Category Archives: American Literature

BOOKS: “A Horse’s Tale” by Mark Twain

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A Horse's TaleA Horse’s Tale by Mark Twain
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Project Gutenberg Page

Among the lesser-known works of Twain, A Horse’s Tale mixes an epistolary by a military officer at a remote outpost with dialogues between animals of the post (principally the protagonist, a horse called Soldier Boy.) The principal subject of the epistolary is a precocious girl who lives at the outpost and who is adored by all as the one soft, sweet creature in a world of warfighting men and their animals. The conversations between animals offer the most amusing portion of this book, largely for the fun being poked at humanity’s expense.

In its best moments, this novella is intensely touching or hilarious. However, it does suffer from inconsistency of pacing and tone.

If you enjoy Mark Twain’s humor and storytelling, this novella is well worth reading. If you’re primarily a reader of present-day genre / commercial fiction, it probably won’t be your thing.

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“I heard thee laugh” by Stephen Crane [w/ Audio]

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I heard thee laugh,
And in this merriment
I defined the measure of my pain;
I knew that I was alone,
Alone with love,
Poor shivering love,
And he, little sprite,
Came to watch with me,
And at midnight
We were like two creatures by a dead camp-fire.

“There is a finished feeling” (856) by Emily Dickinson [w/ Recording]

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There is a finished feeling
   Experienced at Graves—
A leisure of the Future—
   A Wilderness of Size.
 
By Death’s bold Exhibition
   Preciser what we are
And the Eternal function
   Enabled to infer.

“Epigram for Wall Street” by Edgar Allan Poe [w/ Audio]

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I'll tell you a plan for gaining wealth,
    Better than banking, trade or leases —
Take a bank note and fold it up,
    And then you will find your money in creases!
This wonderful plan, without danger or loss,
Keeps your cash in your hands, where nothing can trouble it;
And every time that you fold it across,
    'Tis as plain as the light of the day that you double it!

“Have you ever made a just man?” by Stephen Crane [w/ Audio]

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"Have you ever made a just man?"
 "Oh, I have made three," answered God,
 "But two of them are dead,
 And the third --
 Listen! Listen!
 And you will hear the thud of his defeat."

“The earth has many keys” (1775) by Emily Dickinson [w/ Audio]

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The earth has many keys,
   Where melody is not
 Is the unknown peninsula.
   Beauty is nature's fact.

But witness for her land,
   And witness for her sea,
 The cricket is her utmost
   Of elegy to me.

“Loss and Gain” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow [w/ Audio]

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    When I compare
What I have lost with what I have gained,
What I have missed with what attained,
  Little room do I find for pride.

     I am aware
How many days have been idly spent;
How like an arrow the good intent
  Has fallen short or been turned aside. 

     But who shall dare
To measure loss and gain in this wise?
Defeat may be victory in disguise;
  The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide.

“A Question” by Robert Frost [w/ Audio]

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A voice said, Look me in the stars
 And tell me truly, men of earth,
 If all the soul-and-body scars 
 Were not too much to pay for birth.

“A sepal, petal, and a thorn” (19) by Emily Dickinson [w/ Audio]

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A sepal, petal, and a thorn
 Upon a common summer's morn --
 A flask of Dew -- A Bee or two --
 A Breeze -- a caper in the trees --
 And I'm a Rose!

“From China” by Amy Lowell [w/ Audio]

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   I thought: 
The moon,
Shining upon the many steps of the palace before me,
Shines also upon the chequered rice-fields
Of my native land.
And my tears fell
Like white rice grains
At my feet.