Magical Shelves

 

There was once a young girl who had a few shelves of books allocated to her on the big family set of bookshelves. She would take a gander at them often, pulling off a favourite to re-read and put back one just finished. They were just everyday shelves of books, and yet they were full of magic. Those shelves were very well known by this young girl, because her eyes would wander over them all on a regular basis. She knew the locations of all the books, even her brothers' collections, and what books were included. She knew the encyclopedias as deeply as her own dedicated shelves, for those chunky, large books would often come off the bottom shelf, and right in front of the shelf the young girl would sit cross-legged on the floor with the selected book open on her lap. There was no internet, at least, not for several years, and even when there was dial-up it was not used very much. This was exploring the world and the abundance of knowledge, but through the lens of books.

She would eagerly anticipate every trip to Walmart (the old school stores of the 1990s) because there was a small book aisle, where she could peruse the 4-5 shelves of paperbacks and inevitably end up with one to take home. It felt like carrying a treasure around the rest of the shopping trip with a new book in hand. Those shelves were also full of magic.

That girl grew up but she stills feels the same thrill of a new book and a familiar book pulled off a magical shelf. I do not shop at Walmart, but whatever bookshop I might be in (or when one arrives that I ordered - book mail is my very favourite kind of mail), holding that new book awakens that childhood sensation of wonder and mystery at what lies behind the cover in black ink on hundreds of pages. That eagerness to stop everything and read it the rest of the day is the same strong urge every time. Of course, now as an adult I more often have to set it aside to wait patiently for time to read, but it sometimes could be right then and there I open that cover.

I am still that girl who wanders her shelves, pulling off titles to re-visit or just dip into. The joy of revisiting a loved book is in the deeper discovery (or even new discovery) of something missed before or perhaps forgotten until eyes settle on those words again. Reading a good book again will open the approach to fresh perspective. The book hasn't changed in those years, but I have. And my attention might be catching different aspects I never saw before, with reflections on my life, which probably has something different going on than when I first read it. This is also why reading Scripture again and again is so beneficial. There are always varying insights to gather from good books. We have much to learn at every turn of our lives. And good books are that steadfast place to return to for wisdom, insight, and perspective. 

Interlude for Anatomy of Melancholy

 

...thou shalt soon perceive that all the world is mad, that it is melancholy...

I offer this appreciation interlude for the labyrinthine masterpiece that is The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton. There may be more interludes to come, for this tome is a rather hefty one at 1,100 pages, so I imagine I will be dipping into this one for quite some time, and can see that this is the kind of book I will revisit again and again. Robert Burton lived in Oxford and wrote this for himself (as the subject), he writes, to aid himself in his own melancholy, showing us that his own interests and talents were essentially a cure to his own melancholy. To keep busy doing what he loved to do, fulfilling his purpose. He does write as a summation after 1,100 pages of diversions - "Be not solitary, be not idle" and we can all take that into our own souls to ponder the truth in that when feeling melancholy.

Examine the rest in like sort, and you shall find that Kingdoms and Provinces are melancholy, cities and families, all creatures, vegetal, sensible, and rational, that all sorts, sects, ages, conditions, are out of tune...In whom doth not passion, anger, envy, discontent, fear and sorrow reign? Who labours not of this disease?

I love this idea of being out of tune. We can all relate to that as a human condition. Burton shows that all of us are affected by melancholy at some points in our lives. It used to be known as a disease, and I suppose today it would be more so categorized as depression. However, the term melancholy seems more approachable to me, for we can all think about times where we are caught in a mindset of melancholy, no matter how short-lived. This is an everyman's book. Full of humour and anecdotes - surely Burton would be a hoot to hang out with. Records and letters show that he was.

It's difficult to describe what this book is exactly - published in 1621, it is a collection of writings, musings, history, diversions, and poetry exploring various aspects of the human condition (cutting up each of the aspects, or anatomizing them), subdivided into sections of causes of melancholy and then cures for melancholy. It is full of diversions and side notes, stories, quotes, many lists, and tales from Roman and Greek philosophers. He often throws out quotes in Latin in the middle of a sentence (which are translated, thankfully). He was a Christian, and he pulls quotations from Scripture. It has medical aspects that would impact one's melancholic state, as well as looking into one's mental awareness. I think our modern world of mental health and medicine should pay attention to this book. There is a lot here that is not considered today.

How many strange humours are in men? When they are poor and needy, they seek riches, and when they have them, they do not enjoy them, but hide them underground, or else wastefully spend them. O wise Hippocrates, I laugh at such things being done, but much more when no good comes of them, and when they are done to so ill purpose.

I have reached my favourite subsect thus far, titled - 

Love of learning, or overmuch study. With a Digression of the misery of Scholars, and why the Muses are Melancholy.

I can very much relate to the "overmuch study" (and will use that phrasing from here on as it makes me chuckle), even though I am not a technical student at the moment, I consider myself a life-long student, poring myself into study of books and writing my own books at my own peril, so indeed, these words ring very true to me when he gives - 

...many reasons, why students dote more often than others; first is their negligence...only Scholars neglect that Instrument, their brains and spirit (I mean) which they daily use, and by which they range over all the world, which by much study is consumed.

Now, I shall go back to my writing, but hopefully not to neglecting my brains and spirit. 

That Girl Who Reads Poems

 

I realize that I might be in danger of being known as that girl who always reads poems for every situation (and that's okay, because poems written by those I deeply admire are words wiser than my own). With every speaking opportunity I am given (through church or other gatherings) and with every written opportunity I am given (articles, cards, etc) I find myself reaching for a poem to read or write.  I apologize in advance if you ask me to lead/speak/write, for you will surely be faced with a poem.

A poem (or fragment of a poem) is going to be short to read (often not even reaching the right margins or bottom of a page) to convey something big I am trying to say or wish to explore in a concise yet beautiful way. 

So this book I stumbled upon a couple weeks ago, Rhyme's Rooms: The Architecture of Poetry by Brad Leithauser, showed up in my life right at the ideal time, casting that reinvigorated enjoyment of playing with words in the ways that poetry can (much more than prose). 

I love the author's opening of the book detailing the way poems set up a certain expectation to the reader, as one who is not aware of where the poet is going, to hopefully present a pleasant surprise by delivering a clarity and beauty that one did not even expect. This is a wonderful gift we have as humans to appreciate "that primal human pleasure, rooted in inadequacy and ignorance, that arises when clarity dawns unexpectedly: the joy of enlightened surprise." He introduces this as the prosodic contract of the poet (it's the pattern and rhythm and sound used in poetry).

Then, the book dives into the various aspects of poetic architecture, and it's such an enjoyable ride through the structures of rhyme schemes, meter, stanzas, patterns, indentation and capitalization, enjambment, iambic pentameter, iambic tetrameter, off rhyme, rim rhyme, etc. Along the way, he includes fun little poetic puns (oh yes, puns are discussed as poetic elements, too, as saying two things at once) and while I do have a natural inclination to enjoy reading a book about poetic structure (and most would not), it was never overdone with technical language. In between good examples pulled from all ages of poetry, he would include fun little lines that made me chuckle, like a good P.G. Wodehouse novel. 

For example, in his chapter on "Enjambment" (the running over of a sentence or phrase from one poetic line to the next without punctuation), he writes:

The word is derived from the French enjamber, "to stride over" or "go beyond", and ultimately from jambe, "leg". You might say that an enjambed line is legging it.

I am a forever advocate for reading more poetry, which is meant to be read aloud, for the ideal appreciation of it's structure, sound, meter, and rhyme. It's impossible to sum up the book in just a few short paragraphs. I might need to write a poem to sum it all up, but in this age of distraction and too much information at our fingertips all the hours of the day, I loved his line - 

Poetry is forgiving of almost any shortcomings we show it, except the disloyalty of inattention.