At the end of an episode of the TV series "MI-5", the Harry Pearce character reads these lines (Season 3, Episode 4):
“Considering that, all hatred driven hence,
The soul recovers radical innocence"
The contribution to the plot is that Pearce's daughter used to hate him, but had a heart-to-heart chat with dad and forgave him.
Smart use of good poetry is a nice touch in a show. A fuller quote from the poem "A Prayer for my Daughter" by William Butler Yeats is
"Considering that, all hatred driven hence,
The soul recovers radical innocence
And learns at last that it is self-delighting,
Self-appeasing, self-affrighting,
And that its own sweet will is heaven's will;
She can, though every face should scowl
And every windy quarter howl
Or every bellows burst, be happy still."
This is the 9th of 10 stanzas, so if you look up the poem, do not expect the poem to start with these lines.
What really made this line stand out for me was the phrase "radical innocence." My high school English teacher Mr. Guy Nelson would hand out mimeograph sheets in our class that would have quotes from a book entitled, "Radical Innocence." That is a catchy phrase. It stuck with me over the years. The book he was quoting was Radical Innocence: Studies in the Contemporary American Novel (1961) by Ihab Hassan. The Brother Martin High School English department did a fine job and I am grateful for the education I received from them. Mr. Guy Nelson was with Brother Martin for 43 years before retiring.
The greatness of poetry is that it strikes a chord, resonating within us, making us pause, think, and feel.
Robert
PS
The Numb3rs season 3 finale, episode 24, The Janus List, ended with Judd Hirsch quoting these lines of poetry:
Light many lamps and gather round his bed.
Lend him your eyes, warm blood, and will to live.
[...snip...]
And there was silence in the summer night;
Silence and safety; and the veils of sleep.
Then, far away, the thudding of the guns.
The writers picked some lines from the end of Siegfried Sassoon's poem, "The Death Bed"
