youthful glimmer of
the divine was small-scale, a
desire just to shine
Adapted from the book, Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan (1999 – Random House) A biography with fictional elements by Edmund Morris and the passage:
Possibly Dutch’s youthful glimmer of the divine was small-scale, a desire just to shine at whatever he did. Yet qualities of brightness, elevation, fortification, and encirclement, common to Parzivalian metaphor, are combined in the one adult vison he admitted to, that of the “Shining City on a Hill.” However derivative of Saint Matthew and John Bunyan, it is a haunting image, and nobody who researches his pilgrimage can fail to feel the compulsion it exerts on him.
No Haiku For You 