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Monday, April 21, 2003

Monday April 21, 2003

Filed under: General — m759 @ 4:23 pm

Riddle
 
This world is not conclusion;
  A sequel stands beyond,
Invisible, as music,
  But positive, as sound.
It beckons and it baffles;         
  Philosophies don’t know,
And through a riddle, at the last,
  Sagacity must go.

Emily Dickinson

From an obituary of a biographer of Emily Dickinson, Richard B. Sewall, who died on Wednesday, April 16, 2003:

"Descended from a line of Congregational ministers dating back to the Salem of the witch trial era, Mr. Sewall was known for infusing his lectures with an almost religious fervor."

Riddle

What is the hardest thing to keep?

For one answer, see my entry of April 16, 2003.   For commentary on that answer, see the description of a poetry party that took place last April at Sleepy Hollow, New York.

See, too, the story that contains the following passages:

"As to the books and furniture of the schoolhouse, they belonged to the community, excepting Cotton Mather's History of Witchcraft, a New England Almanac, and book of dreams and fortune-telling….

The schoolhouse being deserted soon fell to decay, and was reported to be haunted by the ghost of the unfortunate pedagogue, and the plough-boy, loitering homeward of a still summer evening, has often fancied his voice at a distance, chanting a melancholy psalm tune among the tranquil solitudes of Sleepy Hollow."

Washington Irving

Update of 11:55 PM April 21, 2003,

in memory of
Nina Simone:

See also the last paragraph of this news story,
this website, and this essay,
or see all three combined.

From the entry of midnight, October 25-26, 2002:

Make my bed and light the light,
I'll arrive late tonight,
Blackbird, Bye-bye.

Nina Simone

For more on the eight-point star of Venus,
see "Bright Star," my note of October 23, 2002.

4 Comments

  1. “My candle burns brightly at both ends, it gives a lovely light, but ah my friends and ah my foes, it will not last the night.” ~ ED

    It’s just about the only bit of Ms. Dickinson that I can remember.  I had to memorize something in College for a Lit. class . . . we had to choose a poem by a Literary Genius to personify who we were thru their words.

    I do recall when it was my turn to express my particular choice, there was a bit of silence in the class room and then a round of applause.  Mine was the shortest, and most accurate. 

    Being a drama queen of sorts, people had expected a long and tedious entry by yours truly.  
    Imagine that?

    ~ ~ ~

    And that EIGHT point star!  Ahhhhhhggggg …

    ~ ~ ~

    Time is difficult to keep when you are five.  Which is why they invented digital watches, because groan ups are just big kids with breifcases. 

    Comment by oOMisfitOo — Tuesday, April 22, 2003 @ 5:17 am

  2. Uh.  “briefcases”.

    Sorry. 

    Comment by oOMisfitOo — Tuesday, April 22, 2003 @ 5:18 am

  3. Sorry to hear that Ms Simone is gone, I appreciated her music very much. At least she named her daughter after me, though.

    Comment by iride — Tuesday, April 22, 2003 @ 12:50 pm

  4. To Misfit, from the College of Literature, Damnation University:

    Actually, it was Edna St. Vincent Millay who wrote (approximately) those lines. Emily would have been shocked (and possibly flattered) by your thinking she was Edna. But you’re right about one thing; Edna certainly belongs in the Romanceology Department of Damnation U.

    Comment by m759 — Tuesday, April 22, 2003 @ 1:00 pm

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