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A Year of Poetry – Day 178

Leucon, no one’s allowed to know his fate,
Not you, not me: don’t ask, don’t hunt for answers
In tea leaves or palms. Be patient with whatever comes.
This could be our last winter, it could be many
More, pounding the Tuscan Sea on these rocks:
Do what you must, be wise, cut your vines
And forget about hope. Time goes running, even
As we talk. Take the present, the future’s no one’s affair.
— Horace, Ode I, 11

A Year of Poetry – Day 177

I dug, beneath the cypress shade,
What well might seem an elfin’s grave;
And every pledge in earth I laid,
That erst thy false affection gave.

I pressed them down the sod beneath;
I placed one mossy stone above;
And twined the rose’s fading wreath
Around the sepulchre of love.

Frail as thy love, the flowers were dead,
Ere yet the evening sun was set:
But years shall see the cypress spread,
Immutable as my regret.

— Thomas Love Peacock, I Dug, Beneath The Cypress Shade

Request

Will commenter WOZ please contact me via the email link above?

Thanks!

A Year of Poetry – Day 176

See, I have climbed the mountain side
Up to this holy house of God,
Where once that Angel-Painter trod
Who saw the heavens opened wide,

And throned upon the crescent moon
The Virginal white Queen of Grace, –
Mary! could I but see thy face
Death could not come at all too soon.

O crowned by God with thorns and pain!
Mother of Christ! O mystic wife!
My heart is weary of this life
And over-sad to sing again.

O crowned by God with love and flame!
O crowned by Christ the Holy One!
O listen ere the searching sun
Show to the world my sin and shame.

— Oscar Wilde, San Miniato

A Year of Poetry – Day 175

You are old, Father William, the young man cried,
    The few locks which are left you are grey;
You are hale, Father William, a hearty old man,
    Now tell me the reason I pray.
In the days of my youth, Father William replied,
    I remember’d that youth would fly fast,
And abused not my health and my vigour at first
    That I never might need them at last.
You are old, Father William, the young man cried,
    And pleasures with youth pass away,
And yet you lament not the days that are gone,
    Now tell me the reason I pray.
In the days of my youth, Father William replied,
    I remember’d that youth could not last;
I thought of the future whatever I did,
    That I never might grieve for the past.
You are old, Father William, the young man cried,
    And life must be hastening away;
You are chearful, and love to converse upon death!
    Now tell me the reason I pray.
I am chearful, young man, Father William replied,
    Let the cause thy attention engage;
In the days of my youth I remember’d my God!
    And He hath not forgotten my age.
— Robert Southey, The Old Man’s Complaints. And how he gained them

A Year of Poetry – Day 174

Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;

For though from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.

— Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Crossing the Bar

Musings

  • My goal for tonight was to write a battle scene in “Coming Home.”  After two hours of writing, I barely got through the pre-battle “You and what army?” conversation.
    • The book should be ready for beta readers by the end of next week, assuming the world doesn’t fall in.
  • There’s a wonderful moment in life when you realize you’ve been making the same, basic grammatical mistake in every book you’ve written.
    • I guess that’s what second editions are for.
  • There’s nothing in the world like the sensation you get when the vibration from the dentist’s tool goes through your teeth, up your jawbone, through your inner ear, and right into your brain. It kind of felt like I needed to scratch my cerebellum.
  • Boo has started piano lessons and is going to be trying out for the school Christmas pageant.  I’m considering investing in a pair of high-end noise blocking ear buds.
  • Instant cheese grits – Do yourself a favor and just don’t.
  • I’d like to thank Samsung for sending me texts on my new iPhone to let me know that I need to shut off my Note 7 and return it to the store.
    • It’s good to know they care.

A Year of Poetry – Day 173

Know’st thou not at the fall of the leaf
How the heart feels a languid grief
Laid on it for a covering,
And how sleep seems a goodly thing
In Autumn at the fall of the leaf?
And how the swift beat of the brain
Falters because it is in vain,
In Autumn at the fall of the leaf
Knowest thou not? and how the chief
Of joys seems—not to suffer pain?
Know’st thou not at the fall of the leaf
How the soul feels like a dried sheaf
Bound up at length for harvesting,
And how death seems a comely thing
In Autumn at the fall of the leaf?
— Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Autumn Song

A Year of Poetry – Day 172

When last we parted, thou wert young and fair,
How beautiful let fond remembrance say!
Alas! since then old time has stolen away
Full thirty years, leaving my temples bare.—
So has it perished like a thing of air,
The dream of love and youth!— now both are grey
Yet still remembering that delightful day,
Though time with his cold touch has blanched my hair,
Though I have suffered many years of pain
Since then, though I did never think to live
To hear that voice or see those eyes again,
I can a sad but cordial greeting give,
And for thy welfare breathe as warm a prayer—
As when I loved thee young and fair.

— Catherine Maria Fanshawe, When Last We Parted

A Year of Poetry – Day 171

Put up in a place
where it’s easy to see
the cryptic admonishment
T. T. T.

When you feel how depressingly
slowly you climb,
it’s well to remember that
Things Take Time!

— Piet Hein, T.T.T.