Horseshoes

Perfection has, perhaps, been lost. But Roberts believes, as Milton did, that there is hope for a great race of men and women who understand the chaotic part of humanity that is ever with us, and ever ahead of us. The fact that we can still shape worlds out of that chaos makes the struggle to do so something to which we can all look forward. Whether readers agree that Roberts had Milton in her "great eternal mind" or not when she wrote The Great Meadow, it seems clear that effecting a Miltonic reading of her work about exploring the great Kentucky frontier yields substantial understanding of the main character Diony Hall. Like Milton's Eve, Diony Hall accepts the state of the world around her, identifies the chores ahead of her, and goes about the task of making some acceptable order out of the chaos that exists past the boundaries of that which is familiar. Works Cited Roberts, Elizabeth Madox. The Great Meadow. New York: Ballantine Books, 1930. Horseshoes Horseshoe pitching is a way of life. I remember my grandfather with the hard iron rubbed and tucked firm into the pocket of his hand, a dangling cigarette between loose lips, taking proud and careful aim at an iron stake which slanted from a sandy pit thirty feet away. He cradled the shoe before him like a newborn and with an underhanded fling, turned that heavy horseshoe loose and answered with a high clenched hand the jarring cry of the stake's shrill ring. —Hank Hudepohl 42 ...