Page 97 - The Irony Board

Section 4: Into the Cosmos

Ice cream
Watched melt
Is time
Passed felt.

This little epigram serves as a transition from microcosmic to
macrocosmic affairs, as well as an introduction to the latter. Thanks
to Einstein and Bergson, time has lost its previous status as a passive
constant of existence—a neatly calibrated background against which
all things take their measure. Scientific time, the variable fourth
dimension of modern physics, is known through observation of
events outside the observer; subjective time, the variable sensation
of duration, is known through experience of events inside the
observer.
The poem relates these two types of time. The melting of ice
cream proceeds at a constant rate, transforming an appetizing solid
into a repulsive liquid. An observer of this process cannot remain
unmoved; as the minutes tick by; his emotional state will pass from
desire to anxiety to disgust. A clock may be steadily ticking on the
wall, but his neurological timer will speed or slow with each new
feeling.

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