The Nation.



The Naming

By W. Dale Nelson

This article appeared in the July 21, 2008 edition of The Nation.

July 1, 2008

We give our names to things.
This creek is Cobweb Creek,
named for our cat, who is named
for one of the fairies
in A Midsummer Night's Dream
(Peaseblossom and Mustardseed were too long
And Moth too short).

We called a house
Carapace, and another one
Too Far: too far from where?
Crablike we built the names
around us, giving to Cobweb
Creek an echo of Mustardseed,
giving the closest places
a distance of our own.

Subscriber Login

4 ISSUES FREE

Subscribe Now!

The only way to read this article and the full contents of each week's issue of The Nation online is by subscribing to the magazine. Subscribe now and read this article -- and every article published since for the past five years -- right now.

There's no obligation -- try The Nation for four weeks free.

.
Popular Topics
Most Searched

Issues »

Most Emailed

Issues »

Blogs

» Editor's Cut

Inside Palin's Politics | Watch me spar with Republican strategist Barbara Comstock over Sarah Palin--what she represents and where she would lead the country.
Katrina vanden Heuvel

» The Beat

The Anti-Republican Republican Who Is Really a Republican | McCain distances himself from Bush rhetorically, but not ideologically or practically.
John Nichols

» The Notion

McCain's "Worst Speech" Panned by Pundits | John McCain's "shockingly bad" speech draws pundit fire.
Ari Melber

» Campaign 08

Obama Defends Community Organizing | "Why would that kind of work be ridiculous? Who are they fighting for? Who are they advocating for?"
John Nichols

» Capitolism

Community Organizers Fight Back | These people are not particularly practiced in taking things lying down.
Christopher Hayes

» The Dreyfuss Report

Cheney Blusters Through the Caucasus | Looking for oil. Unfortunately for Dick, Russia's in charge now.
Robert Dreyfuss

» ActNow!

Power Vote | New effort to build a green youth voter bloc of one million is growing.
Peter Rothberg

» And Another Thing

Sarah Palin, Wrong Woman for the Job | Seriously, people! Life is not a Lifetime movie.
Katha Pollitt