From Virginia Woolf, one of my favorite paragraphs in the world; watch closely as our dear Clarissa mends a tear in a favourite dress:
"Quiet descended on her, calm, content, as her needle, drawing the silk smoothly to its gentle pause, collected the green folds together and attached them, very lightly, to the belt. So on a summer's day waves collect, overbalance and fall; and the whole world seems to be saying "that is all" more and more ponderously, until even the heart in the body which lies in the sun on the beach says too, That is all. Fear no more, says the heart. Fear no more, says the heart, committing its burden to some sea, which sighs collectively for all sorrows, and renews, begins, collects, lets fall. And the body alone listens to the passing bee; the wave breaking; the dog barking, far away barking and barking."
3 comments:
ooo. virginia. .
do you know i think i accidentally stole your students image of kids-as-particles in the story poem i'm fooling with. i didn't realize it until i reread the MS today. Love that essay. . .had no idea it had entered the subconscious so quickly!
that woolf passage makes me think of this summer. . .a rolling surfeit of peace. .
ah...a rolling surfeit of peace. i love that.
i don't know what surfeit means, but it sounds nice. and i love and fear and admire ginny and clarissa like an eleven-year-old does her seventeen-year-old sister.
Post a Comment