Dancing in the Flaw

Today's selection from Poem-A-Day is by Spanish-born American philosopher, critic, dramatist, essayist, novelist, educator, and poet George Santayana (1863-1952). He taught philosophy at Harvard University for 23 years, where Gertrude Stein, Robert Frost, Walter Lippman, and T.S. Eliot were among his students. A proponent of critical realism, Santayana is considered one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century.

There May Be Chaos Still Around the World
by George Santayana

There may be chaos still around the world, 

This little world that in my thinking lies; 

For mine own bosom is the paradise 

Where all my life's fair visions are unfurled. 

Within my nature's shell I slumber curled, 

Unmindful of the changing outer skies, 

Where now, perchance, some new-born Eros flies, 

Or some old Cronos from his throne is hurled. 

I heed them not; or if the subtle night 

Haunt me with deities I never saw, 

I soon mine eyelid's drowsy curtain draw 

To hide their myriad faces from my sight. 

They threat in vain; the whirlwind cannot awe 

A happy snow-flake dancing in the flaw.