Beth smiled, and felt comforted, for the tiny [bird] seemed to offer its small friendship, and remind her that a pleasant world was still to be enjoyed.
~Louisa May Alcott
This morning (It's Wednesday, I'm scheduling ahead) as I was getting ready to go meet a friend for a walk, she asked, "Do you still want to go considering the air quality?" Air quality?? Ah yes, we need to be protected from the air. Time for consolation!
CONSOLATION
By Wisława Szymborska
Translated by Clare Cavanagh
Darwin.
They say he read novels to relax,
But only certain kinds:
nothing that ended unhappily.
If anything like that turned up,
enraged, he flung the book into the fire.
True or not,
I’m ready to believe it.
Scanning in his mind so many times and places,
he’d had enough of dying species,
the triumphs of the strong over the weak,
the endless struggles to survive,
all doomed sooner or later.
He’d earned the right to happy endings,
at least in fiction
with its diminutions.
Hence the indispensable
silver lining,
the lovers reunited, the families reconciled,
read the rest here
*****************
Buffy Silverman has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Buffy!
P.S. I have a new website!
14 comments:
Thanks for the 'Consolation' today, Tabatha. Yay for Fido barking gladly, my favorite ending. Beautiful new website - I signed up for your Reader List. :)
Thank you for signing up, Bridget, and for letting me know -- because that's how I found out it wasn't working! I had to take it down for now. Working out the bugs!
Tab, your new site is gorgeous! The green is so warm and gentle and inspiring...like you! Now that's consolation. xo
I love Szymborska's work and have one of her collections. What a charming poem which sums up what many of us like about reading books with happy endings, witnessing through literature things turning out well in the end. She is a very clever and smart poet.
Gosh I love happy endings! What better than "old maids married off to worthy parsons" - lol
Let's pray for one with the fire and air!
Hi, Tabatha! I love it when someone writes or speaks positively of Darwin. Many don't know that he struggled with his findings. On that note, we all deserve to have consolation from one time to another. I like a book with a happy ending too. I just read The Bee Keeper of Aleppo - such a sad story. I'm read for something happier! Thanks,again!
Yes to all those consolations in literature (and life) but especially to the return of the dog ALIVE (or sleeping on the carpet, as it were) in the end!!
Lovely new website. Very swanky!!
The poetry of Wisława Szymborska continues to resonate each time I encounter it. This poem is no exception. Thank you for highlighting it, Tabatha. This one possessed an observational quality, a la Billy Collins.
Always love being introduced to a new poet. Thanks!
Yes, indeed, that we could have a 'silver lining', Tabatha, and also ready to throw a few ideas into the fire. Off to see that new website! May your own weekend have a few silver linings!
Who doesn't want, need, and love some consolation, both from novels and from a poem? ❤️❤️
The new website is beautiful! I'll look forward to signing up for the Reader List when it's back up and running.
I'd welcome some of that consolation… And I don't like to miss walks either. Lovely new blog Tabatha, congrats!!!
I sure get it, Mr. Darwin! (Off to check out your new site!)
I love your new website. It sings of spring into summer. This line in the poem you shared, "old maids married off to worthy parsons," made me laugh. I also listened to the song at your newest blog post. Enjoy playing at your new site.
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