Most people who know me nowadays would probably be a bit surprised to learn that I used to be a big literature buff, particularly with old english poetry. I guess it all started back around grade 10. I had done pretty well in school, and had been recommended to take advanced placement calculus and physics. Because of that, and of my high marks in english I guess, I was put on a list that recommended I be enrolled in a new AP Literature class at our school. So for kicks, I said “why not”?
And to be honest, looking back, it’s probably the class I enjoyed the most. I studied some of the greats such as Chaucer, Donne, Milton, Shakespeare, and one of my favourites, Alfred Lord Tennyson. I still surprise myself that I know many of the poems I read from that era completely by heart, and will gladly quote a few verses while under the influence.
So tonight, while showing Jari and Seppo around downtown Vancouver, I was completely surprised when out of nowhere, some words to a poem I had only read once or twice in my life somehow popped into my memory. It’s a simple but powerful Canadian poem entitled “Vancouver Lights.”
For your reading pleasure, you can find the entire online version here.
I was an AP nerd too 😛
Did you wear your RSS hat to class?
I like Ulysses’ story, another great Tennyson poem.
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Yeah that was a good one.. One of the first poems I read by him.