Tuesday
As this is National Library Week, here’s a Charles Simic poem about the magic of libraries. I love the sense of mystery that he experiences as he discovers a book that no one has opened in 50 years.
While the book Simic discovers is about angels, it’s also about much more. Libraries open up the imagination, throwing us back into a world where angels and gods were once an integral part of people’s lives. I think of Wordsworth’s “The World Is Too Much with Us” where the poet—disgusted at how we “lay waste our powers” by buying and selling–longs to “have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;/ Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.”
There may be another allusion at work in Simic’s poem. In the tale told by Chaucer’s Wife of Bath, she imagines a time when the land was “fulfild of fayerye”—filled with fairy folk—and ruled over by an elf-queen. Just as, in modern times, the light of reason has banished angels and gods to the shadows—sun shines through Simic’s library window and the supernatural deities are “huddled”—so (according to the Wife) the “blessings” of friars have chased away the fairies. In her account, the light of Christianity has banished earth spirits, with Christian men of God clogging up “every land and every stream,/ As thick as specks of dust in the sunbeam.” The result is a world stripped of mystery.
In libraries, however, we can still catch glimpses of angels and gods, fairies and elves. While Simic’s librarian may carry the prosaic name of Miss Jones, she hears the books whispering. She is a priestess, presiding over this sacred space where earth and spirit worlds meet. If you are quiet, you will hear the whispering as well.
In the Library
By Charles Simic
There’s a book called
A Dictionary of Angels.
No one had opened it in fifty years,
I know, because when I did,
The covers creaked, the pages
Crumbled. There I discovered
The angels were once as plentiful
As species of flies.
The sky at dusk
Used to be thick with them.
You had to wave both arms
Just to keep them away.
Now the sun is shining
Through the tall windows.
The library is a quiet place.
Angels and gods huddled
In dark unopened books.
The great secret lies
On some shelf Miss Jones
Passes every day on her rounds.She’s very tall, so she keeps
Her head tipped as if listening.
The books are whispering.
I hear nothing, but she does.
Past posts about libraries
—The Courage of a Tennessee Librarian (March 25, 2026)
–“Useful Knowledge” vs. Literature (March 9, 2026)
—Sharon Draper: My Granddaughter and a Banned Book (Oct. 19, 025)
—Stephen King Understands MAGA (Oct. 5, 2025)
—Libraries, Bulwarks against Fascism (April 8, 2025)
—Why Are Books Banned? They Change Lives (Sept. 22, 2024)
—Elena Ferrante: Idaho Libraries and My Brilliant Friend (Sept. 19, 2024)
—Paul Hamilton Engle: The Dangerous Power of Libraries (Aug. 20, 2024)
—On Defending Books against Bullies (Oct. 1, 2023)
—The Social Novel Tackles Our Dilemmas (Sept. 19, 2023)
—Judy Blume: Fighting Back against Book Censors (April 11, 2023)
—Books Are Banned Because They Are Powerful (Jan. 19, 2023)
—Read to Resist Fascism (Oct. 26, 2022)
—Books Bans Leave Children Defenseless (April 25, 2022)
—The Fascist Right Goes for Sendak (April 17, 2022)
—LGBTQ+ Books under Fire (Feb. 3, 2022)
—Time to Reread Fahrenheit 451 (Jan. 27, 2022)
—Banned Books Again on the Rise (Jan. 18, 2022)
—Yes, Virginia, Books ARE Dangerous (Nov. 28, 2021)
—Rightwing Book Bans on the Rise (Nov. 11, 2021)
—A Texas Pol Attacks Cider House Rules (Oct. 31, 2021)
—Literature, the Best Medicine (Oct. 20, 2021)
–Joe Mills: If Librarians Were Honest… https://betterlivingthroughbeowulf.com/if-librarians-were-honest/ Feb. 19, 2020)
—Nikki Giovanni, A Book Held to the Chest, Close to the Heart (Feb. 11, 2020)
—Libraries, Critical to Democracy (April 22, 2019)
—What Our Libraries Reveal about Us (June 13, 2018)
—Norman Finkelstein: A Poem in Praise of Libraries (Sept. 19, 2016)
—Scott Bates: The Liberating Power of a Yo-Yo in a Library (Nov. 21, 2012)
—Alberto Manguel, Fight the Power, Check Out a Book (June 30, 2011)
—Alberto Manguel, Our Inner Library: A Quiz (Jan. 5, 2011)
—Jorge Luis Borges, A Bookstore and the Library of Babel (March 17, 2024)
—Scott Bates, Books Unleashed in Christmas Carrels (Dec. 25, 2009)
