Tag Archives: literature

BOOKS: “A Horse’s Tale” by Mark Twain

Posted on by
2
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.

View all my reviews

Wen Fu 8 [文赋 八] “Edits” by Lu Ji [陆机] [w/ Audio]

Posted on by
Reply 
Maybe the first lines constrain the last;
  Maybe ends insist on openings;
  Maybe some truths escape all words;
  Maybe dulcet lines tell no truths.
 One may need to keep separated -- 
  Beauty and truth -- to avoid wounds.
 Inspect and haggle over each word --
  Distinctions maybe finer than a hair;
 Weigh each edit upon a scale;
  Ensure each cut serves its purpose.

Original poem in Simplified Chinese:

或仰逼于先条，或俯侵于后章。
或辞害而理比，或言顺而义妨。
离之则双美，    合之则两伤。
考殿最于锱铢，定去留于毫芒。
苟铨衡之所裁，固应绳其必当。

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

Posted on by
Reply 
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]

Posted on by
Reply 
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]

Posted on by
Reply 
"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]

Posted on by
Reply 
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]

Posted on by
1 
    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.

“Lament I” [感遇一] by Zhang Jiuling [张九龄]

Posted on by
Reply 
A lone goose flies in from the sea,
 Not daring to land in water.
 Glimpsing a pair of Kingfisher --
 Nested Three Pearl Tree squatters --
 It asks, "High up in that rare tree
 Of gold spheres, are you not afraid?
 Fancy clothes incur points and jeers
 And those high up are harshly weighed.
 As I roam dark rivers and hills,
 Envious hunters give me chills."

This is the first of the 300 Tang Poems [唐诗三百首] and it is also the first of a quartet of poems. The original poem in Simplified Chinese:

孤鸿海上来， 池潢不敢顾； 
侧见双翠鸟， 巢在三珠树。 
矫矫珍木巅， 得无金丸惧？ 
美服患人指， 高明逼神恶。 
今我游冥冥， 弋者何所慕？

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

Posted on by
Reply 
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]

Posted on by
Reply 
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!