The Diary Of A Nobody

Kahlil Gibran - On Freedom   Written in: The Prophet (Knopf, 1923)   Summary & Story: Almustafa  (character from The Prophet) answers an orator who asks him to speak of freedom. Because people worship freedom, the prophet says, they have become like a slave to freedom. They praise what is really "a yoke and a handcuff." The desire for freedom is so great that seeking it "becomes...

Mary Frye / Clare Harner / Unknown Author - Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep   Possibly written in: ca. 1932/1934 (Mary Frye / Clare Harner)  Note: The author of the poem has not been determined. Therefore, the poem may well belong to Mary Frye, Clare Harner, or other unknown author. The two possible authors are the only ones who claimed the poem to be written by them.      Poem: Do not stand By...

Rudyard Kipling - If   Written: ca. 1895 in ‘Brother Square-Toes’—Rewards and Fairies   Theme and Story: In his autobiography Something of Myself (1937), Kipling claimed that the phrase "If—" had its beginnings in the unsuccessful Jameson raid of 1895–1896, which was when British colonial statesman Leander Starr Jameson led an attack against the South African (Boer) Republic during the N...

William Ernest Henley - Invictus Written in: 1875 Originally published: 1888 in the author's first volume of poetry, Book of Verses, in the section Life and Death (Echoes).   Theme and Story Invictus is a poem by William Ernest Henley that translates from Latin as "unconquerable" or "undefeated." This poem is about maintaining one's dignity despite life's indigni...

T.S. Eliot - Ash Wednesday (part six)  Originally published: 1930 Theme: The poem was written by Eliot as a result of his conversion to Anglicanism in 1927.    Poem: Although I do not hope to turn againAlthough I do not hopeAlthough I do not hope to turnWavering between the profit and the lossIn this brief transit where the dreams crossThe dreamcrossed twilight between birth and dying(Bless me fat...

T.S. Eliot - Ash Wednesday (part five)  Originally published: 1930 Theme: The poem was written by Eliot as a result of his conversion to Anglicanism in 1927.    Poem: If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spentIf the unheard, unspokenWord is unspoken, unheard;Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard,The Word without a word, the Word withinThe world and for the world;And the light shon...

T.S. Eliot - Ash Wednesday (part four)  Originally published: 1930 Theme: The poem was written by Eliot as a result of his conversion to Anglicanism in 1927.    Poem: Who walked between the violet and the violetWhe walked betweenThe various ranks of varied greenGoing in white and blue, in Mary's colour,Talking of trivial thingsIn ignorance and knowledge of eternal dolourWho moved among the ot...

T.S. Eliot - Ash Wednesday (part three)  Originally published: 1930 Theme: The poem was written by Eliot as a result of his conversion to Anglicanism in 1927.    Poem: At the first turning of the second stair I turned and saw below The same shape twisted on the banister Under the vapour in the fetid air Struggling with the devil of the stairs who wears The deceitful face of hope and of despair.  ...

T.S. Eliot - Ash Wednesday (part two)  Originally published: 1930 Theme: The poem was written by Eliot as a result of his conversion to Anglicanism in 1927.    Poem: Lady, three white leopards sat under a juniper-tree In the cool of the day, having fed to satiety On my legs my heart my liver and that which had been contained In the hollow round of my skull. And God said Shall these bones live? sha...

T.S. Eliot - Ash Wednesday (part one)  Originally published: 1930 Theme: The poem was written by Eliot as a result of his conversion to Anglicanism in 1927.    Poem: Because I do not hope to turn againBecause I do not hopeBecause I do not hope to turnDesiring this man's gift and that man's scopeI no longer strive to strive towards such things(Why should the agèd eagle stretch its wings?)...