English Literature & Theology

  "Shoulders" Load audio player Naomi Shihab Nye 1952 – A man crosses the street in rain, stepping gently, looking two times north and south, because his son is asleep on his shoulder. No car must splash him. No car drive too near to his shadow. This man carries the world’s most sensitive cargo but he’s not marked. Nowhere does his jacket say FRAGILE, HANDLE WITH CARE. His ear fills up with breathing. He hears the hum of a boy’s dream deep inside him. We’re not going to be able to live in this world if we’re not willing to do what he’s doing with one another. The road will only be wide. The rain will never stop falling. About the poet, Naomi Shihab Nye is a celebrated American poet, novelist, and anthologist known for her accessible and deeply humanistic work that often focuses on themes of heritage, compassion, and everyday life. Born on March 12, 1952, in St. Louis, Missouri, to a Palestinian father and an American mother, Nye’s multicultural background significantly influe...

                              "A Psalm of Life"  By  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow What The Heart Of The Young Man Said To The Psalmist Tell me not, in mournful numbers,    Life is but an empty dream! For the soul is dead that slumbers,    And things are not what they seem. Life is real! Life is earnest!    And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou art, to dust returnest,    Was not spoken of the soul. Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,    Is our destined end or way; But to act, that each to-morrow    Find us farther than to-day. Art is long, and Time is fleeting,    And our hearts, though stout and brave, Still, like muffled drums, are beating    Funeral marches to the grave. In the world’s broad field of battle,    In the bivouac of Life, Be not like dumb, driven cattle! ...

  There Will Come Soft Rains Sara Teasdale 1884 – 1933 (War Time) There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground, And swallows circling with their shimmering sound; And frogs in the pools singing at night, And wild plum trees in tremulous white, Robins will wear their feathery fire Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire; And not one will know of the war, not one Will care at last when it is done. Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree If mankind perished utterly; And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn, Would scarcely know that we were gone. About poet,  Sara Teasdale (1884–1933) was an American lyric poet known for her delicate, emotionally intense poetry, often centered around themes of love, beauty, nature, and death. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Teasdale was the youngest of four children. She grew up in a well-to-do family and was somewhat sheltered due to frequent illness in her early years. Teasdale began writing poetry in her teens and was first publishe...