My parents owned six books between them. Two of those were Bibles and the third was a concordance to the Old and New Testaments. The fourth was The House At Pooh Corner. The fifth, The Chatterbox Annual 1923 and the sixth, Malory’s Morte d'Artliur.
I found it necessary to smuggle books in and of the house and I cannot claim too much for the provision of an outside toilet when there is no room of one's own. It was on the toilet that I first read Freud and D. H. Lawrence, and perhaps that was the best place, after all. We kept a rubber torch hung on the cistern, and I had to divide my money from a Saturday job, between buying books and buying batteries. My mother knew exactly how long her Ever Readys would last if used only to illuminate the hap that separated the toilet paper from its .
Once I had tucked the book back down my knickers to get it indoors again, I find somewhere to hide it, and anyone with a single bed, standard size, and paperbacks, standard size, will discover that seventy seven can be accommodated per layer under the mattress. But as my collection grew, I began to worry that my mother might notice that her daughter's bed was rising visibly. One day she did. She burned everything.
I had been brought up to memorize very long Bible passages, and when I left home and was supporting myself so that I could continue my education, I fought off loneliness and fear by reciting. In the funeral parlor I whispered Donne to the embalming fluids and Marvell to the corpses. Later, I found that Tennyson's 'Lady of Shalott' had a soothing, because rhythmic, effect on the mentally disturbed. Among the disturbed I numbered myself at that time.
The healing power of art is not a rhetorical fantasy. Fighting to keep language, language became my sanity and my strength. It still is, and I know of no pain that art cannot assuage. For some, music, for some, pictures, for me, primarily, poetry, whether found in poems or in prose, cuts through noise and hurt, opens the wound to clean it, and then gradually teaches it to heal itself. Wounds need to be taught to heal themselves.
The psyche and the spirit do not share the instinct of damaged body. Healing is automatically triggered nor is danger usually avoided. Since we put ourselves in the way of hurt it seems logical to put ourselves in the way of healing. Art has more work to do than ever before but it can do that work. In a self-destructive society like our own, it is unsurprising that art as a healing force is despised.
For myself, when I returned to my to my borrowed room night after night, and there were my books, I felt relief and exuberance, not hardship and exhaustion. I intended to avoid the fate of Jude the Obscure, although a reading of that book was a useful warning. What I wanted did not belong to me by right and whilst it could not be refused tome in quite same way, we still have subtle punishments for anyone who insists on what they are and what they want. Walled inside the little space marked out for by family and class, it was the limitless world of imagination that it possible for me to scale the sheer face of other people's assumptions. Inside books there is perfect space and it is that space which allows the reader to escape from the problems of gravity.
相关单词：testaments
testaments解释：n.遗嘱( testament的名词复数 )；实际的证明
testaments例句：
The coastline is littered with testaments to the savageness of the waters. 海岸线上充满了海水肆虐过后的杂乱东西。 来自互联网
A personification of wickedness and ungodliness alluded to in the Old and New Testaments. 彼勒《旧约》和《新约》中邪恶和罪孽的化身。 来自互联网
相关单词：smuggle
smuggle解释：vt.私运；vi.走私
smuggle例句：
Friends managed to smuggle him secretly out of the country.朋友们想方设法将他秘密送出国了。
She has managed to smuggle out the antiques without getting caught.她成功将古董走私出境，没有被逮捕。
相关单词：hap
hap解释：n.运气；v.偶然发生
hap例句：
Some have the hap,some stick in the gap.有的人走运, 有的人倒霉。
May your son be blessed by hap and happiness.愿你儿子走运幸福。
相关单词：cistern
cistern解释：n.贮水池
cistern例句：
The cistern is empty but soon fills again.蓄水池里现在没水，但不久就会储满水的。
The lavatory cistern overflowed.厕所水箱的水溢出来了
相关单词：illuminate
illuminate解释：vt.照亮，照明；用灯光装饰；说明，阐释
illuminate例句：
Dreams kindle a flame to illuminate our dark roads.梦想点燃火炬照亮我们黑暗的道路。
They use games and drawings to illuminate their subject.他们用游戏和图画来阐明他们的主题。
相关单词：paperbacks
paperbacks解释：n.平装本，平装书( paperback的名词复数 )
paperbacks例句：
This shop only sells paperbacks. 这家书店只出售平装本的书。 来自辞典例句
Other paperbacks were selling for ten or 15 cents each. 其它的平装书每本才卖十或十五美分。 来自互联网
相关单词：mattress
mattress解释：n.床垫，床褥
mattress例句：
The straw mattress needs to be aired.草垫子该晾一晾了。
The new mattress I bought sags in the middle.我买的新床垫中间陷了下去。
相关单词：parlor
parlor解释：n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅
parlor例句：
She was lying on a small settee in the parlor.她躺在客厅的一张小长椅上。
Is there a pizza parlor in the neighborhood?附近有没有比萨店？
相关单词：embalming
embalming解释：v.保存（尸体）不腐( embalm的现在分词 )；使不被遗忘；使充满香气
embalming例句：
The corpse was preserved from decay by embalming. 尸体用香料涂抹以防腐烂。 来自《简明英汉词典》
They were experts at preserving the bodies of the dead by embalming them with special lotions. 他们具有采用特种药物洗剂防止尸体腐烂的专门知识。 来自辞典例句
相关单词：corpses
corpses解释：n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 )
corpses例句：
The living soldiers put corpses together and burned them. 活着的战士把尸体放在一起烧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
Overhead, grayish-white clouds covered the sky, piling up heavily like decaying corpses. 天上罩满了灰白的薄云，同腐烂的尸体似的沉沉的盖在那里。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说
相关单词：soothing
soothing解释：adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的
soothing例句：
Put on some nice soothing music.播放一些柔和舒缓的音乐。
His casual, relaxed manner was very soothing.他随意而放松的举动让人很快便平静下来。
相关单词：rhythmic
rhythmic解释：adj.有节奏的，有韵律的
rhythmic例句：
Her breathing became more rhythmic.她的呼吸变得更有规律了。
Good breathing is slow,rhythmic and deep.健康的呼吸方式缓慢深沉而有节奏。
相关单词：sanity
sanity解释：n.心智健全，神智正常，判断正确
sanity例句：
I doubt the sanity of such a plan.我怀疑这个计划是否明智。
She managed to keep her sanity throughout the ordeal.在那场磨难中她始终保持神志正常。
相关单词：assuage
assuage解释：v.缓和，减轻，镇定
assuage例句：
The medicine is used to assuage pain.这种药用来止痛。
Your messages of cheer should assuage her suffering.你带来的这些振奋人心的消息一定能减轻她的痛苦。
相关单词：psyche
psyche解释：n.精神；灵魂
psyche例句：
His exploration of the myth brings insight into the American psyche.他对这个神话的探讨揭示了美国人的心理。
She spent her life plumbing the mysteries of the human psyche.她毕生探索人类心灵的奥秘。
相关单词：exuberance
exuberance解释：n.丰富；繁荣
exuberance例句：
Her burst of exuberance and her brightness overwhelmed me.她勃发的热情和阳光的性格征服了我。
The sheer exuberance of the sculpture was exhilarating.那尊雕塑表现出的勃勃生机让人振奋。
相关单词：exhaustion
exhaustion解释：n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述
exhaustion例句：
She slept the sleep of exhaustion.她因疲劳而酣睡。
His exhaustion was obvious when he fell asleep standing.他站着睡着了，显然是太累了。
