While compiling a collection of my writing (some poems from a chapbook and three short stories), I felt a wave of optimism and inspiration. “What an eclectic piece of work this will be,” my muse declared.
However, as many writers know, these feelings of optimism are often interrupted with self-doubt.
“Who are you to write a collection of poems and short stories?” asked my anti-muse. “You’re just too small and insignificant to write something such as this.”
Fortunately (and timely), I stumbled upon an inspiring poem about the milkweed by the great American poet, Richard Wilbur:
Anonymous as cherubs
Over the crib of God,
White seeds are floating
Out of my burst pod
What power had I
Before I learned to yield?
Shatter me, great wind:
I shall possess the field
Excerpt from Two Voices in a Meadow by Richard Wilbur
Seeds, like words, floating from our minds onto the page, and across the “amazon.”
I hope his poem inspires you as it has me. With that said…
Happy writing,
Mary
Miss Bingley‘s views were commonly held by upper class women who wanted to catch an eligible bachelor. But many of Jane Austen’s readers would have known that the proper education of women was a controversial subject at the turn of the nineteenth century.
of a popular resort included shops, a theater, assembly rooms for dancing and the sea. It was believed that exposure to sea air and salt water improved your health — as Mrs. Bennet says, “A little sea-bathing would set me up for ever.” So it is quite likely that the two young ladies in Brighton would have tried immersion in the sea by using the bathing machines.
Jane Austen didn’t tell us what brand of china the Bennets used, but the Austens ate off Wedgwood plates. She refers to her family’s own Wedgwood collection in a letter to Cassandra in which she writes to her sister about “the pleasure of receiving, unpacking & approving our Wedgwood ware.”