ⅻ - [text]

[mnementomori]

[careful writing appears on the Vine, slowly, a pause after each line. The writer is copying it down from a book, after all.]

If recollecting were forgetting,
Then I remember not.
And if forgetting, recollecting,
How near I had forgot.
And if to miss, were merry,
And to mourn, were gay,
How very blithe the fingers
That gathered this, Today!

[with that, the handwriting grows more confident and natural again, continuing further down the page.]


I found this in a book in the library...and a lot of other things like it. Is it some kind of puzzle? What does it mean?

Comments

[mnementomori]

It can? I thought "pretty" was supposed to be a good thing, and "sad" isn't, so...

[sistagonist.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't call either of those good or bad. Something can be pretty and cruel, or sad but remind you of what's good in life. That might be the feeling the poet was going for.

[mnementomori]

Both at the same time?

[there's a pause as she mulls this over.]

I think I understand...but you don't think sad is a bad thing?

[sistagonist.livejournal.com]

Sadness is a part of life. You have to deal with it some way or another, and it might as well be writing poetry about it, I guess.

[mnementomori]

A part of life...

So it's really not...possible to always be happy?

[sistagonist.livejournal.com]

How would you be able to tell you were happy if you had nothing to compare it to?

[mnementomori]

[a good thirty second pause.]

I never thought of it like that before. But I guess it makes sense.

[sistagonist.livejournal.com]

I am 100% sure that you can be happy for a very long time at a stretch, though. You just have to get through tough stuff to get there.

[mnementomori]

[she raises her head with a tentative smile.]

I hope you're right.