Topical Guide 957
Mark Dorset
Allusion, Quotation
Tropes: Shadows
Leaving Small’s Hotel, Chapter 28:
Suddenly inspired, he sat at his desk, rolled a sheet of paper into his old Underwood, and typed:
There’s a certain slant of light, October afternoons, that sends the shadows of the slats of my venetian blinds across the wall of my dusty office in such a way that they start out thin and parallel and separate on the left but end up broad and bent and overlapping on the right, like lives driven together by the dark hand of fate.
There’s a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons —
That oppresses, like the Heft
Of Cathedral Tunes —
Heavenly Hurt, it gives us —
We can find no scar,
But internal difference —
Where the Meanings, are —
None may teach it — Any —
’Tis the seal Despair —
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the Air —
When it comes, the Landscape listens —
Shadows — hold their breath —
When it goes, ’tis like the Distance
On the look of Death —
See also:
Allusion; Quotation TG 140, TG 455, TG 462, TG 502, TG 506, TG 532, TG 559, TG 583, TG 592, TG 626, TG 654, TG 657, TG 714, TG 735, TG 736, TG 738, TG 780, TG 781, TG 802, TG 829, TG 832, TG 935, TG 951
Tropes: Venetian Blinds, Shadows TG 692
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