THE BRILLIANCE OF WORDS

by Tess St. John

Words inspire me ~ books, a well-told story, a beautifully written letter, a sentimental greeting card, or even a sweetly texted message from my husband can make my entire day. For me, nothing compares to a well-placed phrase or the perfect description eloquently captured with words.

Over the years, some of the most articulate writers were British.

Who can forget the first time they read Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare? While I may not have understood each phrase, some were too poignant to forget. Romeo's words below are arguably some of the most romantic ever written.

"But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?

It is the east and Juliet is the sun.

Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,

Who is already sick and pale with grief

That thou, her maid, are far more fair than she."

I could go on for days about William Shakespeare. What a master of words.

First time reading William Blake's Cradle Song, the second verse absolutely pierced the mother's heart inside me. 

Sweet babe, in thy face

Soft desires I can trace,

Secret joys and secret smiles

Little pretty infant wiles.

What about Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales or John Milton's Paradise Lost? And how in the world could there be so much talent in the Bronte family? The list of famous writers in British history is long and impressive.

While writing my first historical romance, I looked for a way to somehow honor these writers. They've given me so much joy, I wanted my characters as affected. So I made my elderly character, who is dying in the first chapter, a poetry lover. He'd saved a young girl by marrying her late in his life, and as he dies, he begins to quote Lord Byron's She Walks In Beauty. When he is too weak for his young wife to hear him, she finishes the last paragraph for him. In so doing, she realizes he is trying to tell her how happy her innocent heart made him.

And on that cheek, and o'er that brown,

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,,

But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

A heart whose love is innocent!

Since my dying character was estranged from his children, I needed something that would connect him to them after his death. Something he'd shared with them when they were children. At the reading of his will, I have the solicitor read Richard Crashaw's A Song. And when he finishes, all the man's children are reciting the poem with him.

Lord, when the sense of thy sweet grace

Sends up my soul to seek thy face

Thy blessed eyes breed such desire,

I dy in love's delicious Fire.

O love, I am thy Sacrifice.

Be still triumphant, blessed eyes.

Still shine on me, fair suns! that I

Still my behold, though still I dy.

Though still I dy, I live again;

Still longing so to be still slain,

So gainfull is such losse of breath.

I dy even in desire of death.

Still live in me with loving strife

Of living Death and dying Life.

For while thou sweetly slayest me

Dead to my selfe, I live in Thee.

I will leave the history of the poets lives for another post, but I wonder if any of them had a clue how their genius for the written word would impact the world. 

Tell me, are there written words or spoken phrases that inspire you?

Please find out about Tess St. John and her books at her website.