Marianne Moore, Richmal Crompton, Emmy von Rhoden, Madeleine de Scudéry, José de Lizardi

De Amerikaanse dichteres Marianne Moore werd geboren op 15 november 1887 in Kirkwood, Missouri. Zie ook alle tags voor Marianne Moore op dit blog en ook mijn blog van 15 november 2009 en ook mijn blog van 15 november 2010.

What Are Years

What is our innocence,
what is our guilt? All are
naked, none is safe. And whence
is courage: the unanswered question,
the resolute doubt, —
dumbly calling, deafly listening—that
in misfortune, even death,
encourage others
and in its defeat, stirs
the soul to be strong? He
sees deep and is glad, who
accedes to mortality
and in his imprisonment rises
upon himself as
the sea in a chasm, struggling to be
free and unable to be,
in its surrendering
finds its continuing.
So he who strongly feels,
behaves. The very bird,
grown taller as he sings, steels
his form straight up. Though he is captive,
his mighty singing
says, satisfaction is a lowly
thing, how pure a thing is joy.
This is mortality,
this is eternity.

 

Appellate Jurisdiction

Fragments of sin are a part of me.
New brooms shall sweep clean the heart of me.
Shall they? Shall they?

When this light life shall have passed away,
God shall redeem me, a castaway.
Shall He? Shall He?

 
Marianne Moore (15 november 1887 – 5 februari 1972)

Lees verder “Marianne Moore, Richmal Crompton, Emmy von Rhoden, Madeleine de Scudéry, José de Lizardi”

Richmal Crompton, Emmy von Rhoden, Madeleine de Scudéry, Janus Secundus, José de Lizardi

De Engelse schrijfster Richmal Crompton Lamburn werd geboren op 15 november 1890 in Lancashire. Zie ook alle tags voor Richmal Crompton op dit blog en ook mijn blog van 15 november 2008.

Uit: More William

“For his grown-up sister Ethel he had bought a box of coloured chalks. That also might come in useful later. Funds now had been running low, but for his mother he had bought a small cream-jug which, after fierce bargaining, the man had let him have at half-price because it was cracked.
Singing “Christians Awake!” at the top of his lusty young voice, he went along the landing, putting his gifts outside the doors of his family, and pausing to yell “Happy Christmas” as he did so. From within he was greeted in each case by muffled groans.
He went downstairs into the hall, still singing. It was earlier than he thought—just five o’clock. The maids were not down yet. He switched on lights recklessly, and discovered that he was not the only person in the hall. His four-year-old cousin Jimmy was sitting on the bottom step in an attitude of despondency, holding an empty tin.
Jimmy’s mother had influenza at home, and Jimmy and his small sister Barbara were in the happy position of spending Christmas with relations, but immune from parental or maternal interference.
“They’ve gotten out,” said Jimmy, sadly. “I got ‘em for presents yesterday, an’ they’ve gotten out. I’ve been feeling for ‘em in the dark, but I can’t find ‘em.”
“What?” said William.
“Snails. Great big suge ones wiv great big suge shells. I put ‘em in a tin for presents an’ they’ve gotten out an’ I’ve gotten no presents for nobody.”
He relapsed into despondency.
William surveyed the hall.
“They’ve got out right enough!” he said, sternly. “They’ve got out right enough. Jus’ look at our hall! Jus’ look at our clothes! They’ve got out right enough.”

 
Richmal Crompton (15 november 1890 – 11 januiri 1969)

Lees verder “Richmal Crompton, Emmy von Rhoden, Madeleine de Scudéry, Janus Secundus, José de Lizardi”

Marianne Moore, Antoni Słonimski, Elizabeth Arthur, Carlo Emilio Gadda, Janus Secundus, Richmal Crompton, Emmy von Rhoden, Madeleine de Scudéry, José de Lizardi

De Amerikaanse dichteres Marianne Moore werd geboren op 15 november 1887 in Kirkwood, Missouri. Zie ook mijn blog van 15 november 2008 en ook mijn blog van 15 november 2009 en ook mijn blog van 15 november 2010.

Roses Only

You do not seem to realize that beauty is a liability rather

than

an asset – that in view of the fact that spirit creates form

we are justified in supposing

that you must have brains. For you, a symbol of the

unit, stiff and sharp,

conscious of surpassing by dint of native superiority and

liking for everything

self-dependent, anything an

ambitious civilization might produce: for you, unaided, to

attempt through sheer

reserve, to confuse presumptions resulting from

observation, is idle. You cannot make us

think you a delightful happen-so. But rose, if you are

brilliant, it

is not because your petals are the without-which-nothing

of pre-eminence. Would you not, minus

thorns, be a what-is-this, a mere

perculiarity? They are not proof against a worm, the

elements, or mildew;

but what about the predatory hand? What is brilliance

without co-ordination? Guarding the

infinitesimal pieces of your mind, compelling audience to

the remark that it is better to be forgotten than to be re-

membered too violently,

your thorns are the best part of you.

 

Marianne Moore (15 november 1887 – 5 februari 1972)

Lees verder “Marianne Moore, Antoni Słonimski, Elizabeth Arthur, Carlo Emilio Gadda, Janus Secundus, Richmal Crompton, Emmy von Rhoden, Madeleine de Scudéry, José de Lizardi”

Richmal Crompton, Emmy von Rhoden, Madeleine de Scudéry, Janus Secundus, José de Lizardi

De Engelse schrijfster Richmal Crompton Lamburn werd geboren op 15 november 1890 in Lancashire. Zie ook mijn blog van 15 november 2008.

 

Uit: More William

 

William awoke and rubbed his eyes. It was Christmas Day–the day to which he had looked forward with mingled feelings for twelve months. It was a jolly day, of course–presents and turkey and crackers and staying up late. On the other hand, there were generally too many relations about, too much was often expected of one, the curious taste displayed by people who gave one presents often marred one’s pleasure.

He looked round his bedroom expectantly. On the wall, just opposite his bed, was a large illuminated card hanging by a string from a nail–“A Busy Day is a Happy Day.” That had not been there the day

before. Brightly-coloured roses and forget-me-nots and honeysuckle twined round all the words. William hastily thought over the three aunts staying in the house, and put it down to Aunt Lucy. He looked at it with a doubtful frown. He distrusted the sentiment.

A copy of “Portraits of our Kings and Queens” he put aside as beneath contempt. “Things a Boy Can Do” was more promising. _Much_ more promising. After inspecting a penknife, a pocket-compass, and a pencil-box (which shared the fate of “Portraits of our Kings and Queens”), William returned to “Things a Boy Can Do.” As he turned the pages, his face lit up.

He leapt lightly out of bed and dressed. Then he began to arrange his own gifts to his family. For his father he had bought a bottle of highly-coloured sweets, for his elder brother Robert (aged nineteen)

he had expended a vast sum of money on a copy of “The Pirates of the Bloody Hand.” These gifts had cost him much thought. The knowledge that his father never touched sweets, and that Robert professed scorn of pirate stories, had led him to hope that the recipients of his gifts would make no objection to the unobtrusive theft of them by their recent donor in the course of the next few days.“

 

 

Richmal Crompton (15 november 1890 – 11 januiri 1969)

 

Lees verder “Richmal Crompton, Emmy von Rhoden, Madeleine de Scudéry, Janus Secundus, José de Lizardi”