Time Seen Through Poetry, Music and Etymology

Today my mind has acted like a compass unable to locate and settle on true north and I wandered about looking at time in poetry, music and finally word etymologies. Even for me, that combination is a bit weird but then I often find myself going in different directions at the drop of a thought especially if I think I might run into something I didn’t know, or something that has vexed me and I need an answer. Though odd, today’s walkabout has confirmed again my belief that elements of the concept of time can be found nearly everywhere and they are capable of revealing things that are unique and hidden in plain sight.

            Time and Poetry

I began my walkabout by wondering if time could be linked to poetry and I simply typed the phrase ‘time and poetry’ into my search engine and up popped a list of 16,700,000 results in 0.64 seconds. I chose topic one: https://www.poemhunter.com and was delighted because in addition to a title, the poet’s name and the text of the poem, I had the additional pleasure of seeing the text and hearing it read aloud. I found poems about time passing, about time and love, about the importance of time, about time as precious and about time running out. Not bad for a few minutes of simply looking around. Yes, I do like poetry.

            Time and Music

Disclaimer: When I was young, I actually tried, dramatically and unsuccessfully, to learn how to play both the accordion and the violin but I still learned to love music. I believe that I learned to love classical music because of a radio program sponsored by American Airlines out of Chicago called Music till Dawn.  I listened to that program on a tall wooden framed Philco radio in my bedroom almost every night when I was in my teens.

When I typed in time and music I discovered concepts which had eluded me in youth explained and pictures that could have helped me to make a connection with the little symbols named notes, sharps and flats which are found on sheet music. I was really fascinated by a simple picture of a piano keyboard which could be placed on the piano above the keys as a visual guide and as a reminder. Pictures and the use of simple words like forks and chopsticks helped me to see what I could not see and grasp as a child. It is difficult for me to draw a picture of a piano keyboard with just words but read the words first and then turn to the web site shown below for clarification. The black keys are in groups of two (chopsticks) and three (fork). The key to the left of the chopsticks is the note C and the key to the left of the fork is the note F. Wonder of wonders it made sense and so did the later explanations of sharps and flats. All of this doesn’t mean that I can now learn to play the piano or the accordion but a light went on in my head and the room was no longer dark. http://www.dummies.com/art-center/music/piano/how-to-identify-the-keys-on-a-piano/.

            Time and Etymology

My original goal for today was to merely clarify the meaning of the word “saeculum”.  I found that it can be defined as a length of time roughly equal to the potential lifetime of a person or the equivalent of the complete renewal of a given human population. Here, I was reminded that etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time. Examining saeculum at https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/saeculum, I discovered  the classical and Ecclesiastical pronunciations of this word differ. The classical Saeculum is pronounced (sae-ku-lum) and Ecclesiastical is pronounced as (se.ku.lum). I also learned that the letters ‘sae-” mean to sow, bind, knit and tie together. Those meanings are joined by the addition of the Latin suffix –culum  to form some nouns derived from verbs. I even discovered a list of “Latin words suffixed with the suffix –culum “ at: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Latin_words_suffixed_with-culum.

For good measure, I learned that the Romans picked up the word saeculum from an extremely successful nation of peoples who were named Etruscans. Etruscans believed that their nation would exist only through ten lifetimes and would then end.  It turns out they were correct!

Promise to myself: Return to the visit Etruscans one more time and then move on to the Romans because the Romans who followed the Etruscans in history have a similar nation ending story of their own.