Letter, Frank H. Shoemaker to I.S. [Isador] Trostler, 1906, Mar. 18

Item

derivative filename/jpeg

321301c-0122.jpg

identifier/filename

321301c-0122

title

Letter, Frank H. Shoemaker to I.S. [Isador] Trostler, 1906, Mar. 18

description

Typewritten letter, 4 pages, from Frank H. Shoemaker to I.S. [Isador] Trostler, "It snows cries the school-boy, and driving o'er the fields seems nowhere to alight says Emerson; then issues forth the storm with sudden burst and hurls the whole precipitated air down in a torrent says Thomson..."

transcription

Omaha, March 18, 1906.

Dear Trostler:

It snows cries the school-boy, and driving o'er the fields seems
nowhere to alight says Emerson; then issues forth the storm with sudden
burst and hurls the whole precipitated air down in a torrent says Thomson,
and while we are gazing in swifter haste stream down the snows, till the
air is white, as, myriads by myriads madly chased, they fling themselves
from their shadowy height says Bryant; so all night long the storm roared
on says Whittier; O Winter, wilt thou never never never go says Dave Gray,
and while Dave displays an unpoetic degree of temper I can't blame him
very much. I suppose he had to shovel his way to the root-house to get a
cabbage for dinner. His sentiment rings truer than that of Emerson;
imagine a man with eighty yards of walks to shovel, standing for such guff
as "seems nowhere to alight." Of all licenses - saloon, marriage, poetic, and
dog - poetic license surely has the most latitude, and is the most abused.
It has been some days since I have written you a letter, and I suppose
an apology is due. Therefore behold me, sir, on my bended knee.
Critically considered, "on my bended knee," is an odd proposition. It is
all right, of course, for the best literature is full of it, but for my
own part I find some difficulty in imagining a man on his bended knee
without the other knee displaying at least a sympathetic kink; that is, if
he is sincere in taking that attitude. So why not "bended knees?" But
that is not good literature; when all two of his knees are considered he
is simply on his knees, the bended being taken for granted, and quite
reasonably, I think. "Bended knee," however, for the reasons stated, does
not seem quite right: it is a sort of physiological anachronism. One
would expect some relief to the situation by simplifying the language,
and saying "bent knees" or "bent knee" but that plainly suggests the advisability of calling in an osteopath, or a surgeon in advanced cases.
For that reason you may like it better, but I hasten to inform you, Old
Sawbones, it will never be good literature. "On my knees" is too abject or
devotional, neither of which is intended; the offense, bad as it is, does
not call for abjectness, and I don't know how to be devotional. Alto-
gether, it is a confusing matter. "Bended knee" is plainly objectionable,
for the reasons set forth, though it seems to be good literature; "bent
knee" or "bent knees" savors of the hospital and the doctor-bill, from
both of which, good Lord, deliver us, other things being equal; "on my
knees" is intolerably debasing; "on my bended knees" one senses as being
tautological without exactly being able to put his finger on it - on the
tautology, not on the bend. And that isn't all; "on my knees (i.e., I, or
me, and not somebody else,- save the mark! - on my knees -- not the mark on
my knees, for there isn't any, you understand, but - that is to say. --

date

3/19/1906

subject

Shoemaker, Frank H., 1875-1948

tablecontents/boxes/folders

Box 6

source/RG#/MS#

RG 32-13-01

isPartOf/Collection

Frank H. Shoemaker, Papers and Photographs

creator/photographer

Frank Shoemaker

rights

For copyright information, please contact the repository.

publisher

Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries

language

English

media

321301c-0122.jpg

Item sets

Frank Shoemaker Correspondence - RG32-13-01

Site pages

Frank H Shoemaker, Letters 1906, March

Media

Letter, Frank H. Shoemaker to I.S. [Isador] Trostler, 1906, Mar. 18