So I was reading "Shirley" by Charlotte Bronte the other day. It was written in, I'm guessing, 1850s maybe? Well, I was talking to Ethan about how BEAUTIFULLY she uses words! Here's an example. Caroline has been spurned (so she thinks) by the man she loves. (He does not know how she feels, by the way) Whether it's social conditioning or her own wisdom guiding her, she says nothing to him. She decides to deal with it on her own and try to stop loving him. Well, Charlotte Bronte say this in regards to her actions: "You held out your hand for an egg, and fate put into it a scorpion. Show no consternation; close your fingers firmly upon the gift; let it sting through your palm. Never mind; in time, after your hand and arm have swelled and quivered long with torture, the squeezed scorpion will die, and you will have learned the great lesson how to endure without a sob." Whether you agree with what she did or not isn't my point, it's how Bronte uses such imagery to get you to really feel her pain!
I was thinking about this today when a song came on. I was wondering why word-art (because "poetry" doesn't really grasp it) is hardly used or even attempted anymore. Then I heard a song I'd heard a million times before by Andrew Peterson. It's called "Come, Lord Jesus". Now, I'm leaving out the chorus which says over and over "Come Lord Jesus" because the verses are really really beautiful (especially when he speaks of "the oceans"):
"Tonight in the line of the merchandise store
While they were packing up my bags
I saw the pictures of the prophets of the picket signs
Screaming, "God hates fags"
And it feels like the church isn't anything more
Then the second coming of the Pharisees
Scrubbing each other 'til their tombs are white
They chisel epitaphs of piety.
Oh, there's a burning down inside of me
'Cause the battle seems so lost
And it's raging on so silently
We forget it's being fought."
"It's taken me years in the race just to get this far
Still there is no end in sight,
'Cause I've carried my cross into dens of the wicked
You know I blended in just fine.
I'm weak and I'm weary of breaking His heart
With they cycle of my sin, of my sin
Still He turns His face to me and I kiss it
Just to betray Him once again.
Well, I've got oceans down inside of me
I can feel the billows roll
With the mercy that comes thundering
O'er the waters of my soul."
"Tonight in the light of the gathering rain
I could hear creation groan
And a sigh rose up from the streets of the city
To the foot of Heaven's throne
Oh, and the people hear the sound of a sweet refrain
An absolution in the fray, in the fray
It tells of the death of the one for the lives of the many -
More than any picket sign could say."
Thursday, July 24, 2008
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2 comments:
That was really beautiful! I like the songs a lot but the scorpion thing was awesome. You could easily write like that. You need to try some.
as i read the lyrics, i can hear the song in my head and andrew peterson singing it is a great songs
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