I finished the edits, I printed it out (950 pages, finished around midnight), I sent it overnight to Norton.

Time for Christmas vacation. I’ll be back after Christmas with updates.

*

The Mother Of God
by William Butler Yeats

The threefold terror of love; a fallen flare
Through the hollow of an ear;
Wings beating about the room;
The terror of all terrors that I bore
The Heavens in my womb.

Had I not found content among the shows
Every common woman knows,
Chimney corner, garden walk,
Or rocky cistern where we tread the clothes
And gather all the talk?

What is this flesh I purchased with my pains,
This fallen star my milk sustains,
This love that makes my heart’s blood stop
Or strikes a sudden chill into my bones
And bids my hair stand up?

Showing 11 comments
  • Sarah Park

    Yay! Congratulations. Now time to do whatever you want! (as much as is possible with four children at Christmas…)

    Sarah Park

  • Anonymous

    Susan, thank you so much for the blood, sweat and tears. I can only imagine how satisfied you must feel. And thanks for the Yeats also. Here is something for you.

    For The Future
    by Wendell Berry

    Planting trees early in spring,
    we make a place for birds to sing
    in time to come. How do we know?
    They are singing here now.
    There is no other guarantee
    that singing will ever be.

  • Brandi Gunn

    Congratulations, Susan. I’m sighing relief for you.

    I commented on this post because the Yeats poem is so raw, surprising, and profound – it fits the Incarnation of Christ. Thank you for putting it here. There’s surely some fleshy mysticism to Christmas that we have a hard time laying hold of because it’s antithetical to the clean and twinkly wrapped-up version of Christmas our culture sells. But Yeats bundles it up and throws it like Tom throwing Chi. WONDERFUL!

  • James

    Susan, I just finished your book “The History of the Ancient World,” and I must say I am glad that the next one is going into publication soon. I can’t wait to read it. I enjoyed this one so much, but you sort of left it on a cliffhanger. Not that we don’t already know what happens though…. Great job on the book though! I read it like a novel, and I’m going to pre-order the next one. I can’t wait! =]

  • A Circle of Quiet

    Madelaine and I both say CONGRATULATIONS on finishing the volume. She hopes your load is lightened — for a bit, eh?

    Lifting my glass to you, my friend,
    DI

  • Steve

    Glad I found you. Hope you have a nice Christmas!

  • Virginia

    You really deserve a vacation! Enjoy!

  • Mike

    Congratulations! I’ve no doubt you’ve made the Middle Ages as interesting as the dawn of history in the first volume. Nice to see the book one step closer to publication. Enjoy your holiday and your break!

  • Allan McInnis

    I thoroughly enjoyed The History of the Ancient World and I am looking forward with great enthusiasm to volume two. You probably need a rest ( our daughter-in-law is a published writer so we have some knowledge of the incredible effort required to publish a book), but at the same time, I hope you don’t need a long rest. I will be waiting for volumes three and four. I have just begun re-reading The History of the Ancient World. Really, really great.

    Allan

  • Kristina

    Congratulations & thank you for what I imagine has been a love/hate endeavor!

    I’m admittedly quite green with respect to the homeschooling subculture & have only recently stumbled onto your Well Trained Mind, & then a couple weeks ago, the website, & now this blog, & I have to say that I’m wide-eyed & intrigued. My own exposure & recollection of the ancient world & middle ages is at best, embarassing. Thank you for the tools with which to correct such an unnecessary ignorance!

    I have a 9 year old daughter, & 6 & 3 year old sons. I’ve been repeatedly frustrated for the past 2 year’s of my oldest’s school experience – the “one size fits most” approach to learning, & I’ve been ecstatic to discover the WTM world!! I officially withdrew my 9 year old from school, ordered most of what we’ll need from Peace Hill Press & will begin the WTM adventure January 5. I’m thrilled & definitely nautious over what this will do to my world as I’ve known it. My daughter however, can’t wait, because in her words, she’ll “finally be able to just read!” If books actually offered physical sustenance, she really would order them for breakfast, lunch & dinner.

    We’re at the apex of the roller coaster where I am frantically clinging to dear life & safety, & she’s got her arms waving in the air with wild abandon & joyful expectation. Should be a meaningful, surprising & life shaping ride! Thanks for the admission ticket – I truly wouldn’t have gotten on without it.

    I do hope you’ve allowed yourself some rest over Christmas – it’s no small calling to enable & properly tool such a worthy movement – indeed you are doing it so well! Blessings to you & your’s in 2009!

  • nancypants

    Congratulations!! I hope you have enjoyed your much deserved time off! (With the peanut butter chocolates – my personal fave – it sounds like you have!)

    That is one of the most beautiful poems ever… How sad that I have never read it until now. Thank you for sharing it. How did a man write that?! What an amazing man to contemplate the thoughts of a mother so well… those are the things I’ve heard most new mothers say about what they imagine it would have been like for Mary…

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