Though I've gone after Langdell several times in prose (Exercising Common Sense, Razing Langdell, and Days of Auld Langdell), I've not attempted it in verse till now. The Villanelle seemed a good form and I felt he would speak of himself in the third person were he writing it. Of course, even in the more polished form of a villanelle, I still disagree with Langdell's thoughts on casebooks, experienced teachers, law's nature, and more. Law is not a certain science. Law practice experience makes better, not worse law professors. Theory is blind if separated from practice. Practice is empty without theory. Law schools are therefore elevated rather than "dumbed down" by teaching practice and theory both. The hypocrisy of Langdell's practicing for fifteen years while saying practice taints is of course not lost on me either. I couldn't bear including a photo of the man so I have instead substituted a page from his infamous contracts casebook.
In addition to law and language generally, this blog explores philosophy, translation, poetry (including my own poetry and translations), legal education reform, genealogy, rhetoric, politics, and other things that interest me from time to time. I consider all my poems and translations flawed works in progress, tweak them unpredictably, and consider the latest-posted versions the latest "final" forms. I'd enjoy others' thoughts on anything posted. © Harold Anthony Lloyd 2024
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Langdell Defends Langdell With A Villanelle (An Addition To "The Apology Box")
Though I've gone after Langdell several times in prose (Exercising Common Sense, Razing Langdell, and Days of Auld Langdell), I've not attempted it in verse till now. The Villanelle seemed a good form and I felt he would speak of himself in the third person were he writing it. Of course, even in the more polished form of a villanelle, I still disagree with Langdell's thoughts on casebooks, experienced teachers, law's nature, and more. Law is not a certain science. Law practice experience makes better, not worse law professors. Theory is blind if separated from practice. Practice is empty without theory. Law schools are therefore elevated rather than "dumbed down" by teaching practice and theory both. The hypocrisy of Langdell's practicing for fifteen years while saying practice taints is of course not lost on me either. I couldn't bear including a photo of the man so I have instead substituted a page from his infamous contracts casebook.
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Daniel: Nighttime Hieroglyphics in the Head (Addition to "The Apology Box")
Daniel’s Sonnet
(A
Jew “exiled” in Babylon)
Through deepest faith, I tapped night's lexicon
That Nimrod changed. Confusion fell upon
More than the day when Babel’s Tower fell.
The language of the night collapsed as well,
And dreams took dialects they’d lacked before.
New gibberish infected night. Therefore,
Men needed me to translate dreams that hid
Night's messages to them. Of course, I did.
And when God wrote upon the wall instead
Of nighttime hieroglyphics in the head,
I was the only person who could read
The markings and convey what he had said.
I revel and reveal with words. They are
Mind's whiskey, its key, and its reservoir.
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Augustine: Faith Must Come First (Addition to "The Apology Box")
Augustine’s Lines and Acrostic
(A bishop of Hippo)
Si fallor, sum! I no doubt must exist
However fraught with error since to err
I must be there to do the errant thing.However fraught with error since to err
Pure skepticism therefore can't be true
And truth I set off early to pursue.
The Manicheans moved my ears with tales
Of light and dark in endless war they proved
Through daily combat of the light and dark,
Through daily rise and fall of suns and stars,
Through all our politicians and our priestsThrough daily rise and fall of suns and stars,
Forever mixed in
virtue and in vice--
Such Manichean proof was powerful for
A youthful head
untrained in reason or
How easily a fact can be a whore.
In time, I learned
the syllogism and
Abandoned Manichean
foolishness--
By definition good
lacks evil. Hence,
The good and evil cannot be conjoined
In such theatric
struggle. Thus, I turned
To logic and more careful use of words,
Learned rhetoric, but soon I wanted more--To logic and more careful use of words,
I'd not forgotten my "si fallor, sum!"
Through Plato I found changeless Truth and Good
Which briefly brought great pleasure though it vexed
Me next. If real is really past all change
(Which seems required, too, if God foreknows all),
Must that not mean
that everything was set
In stone from the
beginning? Thus poor Eve
Was forced to sin, the serpent to deceive?
I flailed about until I could perceive:
All inquiry of
course fails where I amI flailed about until I could perceive:
Beliefless. Credo ut intelligam--
How can I seek an
answer unless I
Am clear first on the means with which to try?
Faith must come first to put some terms in place
That we can use for parsing up a case.
Faith must come first to put some terms in place
That we can use for parsing up a case.
Gathering up my thoughts, I thus confessed
Raw sin throughout my life. In faith, I'd rest
And pray for undeserved last clemency
Content to rest in God's hands knowing the
Election might have long passed over me.
© Harold Anthony Lloyd 2016
The current contents of "The Apology Box" can be found here.
© Harold Anthony Lloyd 2016
The current contents of "The Apology Box" can be found here.
Friday, June 17, 2016
Mary Magdalene (Addition to "The Apology Box")
Mary
Magdalene’s Apology
Though fathers of the church might not recall,
I was his favored ally over all--
Though I had awful moments I admit.
I was his favored ally over all--
Though I had awful moments I admit.
I saw the seven
horrid faces of
The demons driven
out. Pride lurched out first.
It smirked as it
looked back at me. It kissed
Its gilded mirror,
dropped its glass, then spread
Its filthy, gaudy
tail. It stretched its wings
And took its pompous
exit on the breeze.
Then Envy slithered
out, a serpent scaled
With eyes instead of
plates. Each lens scanned round
From different
angles not to miss a grudge.
Its filthy fangs
were always poised to strike
With venom ever
dripping. Thus, the snake
Ingested greater
poison than its prey.
Then Gluttony with well-worn teeth chewed its
Way out of me and tumbled on the ground
To roll away in its growing sphere of flesh.
Then Idleness
crawled out. Its wrinkled robes
Were stained and
filthy. It could barely hold
Its head upright
until it found a bed.
Then
heaving-breathing Avarice crawled out
So loaded down with
precious things it could
Not stand. Despite
the wealth it bore, its clothes
Were worn and fit it
poorly. Sweating, it
Crawled off
distraught--it never hauled enough.
Then lion-headed
Wrath leapt out of me.
Its awful roar was
followed by a spray
Of blood its
flailing limbs slung as it ran.
Then last of all
sprang hairy Lust. (Perhaps
I’m most remembered
for the last since it
By chance became the
final one to leave.)
O Lord, I tremble
still to think about
Those awful
spectacles as each came out.
And yet once freed
of seven demons, I
Could kneel to wash
my master’s feet. I could
Anoint his head with
oil and laud him well.
Then when his
fortunes changed, I could as well
Stand by him as they
nailed him up. And when
Some armored angels
swept him up from Hell
I could run out and
spread good news to all--
I was his favored ally after all.
I was his favored ally after all.
© Harold Anthony Lloyd 2016
P.S. In the Rhetoric to Lettie, I speculate on how Christ might have confided in his favorite disciple:
Jesus
Confides in Mary Magdalene
The kingdom is
within. Search for it there.
The sinner is the
one who in despair
Awaits the day his
chariot should come.
The kingdom is not coming. It is here.
There are no
portents, earthquakes, storms to fear
Before arrival. Simply look within.
Tell others that the kingdom is within,
That first it’s
small like seeds or leaven in
The dough but has
its powers to expand.
Be mindful of the present or you’ll miss
Brief miracles of
leavens such as this.
Live in the “am,” not
in the “will” or “was”
And revel in the kingdom found within.
There can be no
forgiveness for the sin
Of
self-rejection. Broken can’t be right.
Commit yourself at once, do not delay
To act on what
you’ve found. Though others say
That faith suffices,
fruit defines the tree.
Embrace your enemy and do no deed
You’d not have
others do to you. Once freed
From difference,
inner light uncovered shines.
Be humble and be open as a child.
Be curious and
never be beguiled
By rules or
“prophets” that snuff out the light.
For light will show whenever two are one,
Whole mountains can
be moved. Division gone,
Whole mountains
cannot claim their former place.
Know rules serve us. When bending must be done,
Bend rules to
light, not light to them. Don’t sin
By elevating
Sabbaths over light.
Though I must leave you soon, I still shall shine:
My light remains in
you as yours in mine,
And therefore
separation never comes.
Split any piece of wood and I am there.
Lift any rock and
you will find me there.
Set any table. You will find me there.
Have bread and wine in common to recall
The need to share
both food and drink with all—
And do this for
your fellow flesh and blood.
As I have done, reach out to heal the sick—
Though not just
those with fevers. Heal heartsick
And troubled
spirits, too. Do miracles.
Though I have set upon a painful course,
I choose it
freely--right could never force
A faultless one to
pay another’s fine.
No innocents are sacrificed though I
Am willing for the
sake of truth to die.
That’s what the
Cross should symbolize for you.
I’m neither Paul, nor Pope, nor Protestant.
I am before they
came, before they went.
I am before their
Sabbaths as are you.
© Harold Anthony Lloyd 2016
The Nicodemus Paradox (Addition to "The Apology Box")
Nicodemus's Double Sonnet
I saw the merit
of that holy man. I showed
Him bold respect in
public and I sat
Beside him as my
teacher. I raised up
My hand in public
when I was confused
By his
instruction: “How could an old man
Be born again?” I asked.
He answered me.
When hypocrites
would kill him in the name
Of “God” and
“Church,” I interposed myself
And spoke in his
defense. I took the risk
Without a moment’s
hesitation, and
When they had
murdered him, I helped embalm
And carry the
cadaver to a tomb.
With greater powers, I would have helped him more.
But born without them, I could do no more.
With greater powers, I would have helped him more.
But born without them, I could do no more.
Why did I yet
remain a “Pharisee”?
There only is one
true assembly of
God’s people. Words cannot change that. I'd not
Concede my notion of a "Pharisee" to frauds.
Instead, I would protect it by my deeds
Instead, I would protect it by my deeds
That would instead preserve exalted words.
I worshiped with
God’s words while others lied
With them. It was confusing. Yet, I fought
And even gave my quandary a name:
The “Nicodemus
Paradox.” If we
Use “Church” with
scoundrels it’s hypocrisy
Yet if we give them
“Church” it’s blasphemy.
With greater powers, I would have wrestled more.But born without them, I could do no more.
© Harold Anthony Lloyd 2016
The current contents of "The Apology Box" can be found here.
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
How the "Ten" Commandments Refute Originalism & Fundamentalism (With Some Help From Herod, Caiaphas & Ahab's Additions to "The Apology Box")
Conservatives often like to claim that texts speak for themselves. A review of the Ten Commandments is an easy way to see how such claims are false. First, such a review nicely shows that we must interject our own judgment even before we start reading a text because we first have to decide what the text is. When we look for "Ten" Commandments in the Bible, we won't find such a neat list. Instead, we'll find two places in the Bible (Exodus 20:1–17 and Deuteronomy 5:4–21) which support such a list though we could come up with a different number depending on what we expressly include (for example is not bowing down to other gods included in not putting other gods first or is it a separate command?) and depending upon how we group what we find. The number 10 is thus in that sense arbitrary.
Second, once we've used our judgment as to the content and number of the list, reading the commandments still requires much interpretation. For example, read literally they say that we cannot kill. That would mean we could not cut down a tree much less kill a wild beast attacking us. Of course, no reasonable person would take these words that literally and thus no honest person who is reasonable would claim we don't have to use our minds and hearts when we read a text. Instead, what we generally want to do when reading the words of others is to figure out what the speaker meant by those words. This involves engaging in what philosophers of language call pragmatics, a topic that I have written about elsewhere. Have Ahab, Herod, and Caiaphas really tried to understand and follow speaker meaning in the poems that follow?
Third, the Ten Commandments also remind us of another wrinkle in cross-language cases. The Commandments are in an ancient language that most of us cannot read. We must thus rely on translations, and translations also involve judgment and often are erroneous or questionable at best. Anyone who tells us that we can and should take a translation literally and without question is thus wrong on multiple levels.
Second, once we've used our judgment as to the content and number of the list, reading the commandments still requires much interpretation. For example, read literally they say that we cannot kill. That would mean we could not cut down a tree much less kill a wild beast attacking us. Of course, no reasonable person would take these words that literally and thus no honest person who is reasonable would claim we don't have to use our minds and hearts when we read a text. Instead, what we generally want to do when reading the words of others is to figure out what the speaker meant by those words. This involves engaging in what philosophers of language call pragmatics, a topic that I have written about elsewhere. Have Ahab, Herod, and Caiaphas really tried to understand and follow speaker meaning in the poems that follow?
Third, the Ten Commandments also remind us of another wrinkle in cross-language cases. The Commandments are in an ancient language that most of us cannot read. We must thus rely on translations, and translations also involve judgment and often are erroneous or questionable at best. Anyone who tells us that we can and should take a translation literally and without question is thus wrong on multiple levels.
Judas & Pilate Defend Themselves (Additions to "The Apology Box")
Acrostic of Judas
Justice never punishes a deed
Unless it's evil, willed, and freely done.
Did I betray? I did. But fate forced me,
And thus I did unfreely what the Lord
Set up instead as I shall briefly show.
Impelled by love, God had to make a world
Since isolation is love’s opposite.
Creation needed freedom all around--
An object of one’s love is not enslaved
Raising a contradiction: what is free
Is free to sin and has a license that
Offends morality. God's fix required
The incarnation penalty--not me.
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Old Testament Words & Rhetoric: Ehud, Elisha, & Jonah (Additions to "The Apology Box")
Ehud’s Solid Rhetoric
(Left-handed judge who killed Fat King
Eglon)
Somehow it seems we
have reversed our roles.
I was to speak for
you in judgment, Lord,
In Eglon’s case, yet
now must plead my own
Which I presume
cannot be severed from
The former. I shall, therefore, make my case
By how I made your
own where you required
More rhetoric than
mortals could possess.
With words more
flawed and limited than yours,
My noises, meanings,
grammars would blaspheme
Should they pretend
to speak as you would do.
With proper language
absent for the task,
I would but mock
ineffability
Were I to mouth in
any way the scope
Or purpose of such sacred
agency.
Instead I thus used
your own elements.
My iron blade made your point. Although his fat
Made heavy armor, it
did not deflect
But swallowed up the
knife. His fatty folds
Released a stench
that summarized him well,
That underscored
your judgment as he fell,
And yet misled his
guards by such a smell.*
Although the
spectacle was horrid, it
Avoided sacrilege of
words not fit
For godhead or good
agents serving it.
*They thought Eglon was relieving himself thereby giving Ehud more time to escape.
Elisha’s Apology
I watched Elijah leave in
fiery flight.
The sound of
nothingness roared in my ears.
I was alone. I trembled, was in tears.
I only had his cloak
to calm my fears
As I stepped in to bear bare heaven's light.
Persuasion's
manifold. Elijah thought
The fastest and the
surest lesson taught
Was by the rod. I tried another way:
Example of good deeds can also sway.
I salted down the
spring of Jericho
And caused pure
waters once again to flow.
I turned the poison
gourds into a soup
That safely fed a
desperate, hungry group.
I made the axe-head
float back to the top
Of that deep Jordan
where they’d let it drop.
I took a little bit
of barley bread
And made a feast
where many mouths were fed.
I filled a widow's
empty jars so she
Could pay her debts
and set her children free.
I cured the awful
curse of leprosy,
And moved men with
my skills of prophecy.
Example and good deeds were rhetoric
That served me better than Elijah's stick,
And though no fiery chariot brings me
I trust the light I carry shines on me.
Example and good deeds were rhetoric
That served me better than Elijah's stick,
And though no fiery chariot brings me
I trust the light I carry shines on me.
Jonah’s
Defense
With just eight words* I brought a city round.
In rhetoric’s annals
nowhere else is found
A rival. I will move the heavens, too,
And once again will keep my phrases few.
And once again will keep my phrases few.
I erred once I admit--although I should
Feel gross aversion
handling pagan things.
Aversion keeps good order. God would not
Condemn disgust
toward anything unclean.
Instead he counseled that sometimes one should
Endure the filth he'd have one remedy.
Thus, for two reasons he unleashed the whale:
To right my course and in its belly train
Me for the stench ahead. (I spent three days
Instead he counseled that sometimes one should
Endure the filth he'd have one remedy.
Thus, for two reasons he unleashed the whale:
To right my course and in its belly train
Me for the stench ahead. (I spent three days
Within its filthy
gut till I was heaved
A chunk of living
vomit on the shore.)
I made my way to
Nineveh and gave
The famous speech. I then withdrew to watch
The consequence. Beyond doubt I'm devout
To take a
journey here, too, past the bounds
Of any maps or terms
I’ve known. I've come
(Although in fear) because God called. I would
Give that as further
proof of Jonah’s good.
*"Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"
*"Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"
Abelard: The Peril & the Price of Careless Thought (Addition to the Apology Box)
Abelard’s Ballade
Thought is the
cruelest place where charts mark no
Fixed latitude or
constancy of shore
For shifting airy
coasts and courses. Though
Polaris holds
without, within one's oar
Has no such brilliant
constant marker for
Safe
navigation. Vague, obscure and fraught
With shifting inner
shoals, one can’t ignore
The peril and the
price of careless thought.
Did man precede the
beasts? Both “yes” and “no”
Say Testaments where
just a pair yet more
Go in the ark, where
Eve’s made second though
She’s simultaneous
in lines before,
Where we’re
commanded to love yet restore
Slaves to a master,
where it’s said we ought
Not judge yet brook
no sin. We’re fodder for
The peril and the
price of careless thought.
There’s such
confusion--turn the cheek yet go
Acquire a sword as
well? Why wasn’t more
Care taken in the
drafting? All should know
That words have
consequences. Maimed, I bore
The scars of
mixed-up syllables. Before
More suffer needless
butchery, one ought
To master
language. I explored, therefore,
The peril and the
price of careless thought.
Lord, thus I did my
volumes. Since they store
All I discovered, I
can rest. Full taught
Below, no suffering
here would teach me more
The peril and the
price of careless thought. Monday, June 13, 2016
Anselm's Short Ballade (An Addition to "The Apology Box")
I’m unsurprised
that mind persists although
The body drops
extinguished. Nothing may
Be perfect but the
Lord. That being so,
Death must be flawed
and therefore cannot stay
The intellect
forever lest we say
Death is invincible
and perfect, too.
I can’t consistently
speak such a way,
Lord. Reason will not let me turn from you.
Nor could I doubt
your being, Lord, although
You did not show your face. God is, we say,
The greatest thing conceivable. That so,
God must exist since absent things, we say,
Are less. Should God not be, that opens way
Are less. Should God not be, that opens way
To something greater: God plus being, too.
But nothing’s
greater. Logic shows the way,
Lord. Reason will not let me turn from you.
And thus I kneel in
hopeful prayer you’ll say,
“Come follow me as well in heaven, too.”
I cannot rise until
you’ve shown the way,
Lord. Reason will
not let me turn from you.
© Harold Anthony Lloyd 2016
The current contents of "The Apology Box" can be found here.
Five Warriors: Hannibal, Charlemagne, Roland, William the Conqueror, & Henry V (Additions to "The Apology Box)
Short Ballade of Henry V
(esse quam videri)
(esse quam videri)
Although my youth
was rough, I may defend
It. By its terms, one's immaturity
Is that imperfect
era one must spend
Developing, that
time when logically
The mind and morals
both are raw and we
Are all
inferior. I would not scheme
Like lesser youths
and falsely polish me--
Hypocrisy's a
sin. I'd be, not seem.
When I was crowned,
my youth was at its end.
Therefore, I ended
my frivolity
Lest I live on a
lie, lest I pretend
I somehow kept that
younger quality
That I had
lost. I acted honestly
Instead when
grown. I battled till supreme
At Agincourt without
distorting me--
Hypocrisy's a sin.
I'd be, not seem.
Lord, now I'm but a
spirit, I should be
In Heaven with the
bodiless. I’d dream
Of nothing
else. I’d feign no firmer me--
Hypocrisy's a
sin. I'd be, not seem.
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Three Religious Warriors: Richard I, Saladin, & Charles Martel (Additions to "The Apology Box")
Richard I’s Sonnet
Christ is my only
standard. As he drove
The money changers
from the temple who
Profaned it, I in
imitation strove
To save God's temples
from blasphemers, too.
If smaller groups of money
changers must
Be driven out, much more so should we drive
Out hordes of unbelievers. I was just
Therefore in how I chose to reign and live.
Although great men
have critics and I'm not
Immune, I'm confident
the worst they’ve said
Of me is I craved
men and therefore led
Men East. If true, such charge condemns me not.
In judging right and
wrong, Christ is the test.
I've read his
words. The topic's not addressed.
Saladin's Round
(By a Kurdish hero)
There is no God but
God and he is Lord
Of every atom of
creation. He
Is thus by his own
essence rightfully
The Lord of old
Jerusalem and all
Her Asian territories
rather than
Someone whose agent
sits in far-off Rome.
Someone whose agent
sits in far-off Rome
Abstractly drinking blood and eating flesh
With wine and broken
bread in temples there
Has brokered more
than mere abstractions here.
This broker's swords have broken men and spilled
Real blood and gore
throughout God’s Holy Land.
Real blood and gore
throughout God’s Holy Land
Required response and we have given aid.
We’ve had to use swords doing that though we
Preferred the use of
reason. Though we’ve won
Upon the field, our
greater victory comes
Through favoring
mercy over death instead.
Through favoring
mercy over death instead
Of other attitudes,
we’ve followed God
And done his
work. Though evil trembles at
Such simple logic,
we find rest in it--
God favors mercy and
believers know
There is no God but
God and he is Lord.
Charles Martel’s Sonnet
Though God is three
in one, it’s blasphemy
To tolerate an
earthly trinity
Of Christian, Jew,
and Muslim. There can be
Just one true faith
since Christianity
Alone is
scriptural. Of course God knew
Martel means
“hammer” and called me to do
The labor. Although just a bastard to
That beast Plectude,
great battle plans I drew
For plated men and
beasts. At Poitiers,
Design met
field. There my troops held at bay
The foreign hordes our armor drove away
From Christendom forever. Lord, I pray
For Heavenly
inclusion having fought
For God and
Christendom as scriptures taught.
© Harold Anthony Lloyd 2016
The current contents of "The Apology Box" can be found here.
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