Readings

Uncle Henry could make a grocery list sound like a recitative. He favored long poems such as The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, The Highwayman, and The Pied Piper of Hamelin, but I remember Aunt Stella reading Evangeline the best, during the year Stella worked at the Smithsonian and my family lived in Tauxemont. It was a book length poem by Longfellow and I didn't know if it was fictitious or not. I cried over the tale of Evangeline leaving Grand Pre and searching for Gabriel during what was called The Great Upheaval or The Deportation. When I saw her statue on a small windy plain in Nova Scotia, I marveled at how the sculptor had made her age. On one side of her face, she was youthful and slowly the other side showed the character lines of her suffering. I circled her several times to see how he had done this magical work of art. In case you are not acquainted with Evangeline, here is how the poem begins:
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"THIS is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.
Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.
This is the forest primeval; but where are the hearts that beneath it
Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the huntsman?
Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian farmers --
Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands,
Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven?
Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers forever departed!
Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty blasts of October
Seize them, and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them far o'er the ocean.
Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grand-Pre.
Ye who believe in affection that hopes, and endures, and is patient,
Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of woman's devotion,
List to the mournful tradition still sung by the pines of the forest;
List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of the happy.
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...the blessings of readings on cold nights and the wind in the pines....