Clarities
"The Clarities" I choose the word clarity for
this OED Essay. It
seemed to fit rather well and piqued my interest as well.
After reading the
poem, I began to wonder what different meanings there were
for this word. The
author could have intended a less obvious meaning for the
word clarities. So I
decided to look it up. There were several definitions
listed. One of which was
brightness, lustre, brilliancy, splendour. I thought
this definition was really
interesting, because it wasn't the one I thought
of orginally, and yet it was
still the first one listed. It also was
interesting because, considering what
the poem is about, it adds a new light
or tone to the poem. It adds a new way to
describe love. It says how
brilliant love is. This is also interesting because
most historically this
was the accepted definition of this word. Over the years
the word must have
changed meanings slightly. In that time the word was also
used to mean clear,
as in: the water is clear. Only more recently was it seen as
clear meaning:
clearness of thinking. This definition of this word became
obsolete in the
sixteenth century. The word than came to it's present spelling.
This
spelling almost became obsolete in the seventeenth century, but was
revived
more recently. Other definitions of clarity have been light in the
literal
sense. Clarity was used briefly around the 1650's to mean light
referring to the
sun. Another definition was glory and divine lustre. This
definition was more
permanent. It was used from the 1300's through the
1600's. This definition
however has not been used in recent times. There also
was one other definition
other than the one accepted today. This definition
was illustrious quality;
lustre of renown. This is also an interesting
definition to apply to this poem.
The thought of love as being renown
sheds new light. If one were to go through
this poem with that definition in
mind it would probably turn out to be a very
different poem. The last and
final definition is the one that still stands
today. Clearness is now what we
uses clarity to mean. We can use it to mean
clarity of mind or clarity can
involve seeing something. This definition of this
word has been in use since
the early 1600's and it still holds today. This is
the longest standing use
of this word. It will be interesting to see if this
word continues to change
meaning.