Monday, August 29, 2016

Sarah Orne Jewett: September Song

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Sarah Orne Jewett The Country of  Pointed Firs The conclusion to the novel--the end of the vacation.  It is time to return home and face...
11 comments:
Friday, August 26, 2016

A Minute Meditation

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I usually post texts that either I agree with to a greater or lesser degree or which puzzle me and I hope for illumination.  Rarely do I pos...
9 comments:
Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Thomas Hardy: "Afterwards"

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Here is another gem of Thomas Hardy's that I just discovered recently while browsing through the collection of his poems.  Afterwards...
5 comments:
Sunday, August 21, 2016

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: Second Edition, Quatrain LXX

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This quatrain responds to the previous quatrain in which the human body was referred to as a "Clay suburb." Second Edition:  Q...
6 comments:
Saturday, August 20, 2016

A Minute Meditation

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At one point in his stay in the Sierras, John Muir got a job on a sheep ranch.  This resulted in the following observation, which may or may...
2 comments:
Friday, August 19, 2016

Joseph Wood Krutch: drawing the line, sorta, kinda

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Joseph Wood Krutch The Twelve Seasons This summer I have been looking again at Paramecia and Lacrimaria and Opalina, as well as at the fl...
5 comments:
Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Joseph Wood Krutch: Where to draw the line. . .

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Joseph Wood Krutch The Twelve Seasons Joseph Wood Krutch poses an interesting question, one which I had never really directly asked myse...
13 comments:
Saturday, August 13, 2016

Jonh Muir: some thoughts on graveyards

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9 You . . . are with Nature in the grand old forest graveyard, so beautiful that almost any sensible person would choose to dwell here with...
7 comments:
Thursday, August 11, 2016

Thea von Harbou: Metropolis--First Impressions

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Thea von Harbou Metropolis Silent with some text Black-and-white First Impressions This is my first reading of the novel, although I...
9 comments:
Monday, August 8, 2016

A Minute Meditation

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Wish I had learned this long ago, and now I wish I could remember this in time. Wisdom is knowing when to stop speaking .  .  . -- Chua...
11 comments:
Friday, August 5, 2016

Thomas Hardy: "The Subalterns" and "Hap"

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Who's in charge here? The Subalterns                                  I "Poor wanderer," said the leaden sky,       ...
11 comments:
Wednesday, August 3, 2016

A Minute Meditation

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No. 63 When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe... -- John Muir -- from John ...
7 comments:
Sunday, July 31, 2016

The Rubaiyat: Second Edition, Quatrain LXIX

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The following is another quatrain FitzGerald added to the Second Edition. Second Edition:  Quatrain LXIX Why, if the Soul can fling the...
6 comments:
Friday, July 29, 2016

Leconte de Lisle: "The Jaguar's Dream"

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Here's one of those poems that grabbed me, and I had to keep coming back to read it. The Jaguar's Dream Lianas in bright bloom ...
11 comments:
Wednesday, July 27, 2016

A Minute Meditation

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Many moons ago when I was in grad school, a professor went on a rant attacking John Gardner and his "obsolete" views.  I was so in...
6 comments:
Sunday, July 24, 2016

Nathaniel Hawthorne: "The Minister's Black Veil"

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Nathaniel Hawthorne:  "The Minister's Black Veil" I'm sure most people have either read the story or are at least famili...
5 comments:
Friday, July 22, 2016

Basho: just a brief post on a haiku

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The following are two translations of a haiku by Basho that caught my attention. The reversal is what made me stop and consider it. No. 7 ...
15 comments:
Wednesday, July 20, 2016

A Minute Meditation

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"I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, 'Mother, what was war?'" -- Eve Merriam, poet and writer (1916-1992) ...
3 comments:
Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Jane Austen's EMMA; a brief personal reaction

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Jane Austen Emma This is probably my fourth? fifth? reading of Emma .  I am now in midst of my regular rereading of Austen's works, b...
37 comments:
Sunday, July 17, 2016

A Minute Meditation

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  It seems as though humans, world-wide, have always regarded mountains as special places.  So many cultures placed the residences of their ...
10 comments: