Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

I know I love in vain, strive against hope;

Yet in this captious and intenible sieve

I still pour in the waters of my love,

And lack not to lose still: thus Indian-like,

Religious in mine error, I adore

The sun, that looks upon his worshipper

But knows of him no more

Helena

All’s Well That Ends Well             Act I, Scene iii, Line 207

Helena is describing to the Countess how she loves the Countess’s son, even though she knows that she can never have him and he will never love her. In fact, the son is completely unaware of Helen and her love for him, and when he finds out about it he wants absolutely nothing to do with her. So it turns out that she’s right about the hopelessness of her love. Well at least they’re all on the same page.

I tried to look up captious and intenible. I got that captious is spacious, and I think intenible is just a different way of spelling untenable. But you pretty much get the idea of pouring anything into a sieve: the sieve’s not going to hold anything - it just goes right on through. We get a pretty good idea of what she’s talking about without the two modifiers of the word sieve.

Anyway, I like the seven lines. They are a good exercise in reading something that’s worth reading. I say that because so much of what we devote our attention to is not worth our attention. And so much of it does not even require the much needed mental exercise of reading and having to think about what we’re reading. Yes, it’s a good seven lines.

Don't give me that look Mojo, I've seen you scrolling endlessly on your iPhone. You could use to spend a little time reading some meaningful lines just as much as the rest of us.