I heart reading

One of my very favorite quotes comes from Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem Ulysses but I recently realized that I had not read the poem in its entirety in about five years. GASP! For all of you have have never read this- wow- you are missing out. I remember the first time that I read it, in my AP English class, the only thing that really stuck out to me was the line "As though to breathe were life." I just thought it was a beautiful, simple way to say a powerful thought. After reading it this time, having five years of college under my belt, I realize just how truly amazing the entire poem is. It is beautiful in its tragic reminiscence and longing for another adventure that the speaker is unlikely to ever take.

I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!
As tho' to breathe were life. Life pil'd on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is sav'd
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

It discusses the need to continue, to move forward, yet when I read it, I feel that the speaker will never have the chance to actually do that and is perhaps speaking to those who may still have a chance.

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Mov'd earth and heaven, that which we are, we are:
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.


Guh. I just love it.


Along with this return to high school poetry assignments, I have also read a few novels. Five, in fact, since I finished with my student teaching on March 24th. Four of them were Harry Potter books, however, so I am not sure that they really count. Hehe, it was sort of an odd selection of the HP books though. I read the 5th, then the 2nd, then the 6th and the 7th. I love Harry Potter. I really do.

I also read "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. It was very intriguing, to say the least. It took me quite a while to really get into it (I started it, read three HP books, then finally finished it up) but by the end I was almost in tears. It is the story of a man and his son and their struggle for survival in a world that has been completely decimated. Apparently I have been in a dark mood lately because I was really drawn to the beauty and the sheer hopelessness of the book. The drive of the father to continue to live for his son is captivating. McCarthy states, "He knew only that the child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God, God never spoke." It really is a brilliant work. Depressing, beautiful, brilliant.

I am currently reading "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" by John Berendt and I am quite enjoying it. I love the characters and how well Berendt develops the local color of Savannah. I am only about a hundred pages in, but I have had a hard time putting it down so far.

I also just started reading "Without You" which is a memoir written by Anthony Rapp that discusses his life during the formation of the musical Rent. I have loved Rent for a long time and it is great to read an insiders perspective on the love and loss that the musical depicts.

I should be ready to start another book within the next week or so, so let me know if you have any suggestions!