Emily Dickinson Success is Counted Sweet

Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne’er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.

(first stanza)

Emily Dickinson Fame is a Bee

Fame is a bee.
It has a song—
It has a sting—
Ah, too, it has a wing.

Poet: Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet known for being an introvert and being a recluse.

Despite locking herself up in her room and writing poetry to no end, only a few of her poems were published during her lifetime. The rest, nearly 1800, were found by her family members after her death.

From Wikipedia:

The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinson’s poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation.Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends.

From Poets.org:

Dickinson’s poetry reflects her loneliness and the speakers of her poems generally live in a state of want, but her poems are also marked by the intimate recollection of inspirational moments which are decidedly life-giving and suggest the possibility of happiness. Her work was heavily influenced by the Metaphysical poets of seventeenth-century England, as well as her reading of the Book of Revelation and her upbringing in a Puritan New England town which encouraged a Calvinist, orthodox, and conservative approach to Christianity.

 

Book Review: Lesley Lokko One Secret Summer

One Secret Summer  by Lesley Lokko is more or less a romance novel without a cheesy Harlequin-esque cover.

I’ve read a few of her other books and enjoyed them yet I don’t remember them being romance novels. Yes, they had love stories, but what drew me to them was the plot lines of successful women: women who may have literally come from nothing yet through confidence and hard work built empires.

I noticed that Lokko has a tendency to build novels around strong women and as such figured thatOne Secret Summer would follow suit. It does indeed follow the same principal yet it seems as though the love stories are much more pronounced: in fact, everything revolves around them. They’re also a lot more raw and suggestive, if you know what I mean.

I enjoyed the characters in the book and the plot lines yet personally I would have liked it if Lokko had treated certain plot points differently. For example, it would have been interesting if at some point Niela had called her mother without giving her a location of current residence.

I also felt that the ending was a bit rushed. It seems as though it was meant to be one of those endings where a lot of things are left unsaid yet assumed, etc. That’s fine and all for several of the plot points in the novel however, some of the scenarios begged for a bit of closure, or at least I did.

From Amazon:

In the perfect family, there’s a thin line between love and hate, especially when there’s so much to hide… The Keelers are one of those families that seem to have everything. Glamorous, wealthy and privileged, life has always been easy for them, on the outside at least. But even the happiest of families have their secrets. Maddie, the scatty American actress, is swept off her fee by Rafe Keeler. A brilliantly talented surgeon, Rafe is handsome, steady and dependable – everything Maddie has sought in a man. So why does she feel so dangerously adrift? Julia loathed Aaron Keeler on sight when they met at Oxford. She was a working-class girl, he was the privileged posh boy handed everything on a plate. But a lethal attraction has set them on a collision course. Niela has been running all her life. Betrayed and abandoned by her own family, her whirlwind marriage to Josh Keeler has given her a place to call ‘home’. But Niela knows how easily the past can come back to ruin your life…

Buy One Secret Summer on Amazon.

Book Review: John Irving Until I Find You

I bought this book over two years ago and I just recently read it. I wasn’t putting it off, I just have a lot of books that need to be read and I can’t help buying more here and there. I have a slight obsession with books.

On to the book….

I loved it. I expected it to be long-winded, chalk full of details (many insignificant), and weird: it was very much all of those three things.  It seems John Irving has an affinity for strange characters and plot lines that ultimately become endearing in some way or another. Not only is there a major plot line in this book, you also get several other extraordinary “stories” based on the fact that Jack Burns is 1) weird and as such ends up being part of several weird scenarios that make good stories, and 2) he’s an actor who partakes in weird movies with odd plot lines.

From Amazon:

Actor Jack Burns seeks a sense of identity and father figures while accommodating a host of overbearing and elaborately dysfunctional women. 

I would warn interested readers that having an open mind is crucial to your tolerance of this book. It includes cursing and other suggestive language, slightly outrageous scenarios, and several gratuitous sexual exploitations. The latter may sound awful to some, but rest assured that everything that happens, mostly happens for a reason.

For those who think this book sounds great, be warned that it is on the longer side and you may find your patience tested after you reach the 2/3 to 3/4 mark.

Buy Until I Find You on Amazon.

Other books I’ve read/reviewed by John Irving: A Prayer For Owen Meany.

William Blake A Divine Image

Cruelty has a human heart,
And Jealousy a human face;
Terror the human form divine,
And Secresy the human dress.

The human dress is forged iron,
The human form a fiery forge,
The human face a furnace sealed,
The human heart its hungry gorge.

Book Review: Joy Kogawa Obasan

 I read this book in university for a Canadian Literature class. I held onto it because although it’s a sad story, it’s a powerful one that documents a sad part of Canadian history.

It’s a short book that can easily be read in a couple of days. The language is simple yet poetically clear in getting across the narrators sentiments. That being said, there is no way we can begin to understand the narrator’s true anguish unless you’ve experienced similar situations.

From Amazon:

Joy Kogawa’s Obasan is a novel of memory, exploring the Canadian government’s deplorable treatment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War, which included the suspension of all rights, forced internment and labour, and the fracturing of families. Worst of all, though, in the eyes of narrator Naomi Nakane as she recalls the events of her childhood, was the repeated exile. In a powerful blend of historical fact and rich symbolism, Naomi finds herself pushed aside from Canadian society ….

Buy Obasan on Amazon.

William Blake The Tyger

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

Robert Duncan Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow

as if it were a scene made-up by the mind,
that is not mine, but is a made place,

that is mine, it is so near to the heart,
an eternal pasture folded in all thought
so that there is a hall therein

that is a made place, created by light
wherefrom the shadows that are forms fall.

Wherefrom fall all architectures I am
I say are likenesses of the First Beloved
whose flowers are flames lit to the Lady.

Poet: William Blake

William Blake ( November 28, 1757 – August 12, 1827)  was an English poet during the Romantic period (second half of the 18th century) known for his noncomformist radical views.

From Poets.org:

In defiance of 18th-century neoclassical conventions, he privileged imagination over reason in the creation of both his poetry and images, asserting that ideal forms should be constructed not from observations of nature but from inner visions.

Blake believed that his poetry could be read and understood by common people, but he was determined not to sacrifice his vision in order to become popular.

Aside from a poet, Blake was also a painter, engraver, and a printmaker.

I’m generally not drawn to work from the Romantic period because I find it dark with too many horrific undertones. What can I say, I like “pretty” things.

From Wikipedia: