登陆注册
5391100000032

第32章 GLIMPSES OF POETRY(5)

And tell the stars,and tell the rising sun,Earth,with her thousand voices,calls on GOD!"I have never visited Switzerland,but I surely saw the Alps,with Coleridge,in my childhood.And although I never stood face to face with mountains until I was a mature woman,always,after this vision of them,they were blended with my dream of whatever is pure and lofty in human possibilities,--like a white ideal beckoning me on.

Since I am writing these recollections for the young,I may say here that I regard a love for poetry as one of the most needful and helpful elements in the life-outfit of a human being.It was the greatest of blessings to me,in the long days of toil to which I was shut in much earlier than most young girls are,that the poetry I held in my memory breathed its enchanted atmosphere through me and around me,and touched even dull drudgery with its sunshine.

Hard work,however,has its own illumination--if done as duty which worldliness has not;and worldliness seems to be the greatest temptation and danger Of young people in this genera-tion.Poetry is one of the angels whose presence will drive out this sordid demon,if anything less than the Power of the Highest can.But poetry is of the Highest.It is the Divine Voice,always,that we recognize through the poet's,whenever he most deeply moves our souls.

Reason and observation,as well as my own experience,assure me also that it is great--poetry even the greatest--which the youngest crave,and upon which they may be fed,because it is the simplest.Nature does not write down her sunsets,her starry skies,her mountains,and her oceans in some smaller style,to suit the comprehension of little children;they do not need any such dilution.So I go back to the,American First Class Book,"and affirm it to have been one of the best of reading-books,because it gave us children a taste of the finest poetry and prose which had been written in our English tongue,by British and by American authors.Among the pieces which left a permanent impression upon my mind I recall Wirt's description of the eloquent blind preacher to whom he listened in the forest wilderness of the Blue Ridge,a remarkable word-portrait,in which the very tones of the sightless speaker's voice seemed to be reproduced.I believe that the first words I ever remembered of any sermon were those contained in the grand,brief sentence,--"Socrates died like a philosopher;but Jesus Christ--like a God!"Very vivid,too,is the recollection of the exquisite little prose idyl of "Moss-Side,"from "Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life."From the few short words with which it began--"Gilbert Ainslee was a poor man,and he had been a poor man all the days of his life"--to the happy waking of his little daughter Margaret out of her fever-sleep with which it ended,it was one sweet picture of lowly life and honorable poverty irradiated with sacred home-affections,and cheerful in its rustic homeliness as the blossoms and wild birds of the moorland and the magic touch of Christopher North could make it.I thought as I read--"How much pleasanter it must be to be poor than to be rich--at least in Scotland!"For I was beginning to be made aware that poverty was a possible visitation to our own household;and that,in our Cape Ann corner of Massachusetts,we might find it neither comfortable nor picturesque.After my father's death,our way of living,never luxurious,grew more and more frugal.Now and then I heard mysterious allusions to "the wolf at the door":and it was whispered that,to escape him,we might all have to turn our backs upon the home where we were born,and find our safety in the busy world,working among strangers for our daily bread.

Before I had reached my tenth year I began to have rather disturbed dreams of what it might soon mean for me to "earn my own living."

同类推荐
  • 太上灵宝玉匮明真大斋言功仪

    太上灵宝玉匮明真大斋言功仪

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 明伦汇编交谊典馈遗部

    明伦汇编交谊典馈遗部

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • A Monk of Fife

    A Monk of Fife

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 广异记

    广异记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 题李处士幽居

    题李处士幽居

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 骨髓门

    骨髓门

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 萌宝来袭总裁老公请接招

    萌宝来袭总裁老公请接招

    她将一份离婚协议书放在他面前,他不动声色的签了,四年后她带着三岁儿子回国。他说:“肖繁星,你好狠。”四年前他没抓住她,失去后才知道离不开。四年后,他的追妻之路漫漫……
  • 蒙垢的宝珠

    蒙垢的宝珠

    筲箕坪坐落在幕阜山脉深深的皱褶里。从山脚下拾级而上,走完弯弯曲曲的二百九十九级台阶,便到了一个筲箕状台场,故称筲箕坪。正月一过,村里外出打工的人都走了,年轻人不想着在田地里鼓捣,光想着出去卖苦力挣现钱。春狗没有走,他不能走。爹因车祸去世已经过四年了,爹一过世,家里的日子就过得缺光少色的。春狗高中没毕业就辍学回家了,没能参加高考。他娘枣玉又瞎了眼,妹妹二丫在县城读高中,没有人照顾娘。他娘要他妹妹也回家不读书了,说女伢崽读那么多书打鬼。春狗执意让她读,说自己没机会读大学,只要二丫能考上大学就一直让她读下去。枣玉就没有再吭声了。
  • 登天奇缘

    登天奇缘

    天才少年,惨遭迫害,武功尽失,堕入凡间。重生之路,谁主沉浮?月圆之夜,登通天神柱……
  • 三国之我主刘备

    三国之我主刘备

    穿越三国,安汉兴刘!平定天下,扫平四夷,再创大汉荣光!
  • 许鸿宾说许鸿宾

    许鸿宾说许鸿宾

    《许鸿宾说许鸿宾》是一本围绕一个主题的杂作结集,体裁上有对话、有侧记、有随笔、有札记还有日记与散文、纪念文章,在学术性、理论性与思想性以及艺术性几方面都还有着力之处。
  • 梦中的人偶师

    梦中的人偶师

    《萌爱季:梦中的人偶师》由蓝鸢尾所著,众神之巅最强女神战死,为了将她复活,天才人偶师制作了完美的“神之容器”,却同时创造出人偶师今生挚爱的人偶少女。不知自己是人偶身份的少女,误打误撞中认识了闻名学院的怪盗ZERO和自称怪盗的美少年水苍言,并在梦中结识了自称水苍的人偶师,令人心跳加快的浪漫恋情由此展开。看似平静的贵族学院,神秘事件频频发生。
  • 这个大佬可能是无敌的

    这个大佬可能是无敌的

    她被自己的父母亲手送进了精神病医院,原因是——她有妄想症?放屁!她说的明明就是事实!六岁的她是一个超级可爱的sd娃娃,荣获各项一等奖的超级小天才!智商爆表的冷漠女孩!从小就接触不一样的事物的她,在一次不经意下被父母发现,就认为她有妄想症!心里专家——没用,催眠师——没用,无奈之下她的父母抛弃了她,把年仅六岁的她送进了精神病医院!她逃了!用自己的能力逃了,她逃到了二次元的世界,开始了一段不一样的旅程!
  • 我的竹马,不再见

    我的竹马,不再见

    爱情,远的要命,近的不得,可能在下一瞬间你就成了她的他,而我也会变成他的她。在那之前,我会倾尽所有,换取一个你。岁月给我半生时间,我用它来遇见你,时间给我余生岁月,我用它来陪伴你。人生最幸福的事,就是每天醒来,身边有你。沈知夏是褚琛心里永远拔不掉的刺,忘不了的痛,可他甘之如饴,爱她,远比爱自己更重要。
  • 太初元气接要保生之论

    太初元气接要保生之论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。