The Sonnets
Sonnet 103
by William Shakespeare
Alack what poverty my muse brings forth
Alack what poverty my muse brings forth
I taste a liquor never brewed
A poem about love that uses religious and nature themes.
A good deal of Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy's personalities are divulged to the reader.
Mark and Ruth’s parents sell their plantation and move to Florida.
Accuse me thus, that I have scanted all
Abbe tells Dantes of a secret treasure.
Like trains of cars on tracks of plush
I like to see it lap the miles
As imperceptibly as grief
The gentian weaves her fringes
O lest the world should task you to recite
Being your slave what should I do but tend
Unto my books so good to turn
A drawing leads to misunderstanding then friendship.
To learn the transport by the pain
Before I got my eye put out
It tossed and tossed, —
He put the belt around my life, —
On Jane’s second morning at Lowood, the girls are unable to wash, as the water in their pitchers is frozen. Jane quickly learns that life at the school is harsh. The girls are underfed, overworked, and forced to sit still during seemingly endless sermons. Still, she takes comfort in her new friendship with Helen, who impresses Jane with her expansive knowledge and her ability to patiently endure even the cruelest treatment from Miss Scatcherd. Helen tells Jane that she practices a doctrine of Christian endurance, which means loving her enemies and accepting her privation. Jane disagrees strongly with such meek tolerance of injustice, but Helen takes no heed of Jane’s arguments. Helen is self-critical only because she sometimes fails to live up to her ascetic standards: she believes that she is a poor student and chastises herself for daydreaming about her home and family when she should be concentrating on her studies.
The author's search for a "man about town" yields surprising results.
O that you were your self, but love you are
Each life converges to some centre
Farther in summer than the birds
‘Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed