| | This little exercise is making its way around the blogs, and I thought I'd give it a try. Lo and behold, it's fun, and there's even a story about the book that I picked up.
The instructions are to pick up the nearest book, open it to page 123, and put the fifth sentence into your journal.
The book nearest to me, as it so often is, is Palgrave's Golden Treasury. My edition is a very old leatherbound book. I can't tell quite how old, as there is no publication date, but it has that intense, evocative 'old-book' smell when you sniff its pages. The smell of grandmothers and attics, old chests and libraries, and all my favourite childhood places.
I have owned this book since I was eight, and I came by it in a marvellous way. We were moving to another home, and I was saying goodbye to my neighbours, an elderly couple named Matthews. Mr. Matthews came over with the book and presented it to me, saying he thought I might enjoy it "when I got older."
I know he died soon after I moved, so I hope I thanked him enough at the time. I read these poems, by Shakespeare, Bryron, Browning, Shelley, Blake, Tennyson, Wordsworth and so on, before I could even understand them. I demanded that my father read them to me as bedtime stories. I absorbed their rhythms and pondered their intricate vocabulary and tried to comprehend them. I still open this book often.
The Golden Treasury was one of the most important gifts I ever received. It helped me develop a love for English literature that has given me lifelong pleasure. I often think of this gift when I am with children. When I was small, I strove mightily to get the treasure from this treasury! So many books written "for" children seem... slight.
So what's on page 123 of my edition? I decided that the fifth verse would be the one that counted, so here it is, from a song called "Black-Eyed Susan" by John Gay.
Believe not what the landmen say
Who tempt with doubts thy constant mind:
They'll tell thee, sailors, when away,
In every port a mistress find:
Yes, yes, believe them when they tell thee so,
For thou art present whereso'er I go.
The sailor William will never forget his girl! And as my name is Susan, too, I'm quite fond of this song.  The full text is here for anyone interested. |
