George Steiner: "I summon up remembrance of things past"

George Steiner on the necessity of memorizing important texts for the preservation of civilization.
Shakespeare's Sonnet 30:

"When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoanèd moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end."

Category:

Education

Tags:

• George
• Steiner
• Willem
• Kayzer
• Schoonheid
• en
• Troost
• Beauty
• Consolation
• Pasternak
• Shakespeare
• Sonnet
• 30
• Memory
• Philosophy

[videoclog]

Wonderful! Can you please upload the complete episode? Would love to see him searching his library for the Hemingway quote again. Many thanks in advance.