Two weeks ago in this space, I wrote my 6 Books essay - not necessarily my six favorite books, but six that came along at different times of my life and represented important mileposts in reading. Tonight: here are six poems/short stories that fall into the same category, that chronicle the era I was living in at the time and what stands out in my mind.
Follow along (after the jump) and feel free to add your own observations, as many of you did in my earlier essay .....
.... but first: Top Comments appears nightly, as a round-up of the best comments on Daily Kos. Surely you come across comments daily that are perceptive, apropos and .. well, perhaps even humorous. But they are more meaningful if they're well-known ... which is where you come in (especially in diaries/stories receiving little attention).
Send your nominations to TopComments at gmail dot com by 9:30 PM Eastern Time nightly, and indicate (a) why you liked the comment, and (b) your Dkos user name (to properly credit you) as well as a link to the comment itself.
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As a junior high school student in the late 1960's, I had no idea who the author of the poem we were reading was - nor anything about him. And that was sound advice because ... well, you know why:
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
After we discussed it, our teacher then explained it was written by an African-American poet. What had made some sense before ... was made crystal-clear afterwards.
James Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri in February, 1902 and died in New York City in May, 1967 - and his residence at 20 East 127th Street in Harlem has been renamed Langston Hughes Place in his honor. This poem is part of a book-length poem suite entitled Montage of a Dream Deferred - from the "Lenox Avenue Mural" section called "Harlem." City College of New York (CCNY) sponsors periodic Langston Hughes Festivals in his honor.
In high school, we took a look at poems by the English Romantic poet George Gordon, better know as Lord Byron - although the late, great Molly Ivins said it might sound more like Lard Barn from the lips of a Chevy dealer from Lubbock, Texas.
And the one that stands out in my mind is this one from 1814:
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
2
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
3
And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
Besides its intrinsic value, I'll admit: I thought it might also be useful as a way to serenade a female classmate ... but no such luck.
When I attended a community college in the mid-1970's, Professor Henry Crook introduced us to Emily Dickinson - who led a somewhat reclusive life in the college town of Amherst, Massachusetts. In her life (1830-1886) few of her works were published - it was left up to her family to discover her many writings after her death and see that they were published.
My favorite is Part One: Life - VI - which would be the basis of an exemplary epitaph on anyone's grave. I suspect Emily Dickinson would be the first response of men when asked to name their favorite female poet.
IF I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
When I transferred to a four-year college in 1976, it was then that my English 202 class revisited Edgar Allan Poe's 1845 classic The Raven - which I sensed was a great poem back in high school, but for which the language and imagery were too esoteric for me to comprehend. (Similarly in film, watching Paul Scofield in A Man for All Seasons as a 14 year-old was too advanced for me back then). But as a 30-something adult, I understood that film quite easily - and even though I was only 20 when I re-read "The Raven" in class, that was enough of a time lapse for me to finally "get it" (here are simply the first and last stanzas).
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.'
And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted - nevermore!
The shadow of death that hovers over an adult's mortality makes it much more relevant as you age, and with all of the mystery over the Boston-born Edgar Allan Poe's own death in 1849 in Baltimore - well, it's no surprise his often-macabre work is so popular lo these many years later. If you were to ask men (who don't like poetry) what their favorite scholarly poem was - excluding "Casey at the Bat" or "Night Before Christmas", but instead just what was required reading in school - I think "The Raven" would be at or near the top.
In Baltimore, the native-son actor John Astin found a late-career calling in portraying Poe, and not only was the city's expansion NFL franchise named the Ravens - but when the 2001 Super Bowl pitted the Ravens vs. the New York Giants, the two senators from New York and Maryland made a wager. And when Baltimore prevailed, Hillary Clinton was seen reciting "The Raven" on the steps of the US Capitol to fulfill her obligation after losing the bet.
I have two short stories that have remained with me over the years: one comes from high school, where our teacher Mrs. Anderson read the classic by William Sydney Porter (1862-1910) - better known as O. Henry - entitled The Gift of the Magi - where a poor couple resolves to buy each other a Christmas present, no matter the sacrifice. Jim has a prized gold watch that had been his father's and his grandfather's, which his wife Della resolves to buy a platinum fob chain for it. Della's one prized possession was her luxurious hair, which she sells for $20 in order to buy the chain. At home, Jim is startled to see her hair cut-off, as he tells her he has sold his watch to buy her a set of luxurious ... combs.
As a kid, I thought that's where the story should have ended ... now I see the value of O. Henry's closing parable ...
The magi, as you know, were wise men--wonderfully wise men--who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.
I'll close with the another short story I read in high school by the famed San Francisco native author John Griffith (1876-1916) - known to the world as Jack London - whose life story itself is worth a read. A stretch of the waterfront in neighboring Oakland, California is named Jack London Square in his honor.
The author of The Call of the Wild and White Fang - which (alternately) portrayed animals becoming wild and domesticated - also had a number of adventure short stories. And for me, his 1908 To Build a Fire - about a man who is a newcomer to traveling on the Yukon Trail on a frigid day (-75°F, -60°C), accompanied only by a dog - ignoring the advice of an old-timer who had warned him against travel in the Klondike alone at those temperatures. And after he had finally managed to build a fire to warm himself after falling into icy water ...
It happened. It was his own fault or, rather, his mistake. He should not have built the fire under the spruce tree. He should have built it in the open. But it had been easier to pull the twigs from the brush and drop them directly on the fire. Now the tree under which he had done this carried a weight of snow on its boughs. No wind had blown for weeks, and each bough was fully freighted. Each time he had pulled a twig he had communicated a slight agitation to the tree—an imperceptible agitation, so far as he was concerned, but an agitation sufficient to bring about the disaster. High up in the tree one bough capsized its load of snow. This fell on the boughs beneath, capsizing them. This process continued, spreading out and involving the whole tree. It grew like an avalanche, and it descended without warning upon the man and the fire, and the fire was blotted out!
I felt frozen just reading the story, and often wondered how I might survive in an environment of extreme cold or extreme heat. Going on nearly forty years later, I'm glad I have not yet had to find out.
Now, on to Top Comments:
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From Giles Goat Boy:
I really laughed at this comment by tmservo433 in my diary about school superintendents' pay raises.
From brillig:
From tytalus' diary post on a Kentucky School busted for state sponsored religion ... allergywoman defends apple pie.
From BentLiberal
Dartagnan shares a romper stomper moment in roseeriter's lighthearted diary on brushes with TV fame.
From pico:
In UnaSpenser's Witnessing Revolution liveblog - jnhobbs shows that making fun of Palin-speak never gets old.
From Dragon5616:
In Hunter's post about Indiana's own State Rep. Phil Hinkle: I'm not gay, I just like baseball, annieli gets the ball rolling (so to speak) in this "baseball" thread.
From trashablanca:
In AZIndependent's diary: Arizona AG Set to Challenge VRA .... Gilmore sets it up, and Desert Rose drives it home.
And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening .......
In the diary by Timaeus noting that no charges would be filed against State Supreme Supreme Court justice David Prosser (R-WI) for the chokehold he reportedly put on Democratic justice Ann Bradley - Ballerina warns that Prosser has a history of harrassing comments and behavior toward women, and that "females in contact with Prosser need to be prepared".
And lastly ... Top Mojo has returned:
1) Love this: by Marie — 285
2) I hope Schneiderman uses his office by dkmich — 194
3) It's still pretty revealing by Christian Dem in NC — 118
4) In a word, no. by Hopeful Monster — 115
5) Empower Texas board meeting agenda: by rfall — 108
6) I'm glad. It says much for Israelis. by TomP — 96
7) Wow! by Horace Boothroyd III — 95
8) Chicken Coup is more like it by ontheleftcoast — 91
9) we need more fighting democrats, period by Statusquomustgo — 86
10) This is front-and-center by lunachickie — 84
11) You forgot... by ontheleftcoast — 84
12) This is basic, 1st-year geology... by Hopeful Monster — 83
13) Agreed. by Crashing Vor — 83
14) Firedoglake also, on NYTimes Editorial Board by divineorder — 82
15) Capitalism, at its finest. by xxdr zombiexx — 80
16) What Hopeful Monster said by terrypinder — 79
17) the article doesn't even note that by BlueDragon — 78
18) If you don't investigate thoroughly by LeftHandedMan — 77
19) Well lets see... by detroitmechworks — 76
20) Yes, always good to be reminded by tomjones — 76
21) Stole our jobs, homes, 401ks, and by dkmich — 73
22) Organized cliques? by ontheleftcoast — 72
23) No, it was not. by terrypinder — 72
24) i think it should be by Laurence Lewis — 72
25) A waste of a good insult by ontheleftcoast — 70
26) Ohio law does not prohibit by ilyana — 69
27) Yep by Major Tom — 69
28) More of this, please!! by Isara — 69
29) To put the "d" in "dumb", they had to borrow it by lineatus — 68
30) My personal favorite? by reflectionsv37 — 68
31) Scientists are people, and there are LOTS of by blue jersey mom — 68