I've always loved this poem....can't recite it without tears welling up. At the Memorial Service for William F. Buckley, JR., at St. Patrick's Cathedral, his son Christopher chose this poem to read, saying "each line seems to have been written just for him." As indeed it does.
Thanks for this! I'm sure the double meaning of "grave" (as in graven image, and the noun) is intentional.
So unjustly neglected, these writers damned with faint praise as "good but not among the great." I just finished reading all six of Trollope's Barsetshire novels, and found them a delight for their wit, their psychological complexity, and in a number of cases their refusal to reward you with the conventional "happy ending." My edition of The Last Chronicle of Barset features back-cover blurbs by Henry James and Nathaniel Hawthorne among others. But my impression is that now critics say "Oh, Trollope. Well, he's no Dickens or Austen." No, he isn't. Sometimes he's more entertaining.
I have the same feeling about Trollope. A couple of years ago I binge-read all the Barsetshire novels, all the Palliser novels, and a couple of others (My Cousin Henry, for one), and found them all such great fun. Dickens will always and forever be The One for me, but I am glad to know Mr. Trollope.
So many passages had me laughing out loud. Here Trollope seeks to defend (sort of) one of his most unlikeable characters, Mrs. Proudie: ""She did regard the dignity of her husband, and she felt at the present moment that she had almost compromised it. She did also regard the welfare of the clergymen around her, thinking of course in a general way that certain of them who agreed with her were the clergymen whose welfare should be studied, and that certain of them who disagreed with her were the clergymen whose welfare should be postponed." I love the understatement of "postponed."
I've always loved this poem....can't recite it without tears welling up. At the Memorial Service for William F. Buckley, JR., at St. Patrick's Cathedral, his son Christopher chose this poem to read, saying "each line seems to have been written just for him." As indeed it does.
Elizabeth
Thanks for this! I'm sure the double meaning of "grave" (as in graven image, and the noun) is intentional.
So unjustly neglected, these writers damned with faint praise as "good but not among the great." I just finished reading all six of Trollope's Barsetshire novels, and found them a delight for their wit, their psychological complexity, and in a number of cases their refusal to reward you with the conventional "happy ending." My edition of The Last Chronicle of Barset features back-cover blurbs by Henry James and Nathaniel Hawthorne among others. But my impression is that now critics say "Oh, Trollope. Well, he's no Dickens or Austen." No, he isn't. Sometimes he's more entertaining.
I have the same feeling about Trollope. A couple of years ago I binge-read all the Barsetshire novels, all the Palliser novels, and a couple of others (My Cousin Henry, for one), and found them all such great fun. Dickens will always and forever be The One for me, but I am glad to know Mr. Trollope.
So many passages had me laughing out loud. Here Trollope seeks to defend (sort of) one of his most unlikeable characters, Mrs. Proudie: ""She did regard the dignity of her husband, and she felt at the present moment that she had almost compromised it. She did also regard the welfare of the clergymen around her, thinking of course in a general way that certain of them who agreed with her were the clergymen whose welfare should be studied, and that certain of them who disagreed with her were the clergymen whose welfare should be postponed." I love the understatement of "postponed."
Remember A Child’s Garden of Verse from my childhood. If people had read it well, we would all be as happy as we kings.