Even working from home, my days are long, but I still have back the hours and hours that I normally spent commuting, dining out and so forth. I really want to be working on my book about Potatoe, but right now I am so mentally exhausted at the end of the day that I do not have the energy to conjure up new words. I do want to make use of this time to be writing, so I pulled have pulled out my writer’s box, which has a great deal of the writing that I did in my high school and college days. I want to transcribe one piece each day.
January 18, 1995 – Second Semester of my freshman year at Southwest Texas State University. The first entry in my writing intensive English Literature’s journal.
About “Of Love” by Francis Bacon
The piece that I am referencing can be found here – http://www.authorama.com/essays-of-francis-bacon-11.html
In Francis Bacon’s essay, “Of Love,” Bacon represents his own ideas about love. Since love is perhaps the most written about theme ever in the world, I am interested in how Bacon’s ideas are his own. The thoughts Bacon expresses about love remind me of how greatly divers love is for everyone. I am fascinated by the fact that love, the theme of this essay, and millions of others, is looked upon uniquely in every essay.
I easily relate to two of the statements Bacon made in his essay. The first of which is the opening statement, “The stage is more beholding to love than the life of man.”
Love seems wonderful in plays. Lovers meet, fall in love, and the play ends. The writer controls everything in the character’s lives, and the writer makes life simple. In man’s life, or my own life, I find that I cannot just fall in love, and then live happily ever after. There are many factors such as money, the divorce rate in America and the problem of finding someone in a huge world that must be considered. These factors destroy the ide of love on stage, and living “happily ever after“.
“That it is impossible to love and be wise” is Bacon’s second statement that I relate to when I consider love. I am very foolish when I love someone. They are perfect; I believe anything they say, and anyone who discredits the person I love is dead wrong. This is of course not wise, and I find it impossible to think in any other way about someone that I love.
Being able to relate to Bacon’s essay in some ways makes me life this piece of literature. While the language is very difficult to me, I enjoyed reading it. It is nice to read about love because it lets me know that others are as concerned with it as I am.
Cut me some slack, I was only 17 when I wrote this. The fact that the second to the last paragraph still holds true is a little frightening. All of these essays were hand written. My handwriting was soooo much better than!