Hearts Parade of a Lyrical Life

I Jest for Thou Art Mine Hearts Root, So Doth Thee Omit it

Saturday, October 14th

The weekend had reared its dazzling head and I was ready to have some much-deserved rest. Grace and I had plans to meet (hopefully for a final time) to write up our complete essay on Ryan's poem "I Jest for thou art mine hearts root, so doth thee omit it". The analysis was looking pretty good, I had some input from Grace and she liked the notes I had made. Grace had added her own thoughts on the way it was structured, as well as talking about how the meter and flow of the story added meaning. Ryan seemed to have taken inspiration from Shakespeare's poetry and copied his use of iambic pentameters during interactions between the Princess and the Jester. I let Grace handle all of that stuff though, it was interesting from a storytelling perspective, but the story wasn't what got me so attracted to Ryan's poem, it was the chance to get to know Ryan's thoughts that drew me in so close.

After I eventually got out of bed and got ready, I left to go back to the Public Library to meet with Grace. She was sitting at her laptop actually working for once, though she still appeared giddy with every click of the keyboard. I plopped my things next to hers and opened up my laptop to take a look at what it was she had been working on.

Grace had been typing up the body paragraphs for her own analysis, she had finished one and was mid-way through a second. "Y/N, I was thinking we write all the body paragraphs first before we do the introduction and conclusion, it'd be easier to figure out what it is we want to say overall once we've organised our thoughts." Grace suggested, still typing away. I liked the idea, it made sense. I hadn't quite wrapped my head around the poem as a whole, the main question that played through my head was why, why was this a story he wanted to tell?

It was funny in an odd way, things would've turned out so different if Grace had simply picked a different name out of a hat, that's what had fixed things between us, pure, dumb luck. It felt like a form of fate. I looked back down at my still palms, I gazed my eyes on their creases and followed each line one by one with my eyes, it was like its own small universe. At once I felt so big, so connected, so content . My laptop screen lit up and I typed in my password to view Grace's body paragraphs so far. It was nothing that interested me, so I started with my own. I had already written quite detailed paragraphs just through my analysis so most of it was just rewording and restructuring my thoughts to make coherent strings of words into a neat analysis sandwich.

We spent the passing hours typing away, reading and re-reading, editing, until the fateful time when we would have to decide on the broad theme for the topic of our essay. A seemingly simple question turned so complicated, 'What is the meaning behind Ryan's poem?'.

Grace had her ideas, "I think it's a tragic tale that serves as a warning. Isolation and leaving others behind leads to inner and outer turmoil where you can lose yourself along the way. It is a sad love story interlaced with harsh realities and truths of how people often and naively navigate love."

I liked Grace's idea, she had understood the poem, that much was clear, though I wondered if in reading it she had realised what I had, the deeper things it told us about Ryan.

I agreed with Grace's suggested Introduction statement, she wasn't wrong, as no one can be wrong in analysis, but I felt it hadn't told the full truth, "Can I write the Conclusion?" I asked. The final statements of the story that would wrap up our full scope of what we had thought about it, I wanted to be the one to tell that.

Grace agreed and I happily typed away, summing up our thoughts. She closed her laptop after finishing up the Introduction, it hadn't taken her more than 10 minutes to compose.

Grace looked toward the librarian who was now looking in her direction too and she smiled. The librarian made her way over, "Y/N, I'm having lunch with Jess, I'll see you later 'kay?" Grace said whilst packing her things.