Other Useful Writings


¥ Do or do not; there is no try. (Yoda)


¥ Two poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay

O Earth, unhappy planet born to die,
Might I your scribe and your confessor be,
What wonders must you not relate to me
Of Man, who when his destiny was high
Strode like the sun into the middle sky
And shone an hour, and who so bright as he,
And like the sun went down into the sea,
leaving no spark to be remembered by.
But no; you have not learned in all these years
To tell the leopard and the newt apart;
Man, with his singular laughter, his droll tears,
His engines and his conscience and his art,
Made but a simple sound upon your ears:
The patient beating of the animal heart.

Apostrophe to Man

(On reflecting that the world is ready to go to war again)

Detestable race, continue to expunge yourself,
ÊÊÊÊdie out.
Breed faster, crowd, encroach, sing hymns,
ÊÊÊÊÊbuild bombing air-planes;
Make speeches, unveil statues, issue bonds, parade;
Convert again into explosives the bewildered
ÊÊÊÊÊammonia and the distracted cellulose;
Convert again into putrescent matter drawing flies
The hopeful bodies of the young; exhort,
Pray, pull long faces, be earnest, Êbe all
ÊÊÊÊÊÊbut overcome, be photographed;
Confer, perfect your formulae, commercialize
Bacteria harmful to human tissue,
Put death on the market;
Breed, crowd, encroach, expand, expunge yourself,
ÊÊÊÊÊÊdie out,
Homo called sapiens.


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