In the poem “Four”, a theme that I got from this poem is that Tao is talking about the human mind. The first line says “The Tao is an empty vessel; it is used, but never filled”. Just like the vessel is used but never full, the brain can never be full of knowledge but is used everyday no matter what. Another quote that contributes to this theme is “unfathomable source of ten thousand things”. This describes the mind almost perfectly, as it is used as a source of thousands of ideas, feelings, and actions that are thought of every second of the day. From the quote “hidden deep but ever present”, the idea that the mind is always available to think and feel but no one has a complete map of the mind corresponds directly with it. Tao also talks about how he does not know from where it comes from and how it is the forefather of the gods which enforces my belief that the theme of this poem could be about the human mind.
Tao – “Four”
February 3, 2017 Written by p.cheung | 1 Comment
Categories: Uncategorized
1 response so far ↓
j.moreno1 // Feb 3rd 2017 at 1:35 am
You’re interpretation of the poem Four is very well thought out. I completely agree with your perspective and I think the first line in the poem perfectly describes the idea that you are trying to get across. When reading this poem, I started to think of all the possible interpretations one might have for the Tao. Something that I thought of was our imagination. Much you like you stated with the Tao being our mind, our imagination is also something that is always used but could never be filled up. We are constantly imagining new ideas and that’s the beauty when it comes to the Tao; it can be interpret in so many ways.
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