I always loved Rudyard Kipling... He had me at "Rikki Tikki Tavi". Anyway, here's one that speaks to me, "The Palace". A little dark, but then, so am I tonight.
Swift to my use in the trenches, where my well-planned ground-works grew,
I tumbled his quoins and his ashlars, and cut and reset them anew.
Lime I milled of his marbles; burned it slacked it, and spread;
Taking and living at pleasure the gifts of the humble dead.
Yet I despised not nor gloried; yet, as we wrenched them apart,
I read in the razed foundations the heart of that builder’s heart.
As he had written and pleaded, so did I understand
The form of the dream he had followed in the face of the thing he had planned.
When I was a King and a Mason, in the open noon of my pride,
They sent me a Word from the Darkness. They whispered and called me aside.
They said - "The end is forbidden." They said - "Thy use is fulfilled.
"Thy Palace shall stand as that other’s - the spoil of a King who shall build."
I called my men from my trenches, my quarries my wharves and my sheers.
All I had wrought I abandoned to the faith of the faithless years.
Only I cut on the timber - only I carved on the stone:
"After me cometh a Builder. Tell him, I too have known."
In that same darkness... the poem that reaches out to me is one I first read in high school... but that still remains clear...probably because we had to memorize it and recite it before the whole class... anyway... it's by Edgar Allen Poe...
Annabel Lee
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived, whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than a love,
I and my Anabell Lee -
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her high-born kinsmen came,
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in the sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me.
Yes! That was the reason (as all men know)
In this kingdom by the sea,
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we,
Of many far wiser than we;
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dessever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel lee.
For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee,
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling, my darling, my life, and my bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
I guess the curriculum hasn't changed much in Mississippi, cause I had to memorize that in the 7th grade, too!
Posted by: Shannon at February 13, 2004 12:55 PMThere's a lot to be said for the same old same old...
I'm headed off to Mississippi in the morning to see Daddy and Mae... and let them see me... that sounds like vanity... but it isn't...it's just treasured moments...
Love you bunches...
Posted by: Aunt Vickie at February 13, 2004 06:06 PM