Shadow and Soul

Sonnet XVII

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other waythan this:
where I do not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.
-Pablo Neruda

Violet Lightnings

When I would image [his] features,
Comes up a shrouded head.
I touch the outlines, shrinking;
[He] seems of the wandering dead.

But when love asks for nothing,
And lies on his bed of snow,
The face slips under my eyelids,
All in its living glow.

Like a dark cathedral city,
Whose spires, and domes, and towers
Quiver in the violet lightnings,
My soul basks on for hours.

-George Meredith

Put money in my purse!

After rereading 'Othello' over the weekend, I decided that Shakespeare's plays have a lot more to offer society other than drawn out, or tedious tales. They have great characters. Throughout highschool I read the few Shakespearean plays required with relatively little interest, yet now, for some unexplainable reason, the Bard is finding a humble little home in my literary heart. I remember thinking Iago was wickedly fascinating the first time around, but now, and this may be a little cruel, I found him to be kind of funny. And a genious. Lets pause to consider some of the things he says throughout the play...

"Virtue? A fig!"
...
"Drown thyself? Drown cats and blind puppies."
...
"Blessed Pudding!"
...
And who can forget that very beautiful speech he gives to Roderigo? If you leave out the rubbish inbetween, it amounts to this...
"Put money in thy purse...put money in thy purse...put money in thy purse...put money in thy purse...fill thy purse with money...therefore put money in thy purse...Make all the money thou canst...Therefore make money...Go make money...Traverse, go, provide thy money...Put money in thy purse"
And how does Roderigo answer?..."I'll sell all my land"
What a dolt! But, as you see, Iago has one crazy powerful brain washing method. I plan on trying this out on my parents when I go home this weekend. I'll walk into the house, set my purse on the table, and say,
"My parents. Thou lovest me, and I lovest thou, therefore, put money in my purse. Wow! I really like how you painted and gutted out my room, put money in my purse. Wilst thou wash my clothes, put money in my purse? I'd like pizza for dinner, therefore give me money. Look, isn't my new purse pretty, put money into it? My purse, put money in it. Traverse, go to thy wallet, rob it of its contents, and stick it into my purse. Put money in my purse. Hey, look, a plane! Put money in my purse! "
And my parents will say,"We will sell your sister".
Heh heh. You get the picture. When I come back to campus loaded with cash, I will rub my hands fiendishly and say, "Thus do I ever make my sister my purse".
But it will take a lot of hard work, for,"Hell and night must ever bring this monstrous birth to the world's light!"
I'm feeling a little evil now. Perhaps I'll go pet a cat or a puppy.

Perdition Catch my Soul, It's Sonnet Time!

I lift my heavy heart up solemnly,
As once Electra her sepulchral urn,
And, looking in thine eyes, I overturn
The ashes at thy feet. Behold and see
What a great heap of grief lay hid in me,
And how red the wild sparkles dimly burn
Through the ashen greyness. If thy foot in scorn
Could tread them out to darkness utterly,
It might be well perhaps. But if instead
Thou wait beside me for the wind to blow
The grey dust up...those laurels on thine head,
O my Beloved, will not sheild thee so,
That none of all the fires shall scorch and shred
The hair beneath. Stand farther off then! go!

-Elizabeth Barret Browning

Well, as nothing really interesting is going on in my life at the moment, I couldn't resist the urge to post another of my favorite sonnets...really great imagery, I think! Ho-hum, I promise my life will be more interesting in a few days, and maybe then I'll stop borrowing poems and passages form other authors and write something of my own!
Wonderous event of the day...I get to reread all of Othello, as it is due manana for my english class, and I put it off 'till today. Iago, next to Lady Macbeth, has to be one of my favorite Shakespearean characters, so today shouldn't be all darkness and gloom...Perdition catch my soul, it's time for some homework!

Late Night Sonnets

I think of thee!-my thoughts do twine and bud
About thee, as wild vines, about a tree,
Put out broad leaves, and soon there's nought to see
Except the straggling green which hides the wood.
Yet, O my palm-tree, be it understood
I will not have my thoughts instead of thee
Who art dearer, better! Rather, instantly
Renew thy presence; as a strong tree should,
Rustle thy boughs and set thy trunk all bare,
And let these bands of greenery which insphere thee,
Drop heavily down, - burst, shattered everywhere!
Because, in this deep joy to see and hear thee
And breathe within thy shadow a new air,
I do not think of thee- I am too near thee.

-Elizabeth Barret Browining

"Sonnets from the Portuguese" have to be one of my favorite collections of poems! And after sitting up late reading through my Game Theory Economics homework, its nice to stumble across something like this...words refreshing and original enough to remind me why I want to pursue my major...words that remind me just how potent and powerful the English language is.

A tune we have not heard

Well, I've been really busy admist all the commotion of moving out of my parents house and starting a new life in at my university, but today I'll take some time to establish a little more about myself. My blog's name 'The Tune's Echo' came from a favorite passage of mine from C.S Lewis's 'The Weight of Glory'. I'll quote the passage in full here, for it gives me such joy!...
"In speaking of this desire for our own far-off country, which we find in ourselves even now, I feel a certain shyness. I am almost committing an indecency. I am trying to rip open the inconsolable secret in each one of you - the secret which hurts so much that you take your revenge on it by calling it names like Nostalgia and Romanticism and Adolescence; the secret also which pierces with such sweetness that when, in very intimate conversation, the mention of it becomes imminent, we grow awkward and affect to laugh at ourselves; the secret we cannot hide and cannot tell, though we desire to do both. We cannot tell it because it is a desire for something that has never actually appeared in out experience. We cannot hide it because our experience is constantly suggesting it, and we betray ourselves like lovers at the mention of a name...The books or music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things - the beauty, the memory of our own past - are the good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not yet found, the echo of a tune we have not yet heard, news from a country we have never yet visited. Do you think I am trying to weave a spell? Perhaps I am; but remember your fairy tales. Spells are used for breaking enchantments as wellas for inducing them. Any you and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness."- C.S Lewis.
There is something very powerful that sweeps through our favorite books and music, right to our hearts, and pierces us with its truthfulness. I think it is our quest for truth that leads us to hunger after our favorite authors and aritists- for something or someone to validate our own experience. Now that I've established this principle, hopefully I'll spend more time 'truth-digging' in my following posts.

Ta-da! Yet another blog is born!

Bonjour!
Yet another piercing cry into the blogosphere. I have no particular plans for this blog, other than the occasional rant, a muse or two, and a general atmosphere of inquiry and inspiration. Mostly, I read too much, but don't write half as much as I should, and have alot to say about what I read, and I think a blog would be a nice place to deposit all the stuff piling up in my brain. And we haven't even talked about what I need to say about life beyond the binding. Comments welcome! This blog may be a little selfish, but I hope to hear whatever from whomever!