Fun_People Archive
27 Feb
LIT BITS V3 #58


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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Sun, 27 Feb 100 16:53:14 -0800
To: Fun_People
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Subject: LIT BITS V3 #58

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Excerpted-from: LITERARY CALENDAR Monday, February 28 2000 Vol 03 : Num 058

Today is Monday, 28 February 2000; on this day,

168 years ago (1832),

	Signing herself "L'Etrangere,' Mme Evelina Hanska first writes to
     Balzac. An ardent exchange of letters ensues between the 32-year-old
     writer and the married Polish noblewoman.

90 years ago (1910),

	A. E. Housman (_A Shropshire Lad_, _Terence, This is Stupid Stuff_)
     writes of his sparse output: "In barrenness . . . I hold a high place
     among English poets, excelling even Gray."

84 years ago (1916),

	Henry James dies in London at 72, saying "So here it is at last,
     the distinguished thing." T. S. Eliot  will comment acidly: "James
     had a mind so fine that no idea could violate it."



                            XIII

     When I was one-and-twenty
     I heard a wise man say,
     "Give crowns and pounds and guineas
     But not your heart away;
     Give pearls away and rubies
     But keep your fancy free."
     But I was one-and-twenty,
     No use to talk to me.

     When I was one-and-twenty
     I heard him say again,
     "The heart out of the bosom
     Was never given in vain;
     'Tis paid with sighs a plenty
     And sold for endless rue."
     And I am two-and-twenty,
     And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.

                                               A. E. Housman


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