Poetry Corner: A Deep-Sworn Vow by W.B. Yeats

{image source}

Others because you did not keep

That deep-sworn vow have been friends of mine;

Yet always when I look death in the face, 

When I clamber to the heights of sleep,

Or when I grow excited with wine,

Suddenly I meet your face.

- William Butler Yeats

{This is my favorite poem of all time. I had to share it this week because I am working on a story that is sort of inspired by it.}

Poetry Corner: "The Second Coming" by William Yeats

Painting by Maxim Katsnelson

I love this creepy little poem, even though I have a more positive outlook on the future, and a Christian outlook on the Second Coming. I frequently find the events of this modern world disturbing and disheartening. And lately, with a lot of stress in my life, I find the line "the center cannot hold" going through my mind over and over again. So, because the groundhog has decided it is winter for another six weeks, I'm giving you a dark poem this month.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.

    

Surely some revelation is at hand;
    Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
    The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
    When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
    Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
    A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
    A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
    Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
    Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.

    

The darkness drops again but now I know
    That twenty centuries of stony sleep
    Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
    And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
    Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Literary Hop: Timeless

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Before I get to the Hop, I want to express thanks for a few things. First of all, I am thankful to have made it home! We were caught in a blizzard in southern Idaho that turned a 6 hour drive into 10, but we made it safely. I am very thankful to have made it home.

Second, I am grateful for you! Thank you for reading my blog. I read and appreciate every comment, and those of you who have blogs, I really enjoy perusing your blogs and finding new books to read. I am new to the world of book blogging and it has been great to have some readers so early in the game.

Third, I am thankful for The Blue Bookcase for hosting the Literary Blog Hop! I like thinking about these questions and reading the perspectives of others. And with that...

This week's question is...

What makes a contemporary novel a classic?
Discuss a book which you think fits the category of ‘modern classics’ and explain why.

Honestly, I don't think contemporary novels are classics (yet). They haven't had the opportunity to prove themselves. I guess I probably should define what "classic" is in my opinion. I think classics are well-written novels with universal themes that are relevant for most people. Classics also need to have more staying power than the New York Times Bestseller list. I've had a teacher require that we use books written before 1950 for a classics project. While I don't think the date is set in stone, I do think if a book sticks around for more than fifty years, it has some staying power and one would hope some beautiful writing as well.

While I don't think contemporary novels have reached the lofty goal of classic-hood, it is fun to guess which books will last and be read by my grandchildren in high school. I'll bet Twilight will have disappeared by then, and as much as I love The Hunger Games, I think that fad will probably be over as well. I think a novel I have recently read that does have a chance is The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The Road takes some common problems - are we running the world down, can "the center hold" - and transforms it into our worst nightmare. I think that will resonate with future generations as well as ours. It interweaves these external issues with an internal question that I think resonates with all humanity - What is morality and can it change with circumstance? Add the emotional ties between father and son, some good writing and originality, and simmer for twenty-five to fifty years. (It doesn't hurt that The Road has a nice, shiny Pulitzer to its credit, either). Voila! Classic.

What do you think? Do you have any ideas on some of our contemporary "classics" that will last through the ages?