This essay addresses an interesting dichotomy. I had to stand before Mrs. Davis, my English teacher, six decades ago at Mt. Lebanon High School. Mrs. Davis required us to come in early or stay late after school to recite a hundred lines of poetry or prose each semester. To say that assignment was beyond the pale would be an understatement. Nonetheless, I would challenge any of my classmates in 1961 to recite parts of their recitations. That contest includes Nancy Nuremberg, our class valedictorian and my senior prom date.

Since my high school days, a day doesn’t go by that I don’t recall or write about something memorized nearly a lifetime ago. This past Monday was an example of that phenomenon. I thought about one of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, having memorized the first stanza for Mrs. Davis in my senior year of high school. Last Monday, I prepared dinner and Ginger’s, my Irish Setter.

I have done the same dance for a half dozen years for Ginger and me. Apparently, I’m getting old. I had an operation on my left foot for plantar fasciitis and tarsal tunnel syndrome. However, my right foot was causing pain. To avoid spending a couple of months recovering as I did the first time, I followed my surgeon’s advice to wear shoes in the house when not walking on the carpet.

As I was bemoaning my right foot pain while making dinner for Ginger and me, I thought about Poe’s poem The Raven.

Quote the Raven

I heard the tapping at my kitchen door, only this and nothing more...get a runner. After several hours of work, I got “only this, and nothing more.”

Blue and yellow are my favorite colors. It looks nice after cleaning up the kitchen floor in preparation for putting the carpet down.

Ginger could smell the new carpet and came bounding into the kitchen. She was excited, ran around for a moment, and laid down on the new runner. I asked Ginger whether she liked it. Her response was, “This is really nice. I love blue and yellow also. Thanks. Now, let’s have a treat.” I wanted to explain to Ginger that blue and yellow are the only colors dogs see other than black and white.

I love blue and yellow also.

I watched Nicole Wallace on Dateline: White House at the end of that week as Ginger and I had dinner. We discussed a couple of her chats with people in the know. Then I cleaned up and went to my office and worked. It was after 11pm. It happened again as it did at the beginning of the week. I should have taken Ginger for her nightly walk and gotten ready for bed an hour ago. Then Poe’s raven came a tapping.

As with the time at the beginning of the week, there came a tapping. A calm came over me as I heard the last line repeated again and again, “Only this, and nothing more.” The following morning, I arose and did what I needed to address as I recalled the raven. I only did this, nothing more, which filled me with the hope that I would soon realize my dreams.