Evangeline: You All Should Read It

I know you all believe that I just say this about every book I ever read. It isn't true. I only recommend the books I like. You're all like, "Oh he ALWAYS says, 'This book is amazing!'" Sure...but I never said, "This book is junk," after I read The Shack, or What In The World Is God Doing?, or What Love Is This?, or the myriads of other pieces of not-so-amazing writing I go through per year. Contrary to popular opinion I do not recommend every book I read.

You should all read Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It makes incredible bed time reading. It will amaze you with its astounding alliterations. It will make your face glow and your mind wander with its beautiful idyllic descriptions. You are being seriously "gypped" if you don't read this. It really isn't hard either. I found it more like entertainment than obligation.

I, therefore, am periodically going to place my favorite sections of Evangeline in posts on occasion. You will love them.

Recently I had the privilege of preaching in a church in Acadiana in Louisiana. I used to think that anyone from Louisiana was a "hick" but after this trip have totally changed my mind. Louisiana is one of the most beautiful states, with one of the most interesting subcultures, and some of the greatest food, I have ever encountered. And I have encountered a lot. Amazingly, I picked up Evangeline with no previous knowledge of what it was about. It is about the exile of the French from Nova Scotia to various places in the US. Louisiana was one of these places. Longfellow's description fit my brief experience exactly and made me wish I wasn't in Dubuque freezing with two inches of snow. Just listen to his idyllic rendering of this lovely place,

“Welcome once more, my friends, who long
have been friendless and homeless,
Welcome once more to a home, that is better
perchance than the old one!
Here no hungry winter congeals our blood like
the rivers;
Here no stony ground provokes the wrath of
the farmer.
Smoothly the ploughshare runs through
soil, as keel through the water.
All year round the orange groves are in
blossom; and grass grows
More in a single night than a whole Canadian
summer.
Here, too, numberless herds run wild and un-
claimed in the prairies;
Here, too, lands may be had for the asking,
and forests of timber
With a few blows of the axe are hewn and
framed into houses.
After your houses are built and your fields
are yellow with harvests.”

I have never read poetry I liked. I love this. This described exactly how I felt about Louisiana. Exactly. I mean, minus the numberless herds that aren't there anymore and the free land, I loved every inch of that poem. I promise you will too. Stay tuned for more incredible excerpts.

Loving the Truth with a capital T (which encompasses poetry!),

R. D. Thompson