Monday, March 7, 2011

Atkinson, Ne Lifestyle and Art Photographer: Project 52 Week 10 {Books and Words}

Being an English teacher, I was pretty excited about this week's assignment. 

A few years ago, my mother gave me some family books that belonged to my grandmother, Sallie, who passed away in 2005. This is one of the books, a collection of early poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Not only do I enjoy his poetry, I absolutely ADORE the aesthetic of the book. It was published in 1886, and belonged to my grandmother's Great Aunt, Nellie M. Bacon.  My roots are very important to me, and I feel blessed that my parents made sure that their children have an understanding and appreciation for the place from which they came.  

I read this poem with my students in our study of the American Literary Renaissance.  These two stanzas are my favorite.   


Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime, 
And departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.
...
Let us, then, be up and doing, 
With a heart for any fate; 
Still achieving, still pursuing, 
Learn to labor and to wait.

~ H. W. Longfellow
"The Psalm of Life"




7 comments:

  1. Beautiful! Your knowledge of your family heritage is really amazing.

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  2. Family heritage is very important and I'm glad that you are learning that a very young age. So much of it is lost because of not taking the time to record it or caring about it. It gets so much more important as we age.

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  3. The book is beautiful and the fact that this has stayed in your family is remarkable.

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  4. oh i love this....beautiful. i wish i had more knowledge of my family history. what a blessing.

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