a channel off the Long Island Sound, and it was so windy that there were whitecaps even in the channel. When I want my nap, I'll take it no matter what!

I woke up to find that the wind had dragged the boat and the anchor right into the rocky shoreline. With the wind howling like mad, I started up the engine and tried to maneuver to get some slack in the anchor line so I could pull up the anchor. The wind was too much and too unpredictable, and the anchor line got wrapped around the propeller shaft. Now I had an engine I couldn't run, with my anchor line so tight because of the wind that it seemed it would snap at any moment.

There was only one thing to do. I had to jump into the water with a knife and cut the anchor line from around the prop shaft while trying to hold the boat away from the rocks that were on either side of the boat. What would happen to the boat if I freed it but then the wind would be free to destroy it on the rocks? I was determined to find out.

I jumped into the water with my knife and started cutting into the anchor line. I was able to stand on the channel bottom but just barely. For a full hour I hacked away at that line, trying to hold the boat steady as the wind and waves mercilessly pounded me. I realized that nature had challenged me to a fight, and I was determined to step up to the fight, win or lose.

I truly never felt more alive than when I was in that direct fight with nature. She was struggling to take my boat and possibly my life, and I was struggling to retain my property from her grasp and to live to tell about it.

I was fully ALIVE, and it was the most beautiful feeling I've ever experienced. Finally, I made my final cut and scrambled onto the boat with the last ounce of energy I had left. I threw her into gear as the wind carried her to the rocks and deftly maneuvered her, in reverse, out of harm's way. The 65 hp engine barely had enough power to allow me to back up against the wind, but I made it.

I will never forget that experience as long as I live. Never before and never since have I felt so full of life. When nature comes calling to swallow up what is yours and to even claim your own life, one finds out what it is to be a man in the sense that we're discussing.

So your points are all well-taken, ArcBound. Man against nature is an excellent forger of manhood, and there is not enough of it. We have to manufacture it today.

It is a shame that here in the US there is absolutely no cultural ritual for ushuring boys into manhood. Boys need this kind of ritual DESPERATELY, and it is non-existant in our culture. What a shame that something so desperately needed is completely lacking. That is one reason that so many of us grew up as semi girly-men. We never made that separation from our female influences (mothers, teachers, etc.) and were never told, "Congratulations. You have stepped up to the challenge. You are now a man".