The Aeneid, chapter 9

     " Euryalus countered: 'You're spinning empty arguments, they won't work. No, my mind won't change, won't budge an inch. Let's be gone!'"
                               From The Aeneid by Virgil
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     Empty arguments. Everyone hates them, yet they are so common. This passage, although one of the shortest in the book, is one that stands out to me more than others. It's interesting - an empty argument is one that is usually chock-full of words, feelings, and emotion. Yet they can be so meaningless to some. They most often don't work to accomplish much, yet we throw ourselves into them. I am the second-oldest of five children, and I can definitely relate to this.I know that, for me, when I've set my mind on something that I believe with my whole heart is right, true, or 'fair', no amount of yelling, pleading, or whining will change my mind. {Unless it's my parents, that is}. This is often called bullheadedness, but it's helped me - when I find out on my own that I was wrong - to put myself in others' shoes and remember that sometimes we need to just let people think what they think. Who cares if my seven-year-old  brother thinks the sky is purple!? He'll figure out the truth someday, but does it really matter now? Who am I to try and change what he has set his heart on?

Taking the time...

A Time to Talk

When a friend calls to me from the road
And slows his horse to a meaning walk,
I don't stand still and look around
On all the hills I haven't hoed,
And shout from where I am, What is it?
No, not as there is a time to talk.
I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground,
Blade-end up and five feet tall,
And plod: I go up to the stone wall
For a friendly visit. 

Robert Frost

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This poem by Robert Frost is a great reminder to simply take the time. The character in his piece is in the middle of hoeing his fields when, unannounced, his neighbor rides by and slows to a 'meaning walk'. Instead of staying planted in his position and shouted ' Hey, neighbor, what's up?' he sets the tool down and takes the time to talk. Some would find this a waste of time, but really, it is much more meaningful than field work. To do what the character did shows true interest in a fellow's day, and - when the world comes to an end - it will be much more important that he took the time to listen, instead of talk or work. For everything there is a season, and a purpose for everything under the heavens. 

A document by Frontinus

" All the aqueducts reach the city at different elevations. Six of these streams flow into covered containers, where they lose their sediment....(goes on to describe the grandeur of the aqueducts)
    Compare such numerous and indispensable structures carrying so much water with the idle pyramids, or the useless but famous works of the Greeks."
                                                   ~Frontinus

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The first analysis I made of this document is the fact that, according to the last sentence, the author believes the aqueducts to be works of art. I can't help but agree with him, according to the definition of art. Art is anything that requires traits such as skill, patience, thought... and the list goes on. The last sentence may seem a little out there - but think about it: after you've defined the aqueducts as works of art, you must realize that such art is useful. With aqueducts came water - endless water - to the Romans. It didn't have to be pumped, and one didn't have to travel far to find it. So, when compared to the art of the Greeks, or the Egyptian pyramids, these things really do seem like useless things, that really aren't good for much at all.

The Aeneid, week 24

"     So all his shipmates gathered round his body and raised a loud lament, devoted Aeneas in the lead. Then still in tears, they rushed to perform the Sibyl's orders, no delay, they strive to pile up trees, to build an altar-pyre rising to the skies. Then into an ancient wood and the hidden dens of beasts they make their way, and down crash the pines, the ilex rings to the axe, the trunks of ash and oak are split by the driving wedge, and they roll huge rowans down the hilly slopes."
                                                 ~from The Aeneid by Virgil, book six
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     This particular passage of book six is one of my favorites from The Aeneid so far. This is because it displays a dramatic, yet applicable happening. The men who are with Aeneid on his journey are forced to say goodbye to a comrade, a companion - a friend. Plenty of people today have to do this, but fewer have to go right back into laboring, minutes after a funerary farewell. These particular men, though, do so with dignity, courage, and silent sorrow - 'still in tears'. Even Aeneid weeps as he carries out his instructions. but through the tears, they carry on.
     I love the emotion in this piece, and how it's not an unheard of emotion - but a circumstance that can be very real.

Purity beneath the veil

A charm invests a face

a poem by Emily Dickinson

A charm invests a face

Imperfectly beheld.

The lady dare not lift her veil

For fear it be dispelled.

But peers beyond her mesh,

And wishes, and denies,

Lest interview annul a want

That image satisfies.

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       This poem about purity took a while to find, but was worth being found. It's about the purity of the veiled woman - whether the veil be metaphorical or physical. Metaphorical veils are much more popular today than are physical ones, but - sadly - any type of veil is either unheard of or rare in most places. Girls today just don't care as much about saving purity for the man God has planned for her. They want satisfaction now, the satisfaction being found in small, temporary things such as 'the first kiss' (often at age 10) or the prom later on. And as I strive to be a pure young woman in an impure world, watching some of my friends slowly lose their purity has become a lesson to me. Every week they break up with someone, and every week their heart is broken. So I'm waiting on what the Lord has in store for me - avoiding trauma, heartbreak, and wave-like relationships. Sure - it's hard - but it will be so, so worth it. 

The Aeneid - book 4

" But the queen -- too long she has suffered the pain of love,
  hour by hour nursing the wound with her life blood,
  consumed by the fire buried in her heart.
  The man's courage, the sheer pride of his line,
  they all come pressing home to her, over and over.
  His looks, his words, they pierce her heart and cling --
  no peace, no rest for her body, love will give her none."
                               ~from book 4 of The Aeneid by Virgil

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    This paragraph is the first of the quite lengthy poem in book four of The Aeneid, called 'The Tragic Queen'. This paragraph fits the description held in the title very well for we do indeed see that the queen is tragic. I like in this piece how well Virgil commands the use of imagery. The first segment of this tool is found in the very first line - 'the pain of love'. Love is considered an abstract noun - something that is definitely tangible, but not visible to others around you. So this creates an image of something hidden - which seems to be an oxymoron, but adds to the mystery and awesomeness of what Virgil is trying to say.
    Another great form of imagery Virgil uses is found in the last line when he says - 'no peace, no rest for her body, love will give her none.' The way the words in this line have been put together makes love seem like a demanding, resentful, un-compassionate authority - which is true, in many ways. Overall, the final line of the first paragraph of book four's poem gives love the character of a person in a truthful, colorful manner.
   

A Poem for your pleasure:

Going for Water

by Robert Frost

The well was dry beside the door,  

  And so we went with pail and can  

Across the fields behind the house  

  To seek the brook if still it ran;  

  

Not loth to have excuse to go,

  Because the autumn eve was fair  

(Though chill), because the fields were ours,  

  And by the brook our woods were there.  

  

We ran as if to meet the moon  

  That slowly dawned behind the trees,

The barren boughs without the leaves,  

  Without the birds, without the breeze.  

  

But once within the wood, we paused  

  Like gnomes that hid us from the moon,  

Ready to run to hiding new

  With laughter when she found us soon.  

  

Each laid on other a staying hand  

  To listen ere we dared to look,  

And in the hush we joined to make  

  We heard, we knew we heard the brook. 

  

A note as from a single place,  

  A slender tinkling fall that made  

Now drops that floated on the pool  

  Like pearls, and now a silver blade.

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    I was planning on using a poem by Shel Silverstein for this exercise but - unfortunately - almost all of our books are packed up for moving. So I searched instead for a majestic and intriguing poem by Robert Frost or similar author on the internet, and came up with this. 

    

    In order to receive the full effect of this poem, I read it many times - each time enjoying and understanding it a little more. The perspective of the poem is that of a group of younger children, sent to fetch water from the brook in the woods. It is a great adventure for them, and they run 'as if to meet the moon' - meaning they ran hard and fast as if they had a very long distance to go. I love this poem mostly because of how big Frost has made this simple little task seem, as it was to the group of children. For them it went beyond the normal household chores such as sweeping out the rooms or bringing in firewood to heat the house. It was a task specially given to them - a task that took them beyond the home, and into the magical, open, and free space of the forest. His title makes the job seem minimal and simple to an older mind, but in his poem he makes it clear that fetching the water is much more than that. Overall, I think Robert Frost's presentation of point of view on this subject was outstanding, and accurate.