what is the thesis of the essay once more to the lake

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Analysis of E. B. White’s “Once More to the Lake”

E.B. White’s essay, Once More to the Lake , which was first published in 1941, describes his experience as he revisits a childhood lake in Maine. This revisiting is a journey in which White delights in memories associated with his childhood and the lake. In effect, his mindset transforms and goes back to his childhood. This transformation is necessary for him to find enjoyment in the journey. However, the transformation also emphasizes an altered perception of the actual lake. For instance, instead of viewing the lake as it is, he uses his childhood eyes to perceive the lake. This condition creates an interesting departure from reality into what he wants to see based on his childhood experiences. Once More to the Lake is a depiction of E. B. White’s experience as he visits a lake once again – the lake that he has been fond of since childhood.

E. B. White’s experience brings him to the lakefront, where he finds himself staring at the same lake, which is virtually unchanged. This means that White focuses on the unchanging things despite the surrounding changes and the changes that he experiences in his life. White wants to emphasize the permanence of some things, or at least the permanence of the memory of those things, despite the never-ending change that happens in the world.

Even though the lake itself has not changed, E. B. White’s essay indicates that there are some changes in things that are separate from the lake. For example, when White arrives at the lakefront, he wishes to enjoy the scene and the experience of being at the lake once again, but he becomes bothered by the noise of the new boats that are on the lake. The new boats have noisier engines.

E. B. White wants to show that technology can be disruptive. Technology can, indeed, make things become faster and more efficient, but it can also make things noisier, more disruptive, or undesirable. Thus, White emphasizes the negative side of new technologies. Nonetheless, as White continues his story, it is indicated that he has a liking for old engines. This liking started from his childhood. Even though he first views technology as something disruptive, the essay also touches on personal perception and preference. For instance, White does not like the new engines and the noise they make. However, this dislike could be due to his desire and expectation to see boats with the old engines that he saw in his childhood.

Some things may not change. All things change based on the underlying principle that nothing is constant in this world and that every little thing changes. However, there are some things that may not change, such as the thought of a person, the feelings that one has toward other people, and the longing for something. E.B. White shows that the lake is unchanged, but this may be only in his own perception. It is possible that the lake has already changed when he arrives as an adult at the lakefront, but his perception of the lake does not change. This perception and the associated emotions do not change, as he still likes what he sees and feels.

His experience of being at the lakefront brings him back to his childhood years when he was a boy experiencing the lake. Considering that White shows that his perception switches between that of an adult and that of a boy, it is arguable that his actual experience of the lake as an adult is marred by such switching between perceptions. It is possible that the actual lake that he revisits is already different, but his perception, as a boy, does not change, thereby making the lake only virtually unchanged. Also, the technology that he refers to, in the form of new and noisier engines, may have also been affected by such switching in his perceptions. It is possible that the new and noisier boats are not really that disruptive. It is just that he is used to the old and less noisy ones, thereby making his claims about the new boats personally subjective and not necessarily real.

E.B. White’s lake is a symbol of the role of physical spaces in personal development. For example, the essay shows that the lake serves as a setting for familial interactions, especially in the author’s past. Also, the lake serves as a venue for reflection. When White goes back to the lake, it facilitates his reflection of change and development. The lake helps him think back and develop a better understanding of his situation.

E.B. White’s essay, Once More to the Lake , supports the idea of the necessity of permanence in life. Even though the lake has changed over the years, it remains a lake that the author can visit. It stands as a reminder of his childhood experiences. In this regard, the lake sheds light on the benefit of having some form or degree of permanence in life. This permanence can help anchor the person and his psychological development.

• White, E. B. (1941). Once More to the Lake .
• White, E. B. (2016). Essays of E. B. White . Perennial.
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Once More to the Lake Summary & Analysis

Summary of once more to the lake by e.b. white.

“Once More to the Lake” is one of White’s most acclaimed essays by E.B. White. Published in 1941, it is a deeply personal and reflective piece that explores the theme of the passage of time and the cyclical nature of life. The essay recounts White’s visit to a lake in Maine, where he had spent summers as a child, and the profound impact it has on him as he relives his memories while observing his own son experience the same setting. In the essay, White skillfully combines vivid descriptions and sensory imagery to transport the reader to the lake, evoking a sense of nostalgia and creating a richly detailed atmosphere. Through his observations, White contemplates the changes that time has wrought upon the lake and himself, ultimately coming to a realization about the universal truths of life and mortality.

E.B. White, born Elwyn Brooks White on July 11, 1899, was an American writer renowned for his contributions to both children’s literature and the realm of essays and literary nonfiction. He is best known for his beloved children’s books, including “Charlotte’s Web” and “Stuart Little.” However, White’s essays, particularly “Once More to the Lake,” showcase his remarkable talent for introspection and contemplation of the human experience.

Once More to the Lake | Summary

“Once More to the Lake” is an autobiographical essay written by E.B. White. The essay revolves around White’s visit to a lake in Maine, where he used to vacation as a child, with his own son. White reflects upon the passage of time and the changes that have occurred since his childhood.

As White revisits the lake, he finds himself experiencing a sense of déjà vu, as the surroundings and activities mirror those of his own youth. He vividly describes the sights, sounds, and smells of the lake, evoking a strong sense of nostalgia. White observes his son engaging in activities that he himself once enjoyed, blurring the lines between past and present.

Throughout the essay, White contemplates the notion of time and its impact on both the physical environment and human existence. He comes to the realization that although the lake itself remains relatively unchanged, he has grown older and is now confronted with his own mortality. This recognition of the universal cycle of life and the passage of time brings forth a profound and somber reflection on the nature of existence.

“Once More to the Lake” is celebrated for its introspective and contemplative tone, its vivid and detailed descriptions, and its exploration of themes such as the passage of time, the enduring qualities of nature, and the cyclical nature of life. It is regarded as a classic essay that captures the essence of personal introspection and the complexities of human experience.

Once More to the Lake | Analysis

“Once More to the Lake” is a deeply personal and autobiographical essay that emerges from a firsthand experience shared by many generations of Americans: the tradition of escaping to a mountain lake during the summertime. The specific lake mentioned in White’s essay is Great Pond, which is part of the Belgrade Lakes in the vicinity of Belgrade, Maine.

The essay’s personal and autobiographical nature is evidenced by its use of concrete and specific language. This language establishes the essay’s adherence to Huxley’s criteria for excellence, particularly in terms of presenting objective facts and focusing on tangible details. Ultimately, White’s contemplation of these specific details, both remembered and freshly observed, leads him to a profound realization that transcends the individual experience and embraces a universal truth.

White’s meticulous attention to detail is evident in his description of the cabins at the lake, which serves as the initial instance of his fixation on specific particulars. This focus contributes to his blending of the present experience with the past. He vividly recalls the early mornings when the lake was tranquil and cool, and the scent of the wooden bedroom and the damp forest wafted in through the screen. His childhood routine of waking early and venturing out onto the lake connects the present to the past, especially when he hears his son engaging in the same ritual. In his reminiscences, he would quietly dress to avoid disturbing others, embark on a canoe, and cautiously navigate along the shoreline in the elongated shadows cast by the pine trees. He would take great care not to disturb the tranquility of the surroundings by accidentally grazing the paddle against the gunwale, preserving the stillness akin to that of a cathedral. Upon returning to the lake, he anticipates that the experience will be much the same as before, lying in bed on the first morning, inhaling the familiar scent of the bedroom, and hearing his son quietly slip away to explore the shoreline by boat. White adopts the perspective of a skilled naturalist, and his description emphasizes the sensory aspects of the natural environment and highlights the typical response of children to such surroundings. White presents a Whitman-esque catalog of details to support his assertion that everything remains constant despite the passage of time. In fact, it is the unchanging nature of the lake itself that provides him with the most compelling evidence of this.

Before arriving, the narrator holds a pessimistic view of the lake, convinced that it has undergone significant negative changes. White crafts the sentence in a way that attributes these alterations to the passage of time. The personification employed portrays Time as a character whose actions impact the lake. However, contrary to his initial assumptions, once the narrator arrives with his son, he realizes that the patterns of foliage and ripples on the water have undergone minimal change. However, it is the act of fishing with his son that solidifies his conviction “beyond any doubt that everything was as it always had been, that the years were a mirage and that there had been no years”. This realization is triggered by a dragonfly perching on the tip of his fishing rod. As he gently lowers the rod into the water, causing the dragonfly to dart a couple of feet away, hover, return, and settle on the rod a little further up, he asserts that “there had been no years between the ducking of this dragonfly and the other one – the one that was part of memory”. White’s observations are as meticulous as those of a scientist recording field notes, and his language is equally precise. The identification of the present moment with his past experience is further reinforced by the specific details of the lake and the boat.

White assumes the role of both a naturalist and a sociologist in his examination of the lake. From the sociological perspective, his observations are equally meticulous and exact. He acknowledges the continuity of the “lake culture.” On the first day of fishing, he notices campers swimming along the shore, one of them even carrying a cake of soap. He recalls that throughout the years, there has always been this particular person with the cake of soap, a dedicated adherent of the lake culture, and now here he is again, reinforcing the notion that everything remains unchanged and “there had been no years”. Following a thunderstorm, as light, hope, and spirits return to the lake, White observes campers joyfully and relievedly rushing out to swim in the rain, their vibrant cries perpetuating the timeless joke about getting drenched, while children scream with delight at the novel sensation of bathing in the rain. The shared joke about getting drenched serves as a strong, unbreakable link connecting generations. There is even a comedian who wades in carrying an umbrella. As a mature observer, White finds solace in these recurring play rituals that form a cultural bond uniting generations, along with the enduring presence of nature.

However, in contrast to the elements that appear stable and everlasting, both technology and urban life introduce changes. Transportation emerges as a prominent example. During White’s childhood, his family reached the town of Belgrade by train, loading trunks onto a farm wagon with much commotion and under the supervision of his father, before being driven to the lake by the host farmer. Nowadays, the road to the lake is paved, and one discreetly arrives by car, parking it under a tree near the camp, unpacking bags swiftly, with no fuss or the loud, delightful commotion that used to accompany handling trunks. Even the road from the cabin to the farmhouse where the family had their meals has transformed. The road still traverses the bustling, dusty field, but now it has become a two-track road, with the middle track missing, the one bearing the hoof marks and remnants of dried, flaky manure.

In the conclusion of “Once More to the Lake,” White employs a powerful metaphor to convey a universal truth derived from his keen observations of the lake, his son, and his own reactions to them. It is a simple yet profoundly impactful realization that the unending cycle of life, which made him a father, will also lead him to his own mortality. The personal acceptance of this truth unfolds gradually, but its final realization jolts him. Upon returning to the lake, White experiences an emotional dissonance as he relives the memories and sensations of his childhood while simultaneously witnessing his son go through them for the first time. This peculiar sensation creates a sense of occasionally being his son, engaging in fishing and boating, and at other times being his own father. White’s internal struggle to reconcile these shifting perspectives exists on both conscious and subconscious levels. The conflict becomes evident on the first morning when White compares his son’s actions with his own habitual behaviors from years past.

At this juncture, White is acutely aware that the universal cycle leading from birth to death encompasses him as well. As he witnesses his son traversing the path toward maturity and independence, he recognizes that he, too, is nearing the horizon of his own mortality. White’s ability to deduce this universal truth from the specific and tangible aspects of his personal encounter is what distinguishes “Once More to the Lake” and elevates it to the pinnacle of artistic achievement, as per Huxley’s criteria.

A universal truth is accessible to anyone with the intellect and experience to recognize it. Moreover, it is the writer’s unique domain to articulate these universals in their own distinct and individual terms. This is precisely the strength of White’s essay. The merit of a literary work is further validated when its insights find resonance among other writers who independently express similar universal truths through their own perspectives and language.

Once More to the Lake | Themes

White’s essay revolves around the theme of the passage of time and the inevitable transformations it brings. As he revisits the lake after a considerable span of years, accompanied by his son Joe, White is confronted with numerous changes. He grapples with the illusion that the idyllic world of his childhood, as well as his present experience within it, has remained unchanged. However, while the lake itself retains its essence, White acknowledges that he himself has evolved, ultimately accepting a profound irony of life: just like the enduring natural cycle of birth, childhood, maturity, and death, he too is subject to the inevitable course leading to mortality.

Once More to the Lake | Literary Devices

“Once More to the Lake” employs various literary devices to enhance its impact and convey its themes. E.B. White uses vivid and sensory imagery throughout the essay to paint a detailed picture of the lake and its surroundings. He describes the sights, sounds, smells, and sensations in a way that evokes a strong sense of nostalgia and creates a vivid mental image for the reader.

The essay personifies time, portraying it as a character with an agency that alters the lake and brings about changes. This personification helps convey the theme of the passage of time and its effects on both the physical environment and human existence.

White employs metaphors to convey deeper meanings and universal truths. For example, he uses the metaphor of the lake as a “cathedral” to describe its stillness and sacredness. Another metaphor is the “horizon” to symbolize the approaching end of life and the cycle of existence.

The lake itself serves as a symbol throughout the essay, representing both the unchanging aspects of nature and the cyclical nature of life. It embodies nostalgia, memories, and the fleeting nature of time. White subtly foreshadows the theme of mortality and the passage of time through his descriptions and observations. The early references to the changing cabins, the observation of his son growing older, and the comparison of his own actions to those of his father all hint at the underlying themes that unfold as the essay progresses.

White makes references to other literary works and cultural references, such as mentioning Turgenev’s story “Fathers and Sons.” These allusions enrich the essay by drawing connections to broader literary and cultural contexts.

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E.B. White's Drafts of 'Once More to the Lake'

"I returned to Belgrade. Things haven't changed much."

New York Times Co. / Getty Images

• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

At the start of every fall term, countless students are asked to write an essay on what must be the most uninspired composition topic of all time: "How I Spent My Summer Vacation." Still, it's remarkable what a good writer can do with such a seemingly dull subject--though it may take a bit longer than usual to complete the assignment.

In this case, the good writer was E.B. White , and the essay that took more than a quarter century to complete was "Once More to the Lake."

First Draft: Pamphlet on Belgrade Lake (1914)

Back in 1914, shortly before his 15th birthday, Elwyn White responded to this familiar topic with uncommon enthusiasm. It was a subject the boy knew well and an experience that he fiercely enjoyed. Every August for the past decade, White's father had taken the family to the same camp on Belgrade Lake in Maine. In a self-designed pamphlet, complete with sketches and photos, young Elwyn began his report clearly and conventionally

This wonderful lake is five miles wide, and about ten miles long, with many coves, points and islands. It is one of a series of lakes, which are connected with each other by little streams. One of these streams is several miles long and deep enough so that it affords an opportunity for a fine all-day canoe trip. . . . The lake is large enough to make the conditions ideal for all kinds of small boats. The bathing also is a feature, for the days grow very warm at noon time and make a good swim feel fine. (reprinted in Scott Elledge, ​ E.B. White: A Biography. Norton, 1984)

Second Draft: Letter to Stanley Hart White (1936)

In the summer of 1936, E. B. White, by then a popular writer for The New Yorker magazine, made a return visit to this childhood vacation spot. While there, he wrote a long letter to his brother Stanley, vividly describing the sights, sounds, and smells of the lake. Here are a few excerpts:

The lake hangs clear and still at dawn, and the sound of a cowbell comes softly from a faraway woodlot. In the shallows along shore the pebbles and driftwood show clear and smooth on bottom, and black water bugs dart, spreading a wake and a shadow. A fish rises quickly in the lily pads with a little plop, and a broad ring widens to eternity. The water in the basin is icy before breakfast, and cuts sharply into your nose and ears and makes your face blue as you wash. But the boards of the dock are already hot in the sun, and there are doughnuts for breakfast and the smell is there, the faintly rancid smell that hangs around Maine kitchens. Sometimes there is little wind all day, and on still hot afternoons the sound of a motorboat comes drifting five miles from the other shore, and the droning lake becomes articulate, like a hot field. A crow calls, fearfully and far. If a night breeze springs up, you are aware of a restless noise along the shore, and for a few minutes before you fall asleep you hear the intimate talk between fresh-water waves and rocks that lie below bending birches. The insides of your camp are hung with pictures cut from magazines, and the camp smells of lumber and damp. Things don't change much. . . . ( Letters of E.B. White , edited by Dorothy Lobrano Guth. Harper & Row, 1976)

Final Revision: "Once More to the Lake" (1941)

White made the return journey in 1936 on his own, in part to commemorate his parents, both of whom had recently died. When he next made the trip to Belgrade Lake, in 1941, he took along his son Joel. White recorded that experience in what has become one of the best-known and most frequently anthologized essays of the past century, "Once More to the Lake":

We went fishing the first morning. I felt the same damp moss covering the worms in the bait can, and saw the dragonfly alight on the tip of my rod as it hovered a few inches from the surface of the water. It was the arrival of this fly that convinced me beyond any doubt that everything was as it always had been, that the years were a mirage and there had been no years. The small waves were the same, chucking the rowboat under the chin as we fished at anchor, and the boat was the same boat, the same color green and the ribs broken in the same places, and under the floor-boards the same fresh-water leavings and debris--the dead hellgrammite, the wisps of moss, the rusty discarded fishhook, the dried blood from yesterday's catch. We stared silently at the tips of our rods, at the dragonflies that came and went. I lowered the tip of mine into the water, pensively dislodging the fly, which darted two feet away, poised, darted two feet back, and came to rest again a little farther up the rod. There had been no years between the ducking of this dragonfly and the other one--the one that was part of memory. . . . (Harper's, 1941; reprinted in One Man's Meat . Tilbury House Publishers, 1997)

Certain details from White's 1936 letter reappear in his 1941 essay: damp moss, birch beer, the smell of lumber, the sound of outboard motors. In his letter, White insisted that "things don't change much," and in his essay, we hear the refrain, "There had been no years." But in both texts, we sense that the author was working hard to sustain an illusion. A joke may be "deathless," the lake may be "fade-proof," and summer may seem to be "without end." Yet as White makes clear in the concluding image of "Once More to the Lake," only the pattern of life is "indelible":

When the others went swimming my son said he was going in too. He pulled his dripping trunks from the line where they had hung all through the shower, and wrung them out. Languidly, and with no thought of going in, I watched him, his hard little body, skinny and bare, saw him wince slightly as he pulled up around his vitals the small, soggy, icy garment. As he buckled the swollen belt, suddenly my groin felt the chill of death.

To spend almost 30 years composing an essay is exceptional. But then, you have to admit, so is "Once More to the Lake."

Postscript (1981)

According to Scott Elledge in E.B. White: A Biography , on July 11, 1981, to celebrate his eighty-first birthday, White lashed a canoe to the top of his car and drove to "the same Belgrade lake where, seventy years before, he had received a green old town canoe from his father, a gift for his eleventh birthday."

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Book Review — The Passage of Time in E.B. White’s ‘Once More to the Lake’

The Passage of Time in E.b. White's 'Once More to The Lake'

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E. B. White is one of the most famous children’s book authors. But he should be better known for his essays.

I was well into adulthood before I realized the co-author of my battered copy of The Elements of Style was also the author of Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web . That’s right, the White of the revered style manual that everyone knew as “Strunk and White” also wrote children’s books…as well as some of the best essays in the English language.

If you’re of a certain age, you might well remember E. B. White’s pointers in The Elements of Style :

Place yourself in the background; write in a way that comes naturally; work from a suitable design; write with nouns and verbs; do not overwrite; do not overstate; avoid the use of qualifiers; do not affect a breezy style; use orthodox spelling; do not explain too much; avoid fancy words; do not take shortcuts at the cost of clarity; prefer the standard to the offbeat; make sure the reader knows who is speaking; do not use dialect; revise and rewrite.

That’s some good advice, much better than the terrible counsel offered on Page 76: “Avoid the elaborate, the pretentious, the coy, and the cute.” Thanks, E. B., I do what I want. ☹️

Born in 1899 in Mount Vernon, N.Y., Elwyn Brooks White attended Cornell University, where he earned the nickname “Andy.” (Weird historical fact: If your last name was White, you were automatically an Andy at Cornell, in honor of the school’s co-founder, Andrew Dickson White. There is no connection to fellow Cornell alum Andy Bernard .) After graduation, White worked as a journalist and an advertising copywriter for several years. He published his first article in The New Yorker the year it was founded, 1925.

White became a staff writer at The New Yorker in 1927, but was an early enthusiast of the work-from-home movement, initially refusing to come to the office and eventually agreeing to come in only on Thursdays. In those days, he shared a small office (“a sort of elongated closet,” he called it) with James Thurber.

His famous officemate later recalled that White had an odd a brilliant habit: When visitors were announced, he would climb out the office window and scamper down the fire escape. “He has avoided the Man in the Reception Room as he has avoided the interviewer, the photographer, the microphone, the rostrum, the literary tea, and the Stork Club,” Thurber later remembered of the chronically shy author. “His life is his own.”

In 1929, White and Thurber co-authored their first book, Is Sex Necessary? Or, Why You Feel the Way You Do . (Don’t worry: It was comic essays.) That same year, White married Katharine Angell, The New Yorker’s fiction editor from its inaugural year until 1960. She was the mother of Roger Angell , the famed essayist and baseball writer who himself became a fiction editor at The New Yorker in the 1950s.

In 1938, White and Katharine moved permanently to a farm in Maine they had purchased five years before. If you’re wondering about the inspiration for 1952’s Charlotte’s Web , look no further than White’s 1948 essay for The Atlantic, “ Death of a Pig .” (He bought the pig with the intention of fattening it for slaughter; instead, he later nursed it through a fatal illness and buried it on the farm.)

Stuart Little had been published seven years before Charlotte’s Web . Along with 1970’s The Trumpet of the Swan , these books have made White one of the nation’s best-known children’s authors. I’m sure White didn’t mind, but by all rights, he should be better known for his essays. He authored over 20 collections of such classics as “Once More to the Lake,” “The Sea and The Wind That Blow,” “The Ring of Time,” “A Slight Sound at Evening” and “Farewell, My Lovely!” Endlessly anthologized, many are also taught in writing workshops to this day.

In 1949, White published Here Is New York , a short book developed from an essay about the pros and cons of living in New York City. In a 2012 essay for America , literary editor Raymond Schroth, S.J., noted White’s juxtaposition in Here Is New York of technological terrors like nuclear bombers (the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb in 1949) with the simple beauties of nature:

Grand Central Terminal has become honky tonk, the great mansions are in decline, and there is generally more tension, irritability and great speed. The subtlest change is that the city is now destructible. A single flight of planes no bigger than a flock of geese could end this island fantasy, burn the towers and crumble the bridges. But the United Nations will make this the capital of the world. The perfect target may become the perfect “demonstration of nonviolence and racial brotherhood.” A block away in an interior garden was an old willow tree. This tree, symbol of the city, White said, must survive.

“It is a battered tree, long suffering and much climbed, held together by strands of wire but beloved of those who know it,” White wrote in Here Is New York . “In a way it symbolizes the city: life under difficulties, growth against odds, sap-rise in the midst of concrete, and the steady reaching for the sun. Whenever I look at it nowadays, and feel the cold shadow of the planes, I think: ‘This must be saved, this particular thing, this very tree.’”

The tree lasted for another six decades —two more than the Cold War, in fact—before finally being chopped down in 2009.

In a 1954 review of books by White and James Michener, America literary editor Harold C. Gardiner, S.J. , said White “has one of the most distinctive styles discernible on the American literary scene.” Since even the most cursory review of Father Gardiner’s many years of commentary shows he hated almost everything, it was quite a compliment. (Later in the review, he noted that “Mr. Michener, who has done better in his other books, comes a cropper here mainly because his style is wooden, sententious and dull.”)

In 1963, White received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his writings. Fifteen years later, he was awarded a special Pulitzer Prize for “his letters, essays, and the full body of his work.” In 2005, the composer Nico Muhly debuted a song cycle based on The Elements of Style at the New York Public Library. Among its signature moments was a tenor offering more of White’s good advice, this time in song:

Do not use a hyphen between words that can be better written as one word .

White died in 1985 at his farm in Maine. His wife Katharine had died eight years earlier. His obituary in The New York Times quoted William Shawn, the legendary editor of The New Yorker:

His literary style was as pure as any in our language. It was singular, colloquial, clear, unforced, thoroughly American and utterly beautiful. Because of his quiet influence, several generations of this country's writers write better than they might have done. He never wrote a mean or careless sentence. He was impervious to literary, intellectual and political fashion. He was ageless, and his writing was timeless.

Our poetry selection for this week is “ Another Doubting Sonnet ,” by Renee Emerson. Readers can view all of America ’s published poems here .

Also, news from the Catholic Book Club: We are reading Norwegian novelist and 2023 Nobel Prize winner Jon Fosse’s multi-volume work Septology . Click here to buy the book, and click here to sign up for our Facebook discussion group .

In this space every week, America features reviews of and literary commentary on one particular writer or group of writers (both new and old; our archives span more than a century), as well as poetry and other offerings from America Media. We hope this will give us a chance to provide you with more in-depth coverage of our literary offerings. It also allows us to alert digital subscribers to some of our online content that doesn’t make it into our newsletters.

Other Catholic Book Club columns:

The spiritual depths of Toni Morrison

What’s all the fuss about Teilhard de Chardin?

Moira Walsh and the art of a brutal movie review

​​Who’s in hell? Hans Urs von Balthasar had thoughts.

Happy reading!

James T. Keane

James T. Keane is a senior editor at America.

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Once More to the Lake

16 pages • 32 minutes read

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Personification

White persistently describes his surroundings in human terms in order to better describe them. An example occurs in the essay’s first paragraph, when White describes “the restlessness of the tide” (1) to emphasize the lake’s relaxing elements in contrast to the ocean’s volatility. Another example of personification appears when White notes the noise of the outboard motors and the “petulant, irritable” noises they make. These descriptions contrast with the old two-cylinder motors, which “purred and purred” (4), and the one-cylinder motors that “[eat] out of your hand if you got really close to it spiritually” (4). By describing these old motors as if they are obedient domestic pets, they heighten the irritation caused by the outboard motors, which are described as if they were bothersome children.

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The End Is Near: 5 Takeaways From Trump’s Criminal Trial

After a grueling day of cross-examination for Michael D. Cohen, the judge told lawyers to be ready to make closing arguments by Tuesday.

• Share full article

By Kate Christobek and Jesse McKinley

Reporting from inside the courthouse.

• May 16, 2024

Michael D. Cohen, Donald Trump’s former fixer and current antagonist, faced a tough cross-examination on Thursday as the defense drilled into his past lies.

Mr. Cohen, once known as a hothead and a paid bully, did not explode as he did when testifying last fall at Mr. Trump’s civil fraud trial. He seemed at times stressed under the searing questioning from Mr. Trump’s attorney, Todd Blanche. In one dramatic moment, Mr. Blanche accused Mr. Cohen of inventing the content of a phone call just before the 2016 election that he testified was with Mr. Trump and in which they discussed a hush-money payment.

“That was a lie,” Mr. Blanche said, his voice rising.

Mr. Cohen is not done. After more than seven hours of cross-examination over two days, he will return to the stand Monday; the judge granted Mr. Trump a day off on Friday so he can attend his son Barron’s graduation.

The former president is charged with falsifying 34 business records related to the reimbursement of the $130,000 hush-money payment to a porn star, Stormy Daniels, who says she had a sexual encounter with Mr. Trump in Lake Tahoe, Nev., in 2006. Mr. Trump, 77, has denied the charges and having had sex with Ms. Daniels. If convicted, he could face prison or probation.

Here are five takeaways from Mr. Trump’s 18th day, and his fifth week, on trial.

The content of a call could be trouble for Cohen.

It was a startling moment: Mr. Blanche on the attack, accusing Mr. Cohen of lying about a brief phone call on Oct. 24, 2016, which Mr. Cohen had previously said was to update Mr. Trump about the $130,000 he was going to pay to Ms. Daniels. Mr. Blanche, however, suggested Mr. Cohen was instead talking to a Trump bodyguard, Keith Schiller, about being the victim of phone pranks.

“You were actually talking to Mr. Schiller about harassing phone calls from a 14-year-old,” Blanche said heatedly.

Mr. Cohen said no, but wasn’t definitive: “I believe I spoke to Mr. Trump.”

The call, made to Mr. Schiller’s phone, lasted about a minute and a half. Whether jurors believe that conversation was an update on a hush-money payment — or about prank calls — will affect Mr. Cohen’s credibility.

Reciting Cohen’s lies has a cumulative effect.

Prosecutors have tried to blunt attacks on Mr. Cohen’s credibility by introducing the jury to his myriad legal problems and stint in prison.

That strategy, however, could only go so far. The defense had many lines of attack available on Thursday: Mr. Blanche pressed Mr. Cohen about disavowing his 2018 guilty pleas for personal financial crimes and tax evasion related to the hush-money payoff. He was also asked about lying to a federal judge and making a false statement to Congress.

Jurors may not remember every attack, but they could buy the defense’s overall contention that Mr. Cohen is not to be trusted.

The defense finds a motive in Cohen’s self-interest.

Mr. Cohen said this week that he had turned against Mr. Trump after he was raided by federal agents in 2018, saying his loyalty should have been to “my wife, my daughter, my son, and the country.”

But defense lawyers suggested Mr. Cohen was out for payback, playing a portion of an October 2020 podcast in which Mr. Cohen sounded giddy as he celebrated the investigations into Mr. Trump, saying that “revenge is a dish best served cold.” He concluded: “I want this man to go down and rot inside for what he did to me and my family.”

Mr. Blanche also painted Mr. Cohen as upset over not getting a White House job after the 2016 election, asking him about conversations that indicated he had wanted to be chief of staff.

The Links Between Trump and 3 Hush-Money Deals

Here’s how key figures involved in making hush-money payoffs on behalf of Donald J. Trump are connected.

Cohen kept his cool.

He has been called a liar, a loser and a money-grubber in court. Through all of these attacks, Mr. Cohen has remained mostly calm, soft-spoken and deliberate on the stand.

Mr. Cohen also appeared unfazed as Mr. Blanche brought up slights and humiliations after Mr. Trump won the election in November 2016, potentially to provide a motive for Mr. Cohen’s testimony. But the witness largely stood firm, saying at one point that he was pleased with being Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer and that it was “the role that I wanted.”

The back-and-forth appeared to frustrate Mr. Blanche, who at one point rubbed his forehead after one of Mr. Cohen’s answers.

Who Are Key Players in the Trump Manhattan Criminal Trial?

The first criminal trial of former President Donald J. Trump is underway. Take a closer look at central figures related to the case.

Jurors could get the case soon.

Mr. Cohen’s cross-examination will continue on Monday, but should be done before noon, according to Mr. Blanche. Prosecutors may re-interview Mr. Cohen and then are expected to rest their case.

Next comes the defense’s turn. Mr. Trump’s lawyers told the judge late Thursday that the former president had yet to decide whether he would testify. It is unclear whether his lawyers might call other witnesses.

Justice Juan M. Merchan told the lawyers they should be ready to make closing arguments on Tuesday.

That means that the jury, which has been on duty since April 22, could get the case just in time before the Memorial Day weekend.

Then the wait for a verdict begins.

Kate Christobek is a reporter covering the civil and criminal cases against former president Donald J. Trump for The Times. More about Kate Christobek

Jesse McKinley is a Times reporter covering upstate New York, courts and politics. More about Jesse McKinley

Our Coverage of the Trump Hush-Money Trial

News and Analysis

Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s one-time fixer and the key witness in the trial, faced hours of bruising questions  from a defense lawyer who sought to destroy his credibility with jurors.

Liberal and conservative media outlets seemed to agree on one thing: Cohen was worth belittling. But they made that argument in far different ways .

Trump’s trial has become a staging ground  for Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson  and Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio , to prove their fealty to the former president.

More on Trump’s Legal Troubles

Key Inquiries: Trump faces several investigations  at both the state and the federal levels, into matters related to his business and political careers.

Case Tracker:  Keep track of the developments in the criminal cases  involving the former president.

What if Trump Is Convicted?: Could he go to prison ? And will any of the proceedings hinder Trump’s presidential campaign? Here is what we know , and what we don’t know .

Trump on Trial Newsletter: Sign up here  to get the latest news and analysis  on the cases in New York, Florida, Georgia and Washington, D.C.

Episodes from poet’s life are recounted in essays | DON NOBLE

Students at the University of Alabama in the late ’60s and early ’70s will remember James Seay. Tall, slender, with long brown hair, and a black eye patch over his right eye, Seay taught poetry writing and was a presence.

His first book, “Let Not Your Hart,” won the prestigious Wesleyan Prize for poetry in 1970. The verse is luminously accessible, a miracle by today’s standards, and many concern his childhood in Mississippi, in Panola County — just east of the Delta.

More: Novel explores apocalypse and religion in Mississippi | DON NOBLE

Seay wrote of poverty. A poem about fishing for catfish by hand, grabbling in Yokna Bottom, concludes “The well-fed do not wade this low river.”

There are poems of hard work, often amusing and admiring.

“Kelly Dug a Hole” is a hymn of praise to simple tasks done perfectly. “Kelly’s hole was true.” If, one day, the building collapses, the last part to fail will be where Kelly dug.

And there is of course a poem about shopping, with his father, for a glass eye after losing his eye to a lawn mower. The boy knows the salesman “would not find my soft brown eye, not in a thousand leather trays.”

Now, half a century and six volumes of poetry later, James Seay has published a book of 20 essays, “Come! Come! Where? Where?: Essays.”

The first — and the last — speak of a loss even greater than the loss of his eye. Seay and his ex-wife, Lee Smith, lost their son Josh to mental illness and early death at 33.

Several return to the themes of “Let Not Your Hart.” Some recount stories of laboring and as foreman of laborers.

In the ironically titled “Big Boss Man,” set in 1959, he is supervising a crew of Black and white workers constructing a classroom building at Ole Miss. The racial and class currents are almost too complex to relate. The Black workers work with and are separate from the white workers. The blue-collar whites resent Seay, the educated boy and their boss. But he concludes, generously, that the surliest among them is just trying to feed his family.

The essays are scattered through time and space.

There are several accounts of fishing trips, a few of literary commentary, and a fresh essay on some places in Faulkner that are Seay’s own places.

The funniest piece is “Avian Voices: Trying Not To Kill a Mockingbird.” In addition to giving musical pleasure, mockingbirds can be very irritating

One favorite is his 1987 visit or attempted visit to Chekhov’s grave. That day there happened to be a funeral for a Soviet official. The guard was under orders to allow no one else into the cemetery.

Seay explained, pled, that he might never again be in the country. “Nyet.”

Desperate to be admitted, Seay has his translator tell the guard “I am a relative of Chekhov”: “My adult life has been given to the cause of literature.”

And that’s the truth.

Don Noble’s newest book is Alabama Noir, a collection of original stories by Winston Groom, Ace Atkins, Carolyn Haines, Brad Watson, and eleven other Alabama authors.

“Come! Come! Where? Where?: Essays”

Author: James Seay

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 2024

Price: $22.95