George Santayana's "Cape Cod"

The Daily Poem

Goldberry Studios

Education For Kids, Arts, Kids & Family

4.6 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2021

⏱️ 7 minutes

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Summary

Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, known in English as George Santayana (/ˌsæntiˈænə, -ˈɑːnə/;[2] December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952), was a philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Originally from Spain, Santayana was raised and educated in the US from the age of eight and identified himself as an American, although he always retained a valid Spanish passport.[3] At the age of 48, Santayana left his position at Harvard and returned to Europe permanently.

Santayana is popularly known for aphorisms, such as "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it",[4] "Only the dead have seen the end of war",[5] and the definition of beauty as "pleasure objectified".[6] Although an atheist, he treasured the Spanish Catholic values, practices, and worldview in which he was raised.[7] Santayana was a broad-ranging cultural critic spanning many disciplines. He was profoundly influenced by Spinoza's life and thought; and, in many respects, was a devoted Spinozist.[8]

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the Daily Poem. I'm David Kern, and today is Thursday, December 16th, 2021.
0:07.1	Today's poem is by a poet who was born on this day in 1863. That is Jorge Augustine, Nicholas Ruiz de
0:14.1	Sautiana I can't speak Spanish very well, but he is known in English as George Santiana. He lived
0:20.1	from December of 1863 until
0:21.9	September of 1952. He was a philosopher and an essayist and wrote novels and of course he was a
0:27.9	poet. Before I read today's poem, which is called Cape Cod, you might be interested to know that he
0:33.2	is known for phrases for aphorisms such as those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,
0:41.4	or only the dead have seen the end of war. Certainly a well-known writer and very influential in
0:48.5	terms of the ideas that he presented. He wrote a lot of sonnets, but the poem that I'm going to read
0:53.0	today is not a sonnet.
0:57.0	It's called Cape Cod, and it goes like this.
1:06.7	The low sandy beach and the thin scrub pine, the wide reach of bay, and the long skyline.
1:09.0	Oh, I am sick for home.
1:20.5	The salt, salt smell of the thick sea air and the smooth, round stones that the ebb tides wear.
1:23.4	When will the good ship come?
1:29.4	The wretched stumps all charred and burned and the deep soft rut where the cartwheel turned Why is the world so old
1:32.8	The lapping wave
1:35.7	And the broad gray sky
1:37.7	Where the crying crows and the slow gulls fly
1:40.6	Where are the dead untold? The thin, slant willows by the flooded bog, the huge stranded
1:52.7	Hulk and the floating log, sorrow with life began. And among the dark pines
2:01.7	and along the flat shore,
	...

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