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Stories in Verse
Excerpt from Stories in Verse
Back from white shoulder and cheek; And her lips seem strawberries, lost In some Arctic country of frost.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Back from white shoulder and cheek; And her lips seem strawberries, lost In some Arctic country of frost.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
135 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1869
About the author
Henry Abbey
43 books1 followerHenry Abbey (1842-1911) was an American poet who is best known for the poem What do We Plant When We Plant a Tree? and May Dreams. His other works include Ralph and Other Poems (1866), Stories in Verse (1869), Ballads of Good Deeds (1872), Poems (1879), The City of Success and Other Poems (1883) and Dream of Love (1910).
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 16, 2011
Hello and welcome to another installment of my Gutenberg Project Project. If you have tuned in just now, this is the project where I attempt to read all the book from Gutenberg Project in alphabetical order.
I am happy to announce that I have left AA and I am now in AB.
I knew that sooner or later I would have to read something that rhymes. I am not a big fan of things that rhyme (or free verse for that matter) but these are supposed to be Stories in Verse. I can do stories.
Most of the stories in the collection have to do with the persona’s path to be reunited with his beautiful love. It usually follows this path: Persona sees a beautiful girl, he falls in love with her on spot, she returns the feeling and the comes the obstacle. The obstacle may take different forms, it could be an evil uncle who doesn’t want his daughter to marry his nephew (strangely, the fact that they are first cousins does not seem to be a problem), or, when things get weirder, the persona being buried alive (very Edgar Alan Poesque but with a happy ending), or, and wait for it... a giant spider which kidnaps the girl. Well, why not.
The love interests are always beautiful:
"Her eyes seem to drink from my own.
Her curls are carelessly thrown
Back from white shoulder and cheek;
And her lips seem strawberries, lost
In some Arctic country of frost."
or
"Her sensuous long dark lashes hung above her dreamy eyes,
Like twin clouds of stormy portent balanced over limpid deeps;
Like the wings of birds of passage seen against the hazy skies;
Like the petal o'er the pollen of the flow'ret when it sleeps"
You get the drift.
Henry Abbey becomes a Muslim, or a poor fisherman, a Beduin, moves back in time, but no matter how exotic the setting and circumstances, he doesn't seem to have any problem inhabiting all these varied characters. There is only time when he abandons first person narrative and changes to the third person. Bizarrely it is when he tells a story close to him in time and space. It is when he tells a story of black slave from the American South. It is impossible to find a fault in that story, the main character is not presented as some sort 'noble savage', he is a man full finest qualities; intelligent and brave. Yet, Abbey wrote about him in the third person, which just goes to show how much of 'The Other' a black man was.
All in all, Abbey is a good guy. He has a good opinion of women, even though they have little in terms of personality in his stories (they are good, charitable and of strong faith). There is one interesting story in the collection which is a kind of loose retelling of Adam and Eve myth, in which Even stays good and strong and Adam helps himself to the apple. Well, that's refreshing.
I am happy to announce that I have left AA and I am now in AB.
I knew that sooner or later I would have to read something that rhymes. I am not a big fan of things that rhyme (or free verse for that matter) but these are supposed to be Stories in Verse. I can do stories.
Most of the stories in the collection have to do with the persona’s path to be reunited with his beautiful love. It usually follows this path: Persona sees a beautiful girl, he falls in love with her on spot, she returns the feeling and the comes the obstacle. The obstacle may take different forms, it could be an evil uncle who doesn’t want his daughter to marry his nephew (strangely, the fact that they are first cousins does not seem to be a problem), or, when things get weirder, the persona being buried alive (very Edgar Alan Poesque but with a happy ending), or, and wait for it... a giant spider which kidnaps the girl. Well, why not.
The love interests are always beautiful:
"Her eyes seem to drink from my own.
Her curls are carelessly thrown
Back from white shoulder and cheek;
And her lips seem strawberries, lost
In some Arctic country of frost."
or
"Her sensuous long dark lashes hung above her dreamy eyes,
Like twin clouds of stormy portent balanced over limpid deeps;
Like the wings of birds of passage seen against the hazy skies;
Like the petal o'er the pollen of the flow'ret when it sleeps"
You get the drift.
Henry Abbey becomes a Muslim, or a poor fisherman, a Beduin, moves back in time, but no matter how exotic the setting and circumstances, he doesn't seem to have any problem inhabiting all these varied characters. There is only time when he abandons first person narrative and changes to the third person. Bizarrely it is when he tells a story close to him in time and space. It is when he tells a story of black slave from the American South. It is impossible to find a fault in that story, the main character is not presented as some sort 'noble savage', he is a man full finest qualities; intelligent and brave. Yet, Abbey wrote about him in the third person, which just goes to show how much of 'The Other' a black man was.
All in all, Abbey is a good guy. He has a good opinion of women, even though they have little in terms of personality in his stories (they are good, charitable and of strong faith). There is one interesting story in the collection which is a kind of loose retelling of Adam and Eve myth, in which Even stays good and strong and Adam helps himself to the apple. Well, that's refreshing.
September 11, 2014
This 1869 collection of stories in verse was mostly interesting, and of course I always admire the talent it takes to write in this manner. I would have rated it four stars but for me only the first three stories were truly captivating....the final three did not make as much of an impact.
The most compelling story in this book was the second one, titled Karagwe, An African. This is the only poem not told in first-person, and rightly so. The noble character of Karagwe deserves his own voice, not that of a poet pretending to be the main character. Reading this verse has led me to research the Fort Pillow Massacre, a shameful episode from the American Civil War and one I had never known of.
Here is a short stanza from Karagwe, An African. Karagwe has escaped from the plantation, searching for a place to hide. I thought this description enhanced the desperateness of the flight....
The night was dark, but darker still the clouds
That loomed along the rim where day had gone.
The wind blew cold, and hastened quickly past,
Escaping, like a slave, the hound-like clouds
Whose thunder-barkings sounded in its ears.
The book is available free online at Project Gutenberg. Read it for the story Karagwe at the very least. You will not regret it.
The most compelling story in this book was the second one, titled Karagwe, An African. This is the only poem not told in first-person, and rightly so. The noble character of Karagwe deserves his own voice, not that of a poet pretending to be the main character. Reading this verse has led me to research the Fort Pillow Massacre, a shameful episode from the American Civil War and one I had never known of.
Here is a short stanza from Karagwe, An African. Karagwe has escaped from the plantation, searching for a place to hide. I thought this description enhanced the desperateness of the flight....
The night was dark, but darker still the clouds
That loomed along the rim where day had gone.
The wind blew cold, and hastened quickly past,
Escaping, like a slave, the hound-like clouds
Whose thunder-barkings sounded in its ears.
The book is available free online at Project Gutenberg. Read it for the story Karagwe at the very least. You will not regret it.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews