Poetic Prose

So the main reason I'm writing this, actually there are two main reasons, the first is that I haven't written anything just for fun in a few days (I love writing), and the second reason is to procrastinate doing my college algebra homework (I hate algebra).

I don't know what it is about reading and writing that I love so much. Maybe it's just the creativity involved in writing, and the experience of reading. It is only in the world of creative literature that one may encounter everyday things being described so poetically that if you were to repeat the phrase in conversation, it would likely be too dramatic, flowery, or downright cheesy. For instance, one of my favorite literary quotes describes a rather dreary situation. Poor Oliver Twist has spent the night alone wandering down narrow country roads and crossing desolate meadows and pastures, finally sleeping on the damp ground. When the sky lightens and dawn breaks, Charles Dickens describes it using these words:

"'Twas rather more the death of night than the birth of dawn."

I love that phrase, despite how depressing it seems. I love the way Dickens writes in general, though I've only read one or two of his classics. He usually comes off as dreary and depressing, but there is a certain poetry to be found in his prose which I have rarely found elsewhere.

The main point isn't about his particular style of writing though. I gave the example to show how in writing, we can embelish, refocus, direct, shade, and so forth, far more than we normally can any other way. The English language probably has more words than most, seeing as how it's a combination and blending of many languages, and can be used to work wonders when combined with human imagination.

Writing, and reading, can be a bit like a complicated yet flowing dance. It can take you to any period of time and any place on earth (or beyond), while teaching and revealing countless amounts of knowledge and information. I, for one, have learned most of what I know from reading and writing. I learned to write, in fact, mostly through reading - observing and emulating while giving it my own twist or flavor.

"For one who reads, there is no limit to the number of lives that may be lived, for fiction, biography, and history offer an inexhaustible number of lives in many parts of the world, in all periods of time." - Louis L'amour