John’s related banter…
Good morning Hank, it’s Tuesday, I can’t find my Norton Anthology of Poetry.
I don’t mean *the* Norton Anthology of Poetry
which can be purchased from any bookstore, I mean *my* Norton Anthology of Poetry. Or, more specifically, my friend Chip’s Norton Anthology of Poetry that I borrowed from him in 11th grade and then eventually stole.
The 3rd edition of the Norton Anthology of Poetry is a deeply flawed book. For one thing, it contains almost no poems from the last 40 years on account of having been published 35 years ago, but it is *my* deeply flawed book… or at the very least, Chip’s.
And I can’t find it. One of the central facts of my life is that no matter how many times I reorganize my home library in any given moment, I will not be able to find the book that I desperately need.
…
It’s not with the poetry, It’s not with the Hot Wheels Ultimate track, it’s not in the bookshelf behind our bed
And it’s not in the background of this video set…
…
WHERE IS MY Norton Anthology of Poetry! I mean this is ridiculous. I’ve been looking for my Norton Anthology of Poetry for an entire day I haven’t been able to write a Vlogbrothers script because I’ve been looking for my Norton Anthology of Poetry, which, ergo, *has* to become the topic of today’s Vlogbrothers video. IT’S A THREE POINT TWO POUND BOOK. Nobody like takes a 3.2 pound book on vacation and leaves it there.
And yes I know that I could just Google the poem I want to read but I don’t *want* to Google it, I want to read it in my Norton Anthology of Poetry which HAS to be somewhere in this house I mean it’s not like I would have taken it out of the h- … [whispered] wait a second
Could it be at the office?
Okay I’m going to drive to the office to look for my Norton Anthology of Poetry and if I don’t find it I *am* going to let it go… Maybe.
I’m on my way to my office. C’mon, big money, no whammies!
YES! YES! YES! My Norton Anthology of Poetry!YEEEEAAAASSSSSS
(reads poem)
Oh! it’s every bit as good as I remember and just what I needed today. Hank, I will see you on Friday.
vlogbrothers | WHERE IS MY NORTON ANTHOLOGY OF POETRY
Click to read poem
The house was quiet and the world was calm.
The reader became the book; and summer night
Was like the conscious being of the book.
The house was quiet and the world was calm.
The words were spoken as if there was no book,
Except that the reader leaned above the page,
Wanted to lean, wanted much most to be
The scholar to whom his book is true, to whom
The summer night is like a perfection of thought.
The house was quiet because it had to be.
The quiet was part of the meaning, part of the mind:
The access of perfection to the page.
And the world was calm. The truth in a calm world,
In which there is no other meaning, itself
Is calm, itself is summer and night, itself
Is the reader leaning late and reading there.
John Green Reads Poetry 