What is the Literary Life?

Published: April 21, 2019, 12:41 p.m.

Today's Book List:

(affiliate links)

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Find out more about our sponsor, New College Franklin at https://newcollegefranklin.org/

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Connect with us!

Find Angelina at \xa0https://angelinastanford.com and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/

Find Cindy at https://cindyrollins.net and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/

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Jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let\u2019s get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB

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Today\u2019s poem:

The Truisms by Louis MacNeice

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His father gave him a box of truisms

Shaped like a coffin, then his father died;

The truisms remained on the mantlepiece

As wooden as the play box they had been packed in

Or that his father skulked inside.

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Then he left home, left the truisms behind him

Still on the mantlepiece, met love, met war,

Sordor, disappointment, defeat, betrayal,

Till through disbeliefs he arrived at a house

He could not remember seeing before.

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And he walked straight in; it was where he had come from

And something told him the way to behave.

He raised his hand and blessed his home;

The truisms flew and perched on his shoulders

And a tall tree sprouted from his father\u2019s grave.