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It's no secret that I love words. I've already made a blog post on being a logophile and anyone who has known me long enough has probably at some point been informed by me of my favorite books (anything written by J.R.R. Tolkien or William Shakespeare) or knows my disgust for Karen Hesse's book Stowaway (most boring book ever!) . However, something I don't talk a lot about are the words that have leaped from the pages of the books that I have read and which have supplied great joy to me when I read them. They are words for which I return to the books again and again just to read and savor the words once again.
The Old Walking Song by J.R.R. Tolkien
I won't quote the entire song here, because it is long enough that I do not want to accidentally infringe on any copyright rules, but the first line of each verse, "The road goes ever ever on" (Tolkien 269), sticks out to me as lending a wistful mood in The Hobbit . In The Lord of the Ring, however, the song takes on a more cheerful and anticipatory tone. Perhaps it is because Bilbo is returning from his journey when he sings the song and Frodo is just setting out on his own journey when he sings his version of the song. Either way the song is beautiful, I love reading it aloud and basking in the care of words that Tolkien had and which shines through so splendidly in this song. In my opinion, this song sets a high standard for poetry woven into a story, and is something that I aspire to emulate in my own writing. It also was the song that was on my mind when I wrote my "Little Inky Footprints" poem (for which this blog is named) and was the first piece that I read which planted the seeds for my love of the journey motif.
Image by Mystic Art Design from Pixabay
All The World's A Stage from As You Like It
Oh this piece, I love the word picture that Jacques gives when he says, "All the world's a stage,/ And all the men and women merely players./ They have their exits and their entrances, /And one man in his time plays many parts..."! (Shakespeare II.7.146-48) These lines remind me that 1). Everyone has a purpose in life and 2). our roles in life are constantly changing, and most importantly, 3). we are under God's command for the entirety of our lives. And then there is the last line of this speech: "Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything! (line 173)" I know it is rather morbid, but the first time I read this line, I had the thought, "Well, I have a headstart on this aspect of getting older, because I am already without one eye." Also, I love the word "sans". I first encountered it in this speech, and I wish we used it more frequently nowadays, but I suppose that might end up detracting from its delightfulness as an archaic word.
Middlemarch
I came across a quote in George Eliot's Middlemarch a few days ago that made me laugh a little. The quote is "...correct English is the slang of prigs who write history and essays. And the strongest slang of all is the slang of poets" (Eliot Chapter 11, paragraph 9). To think of "correct English" as slang made me laugh because when I think of slang, "correct English" doesn't come to mind. In fact, it's the complete opposite in my mind. It's true that historians and essayists (myself included) are prigs when it comes to correct English. We pride ourselves on using academic terms to the extent that when we use non-academic terms which are still correct English, it feels like we are stooping down to use the "slang" of people who don't share our background in literature and writing. As someone who loves words, I know how easy it is to get wrapped in all the different words that one can use to express themselves more accurately than just a generic term which will require additional explanation to get the full picture across. I have been trained to use precise language to get my point across, but pondering this quote's meaning has reminded me that using simple, correct English allows me to connect with more people through my writing, which is something that I definitely want to do.
I hope I have made the words right
The last quote I am going to share today is from Markus Zusak's The Book Thief. If you have never read this book, I highly recommend it, but with a warning: it will tear your heart apart. I purposely saved this quote for last, because I find the statement to be even truer every time I put pen to paper or my fingers to my computer keys and with every draft and final product of any writing that I produce. The statement is this: "I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I hope that I have made them right" (Zusak 528). Every time I read those words, I get chills and my heart cries that the statement sums up exactly how I feel. I hope I do justice to the words on the page in front of me whenever I write. I hope that the words I use demonstrate that I used them with intention and great care. I hope I always make the words right!
Works Cited
Eliot, George. “Middlemarch .” Project Gutenberg, 1 July 1994, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/145.
Shakespeare, William. “As You like It.” Folger Shakespeare Library, https://www.folger.edu/as-you-like-it.
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Hobbit. Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief. Alfred A. Knopf, 2005.
All images in this blog post, including the header image are from pixabay.com
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