Reading List:

 

This poem showed up in "Information Weekly," of all places.  But I really liked it so I am putting it here on my reading list, so I can come back to it quickly whenever I fell like it.   This reminds me of a Forbes Life article that listed 10 things worth doing, one of which was to memorize a poem or two.  This one would be a good candidate.  That Forbes article suggested "To His Coy Mistress" which is really cool too, so I will include that below as well.


If you can keep your head when all about you 
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; 
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, 
But make allowance for their doubting too; 
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, 
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, 
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating, 
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise; 

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; 
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; 
If you can meet with triumph and disaster 
And treat those two imposters just the same; 
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken 
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, 
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, 
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools; 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings 
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, 
And lose, and start again at your beginnings 
And never breath a word about your loss; 
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew 
To serve your turn long after they are gone, 
And so hold on when there is nothing in you 
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on"; 

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, 
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch; 
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; 
If all men count with you, but none too much; 
If you can fill the unforgiving minute 
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run - 
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, 
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!     

 

1 Had we but world enough, and time,
2 This coyness, lady, were no crime.
3 We would sit down and think which way
4 To walk, and pass our long love's day;
5 Thou by the Indian Ganges' side
6 Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
7 Of Humber would complain. I would
8 Love you ten years before the Flood;
9 And you should, if you please, refuse
10 Till the conversion of the Jews.
11 My vegetable love should grow
12 Vaster than empires, and more slow.
13 An hundred years should go to praise
14 Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
15 Two hundred to adore each breast,
16 But thirty thousand to the rest;
17 An age at least to every part,
18 And the last age should show your heart.
19 For, lady, you deserve this state,
20 Nor would I love at lower rate.

21 But at my back I always hear
22 Time's winged chariot hurrying near;
23 And yonder all before us lie
24 Deserts of vast eternity.
25 Thy beauty shall no more be found,
26 Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
27 My echoing song; then worms shall try
28 That long preserv'd virginity,
29 And your quaint honour turn to dust,
30 And into ashes all my lust.
31 The grave's a fine and private place,
32 But none I think do there embrace.

33 Now therefore, while the youthful hue
34 Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
35 And while thy willing soul transpires
36 At every pore with instant fires,
37 Now let us sport us while we may;
38 And now, like am'rous birds of prey,
39 Rather at once our time devour,
40 Than languish in his slow-chapp'd power.
41 Let us roll all our strength, and all
42 Our sweetness, up into one ball;
43 And tear our pleasures with rough strife
44 Thorough the iron gates of life.
45 Thus, though we cannot make our sun
46 Stand still, yet we will make him run. 

 

            What a fantastic short read!  A few points really struck me:

Everyone made to be equal, not create equal.   I.e. if you are different, you cause fear and loathing in others.  So society tries to make everyone the same.  Amazing that Bradbury could foresee this in the early 1950's when he wrote the story.  Or perhaps he had no idea it was be as bad as he foretold!

"She didn't want to know how a thing was done, but why...... You ask why to a lot of things, and you end up very unhappy indeed...."    The pace we live at dictates that most of the time you only ask how, so that you can be more efficient at it and keep up.  But asking why is a wonderful thing to do.  I am trying to find more time to do so.

"Cram them so full of ... data, chock them so ... full of facts, they feel stuffed, but absolutely brilliant with information. Again amazing this was said in the 50's.  I can't imagine the 50's was anything near what we live in today with information overload.  

One final thing.  Bradbury wrote the Martian Chronicles, and I saw the movie a long long time ago when I was quite young, and I can still remember how freaked out I was by it all.  I won't say more here -- if you haven't seen it, you need to!  ;-)

      

 

Very cynical adolescent tells a story about a few days in his life. It is revealing that this was written in the 1940's, yet many of the same attitudes in today's teens are are often seen as a sign of how bad things have become. It will be interesting to read Salinger's work over the last 30 years since he went into seclusion, which should be released after his death.

 

This book seems much more written for younger kids than the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Still ok, but nowhere near the depth as found in the trilogy.

 

I had read these when I as about 10 or 12 -- many years ago. They are definitely worth rereading! I had forgotten how amazing they are, and how much they affected my reading habits for years after I had 1st read them. I can't wait for the movies to start coming out -- the 1st is scheduled for Christmas of 2001. Check out the web page: http://www.lordoftherings.net. I highly recommend watching the streaming movie trailer.