“[1]It is Sunday, mid-morning—Sunday in the living room, Sunday in the kitchen, Sunday in the woodshed, Sunday down the road in the village: I hear the bells, calling me to share God’s grace. [2]I enter the living room, a Sunday man, carrying a folder of work—clippings, letters, small ungerminated thoughts in plain wrappers, a writer’s reticule. [3]I stand a moment listening to the bells three miles away, the hopeful, chiding bells. [4]Procrastinating, I snap the radio on, and it is Sunday in the radio cabinet, too. [5]More like the Master is my daily prayer… a hymn singer in the Nazarene Church of South Blur, Maine, into my Sunday living room, spreading a frail soprano along the shelf among the geraniums and the freesia and the hyacinths where stand the authors without their jackets—Henry James, Willa Cather, D.H. Lawrence, A.P. Herbert, Frank T. Bullen, W.H. Hudson, Willard C. Thompson, their heads unbowed, looking straight ahead. [6]We dedicate this hymn to Miss Nellie Blur, a shut-in of South Blend. Next Sunday we shall take up the first of the beatitudes and until then God bless you…”
E.B. White’s essay, “Sabbath Morn,” starts off as a collection of observations. The majority of the essay is made up of radio segments, sprinkled between White’s own random musings about daily life going on around him. It is unlike much of his work, because of how random it appears. This passage is the first paragraph of the essay. He repeats “Sunday” in almost every sentence (usually several times within one). The passage is not only unified by this repetition, it makes it easy for the reader to see a preacher standing at the pulpit saying these very words. White’s repetition makes this passage like a gospel-song. The constant echo of Sunday, as well as the dropping in of a service broadcasted over the radio, was a constant reminder that it was God’s day. White’s guilt over not attending a service becomes apparent throughout the essay, but this guilt is introduced in this passage in sentence 3, when the bells are “chiding” him. While his word choice throughout the passage is simple, White makes these words lyrical, almost as if he is singing a hymn himself. Indeed, one is struck that this piece is unlike many of White’s essays, because of how abstract and poetic it is. But, as Atwan points out, there are no styles of writing that White could not master.
Sentence 2 is interesting because White uses an appositive (folder of work is the writer’s reticule) but surprises the reader by interrupting its flow listing all the items that make up the reticule. It is a reverse way to do so, but it adds to the passage’s lyrical flow. White starts sentence 5 with a saying that he is hearing over the radio. The hymn singer is praying to be more like the Master. The end of sentence 5, emphasized by a dash, is a list of who White considerers his masters. This suggests that White’s gods are the great authors, which may be why guilt is a theme in this piece. The end of the passage refers to “God,” once again reminding the reader that it is Sunday, as stated at the beginning of the paragraph.
Sentence 2 is interesting because White uses an appositive (folder of work is the writer’s reticule) but surprises the reader by interrupting its flow listing all the items that make up the reticule. It is a reverse way to do so, but it adds to the passage’s lyrical flow. White starts sentence 5 with a saying that he is hearing over the radio. The hymn singer is praying to be more like the Master. The end of sentence 5, emphasized by a dash, is a list of who White considerers his masters. This suggests that White’s gods are the great authors, which may be why guilt is a theme in this piece. The end of the passage refers to “God,” once again reminding the reader that it is Sunday, as stated at the beginning of the paragraph.
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