George MacDonald anyone?

Since I have been on a George MacDonald kick for this past week, thanks to my C.S. Lewis tutorial, I thought I would share some of my favorite words and poems from Phantastes.

Through the realms of the monarch Sun
Creeps a world, whose course had begun,
On a weary path with a weary pace,
Before the Earth sprang forth on her race:
But many a time the Earth had sped
Around the path she still must tread,
Ere the elder planet, on a leaden wing,
Once circled the court of the planet's king.

There, in that lonely and distant star,
The seasons are not as our season are;
But many a year hath Autumn to dress
The trees in their matron loveliness;
As long hath old Winter in triumph to go
O'er the beauties dead in his vault below;
And many a year the Spring cloth wear
Combing the icicles from her hair;
And Summer, dear Summer, hath years of June,
With large white clouds, and cool showers at noon:
And a beauty that grows to a weight like grief,
Till a burst of tears is the heart's relief.

Children, born when Winter is king,
May never rejoice in the hoping Spring;
Though their own heart-buds are bursting with joy,
And the child hath grown to the girl or boy;
But may die with cold and icy hours
Watching them ever in place of flowers.
And some who awake from their primal sleep,
When the sighs of Summer through forests creep,
Live, and love, and are loved again;
Seek for pleasure, and find its pain;
Sink to their last, their forsaken sleeping,
With the same sweet odours around them creeping.

-And if you made it through all of that and want more, here is my fav. quote of today:

"The result of selfish or hoarded love is ultimately spiritual as well as physical death."
(I think this was in a reference book, so I'm not sure who said it.)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy these beautifully crafted words as much as I have.

-Grace