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A Year of Poetry – Day 150

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

‘Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!’

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought —
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood a while in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One two! One two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

‘And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!’
He chortled in his joy.

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

— Lewis Carroll, Jabberwocky

Musings

  • I finished watching “The Tudors” the other night, and decided I’d like to watch something where the characters are good people, where there isn’t much gruesome bloodshed, and where the bed-hopping was implied rather than annotated.
    • So, I’ve watched half of the first season of “Borgias“.
    • George R.R. Martin ain’t got nothing on actual human history.
  • My circadian rhythm needs to stop drinking and go to church more often.
  • There are few things more frustrating than having to go back three chapters and rewrite something that you specifically told yourself not to write in the first place.
  • This is that wonderful time of year in Kentucky where you still sweat like a whore in church, but you have to decide how long you can wait before raking leaves.
  • Our new neighbor has a dog named “Frisbee.”  He’s a sweet hound, and he seems to get along with our dogs.  Crash, the Siamese psychopath, looks at him like he’s wondering what a saddle and some spurs would cost.

A Year of Poetry – Day 149

Who at Thermopyae stood side by side,

And fought together and together died,

Under earth-barrows now are laid in rest,

Their chance thrice-glorious, and their fate thrice-blest:

No tears for them, but memory’s loving gaze;

For them no pity, but proud hymns of praise.

Time shall not sweep this monument away,—

Time the destroyer; no, nor dank decay.

This not alone heroic ashes holds;

Greece’s own glory this earth-shrine enfolds,—

Leonidas, the Spartan king; a name

Of boundless honor and eternal fame.

— Simonides, Thermopylae

A Year of Poetry – Day 148

Let me die on the prairie! and o’er my rude grave,
In the soft breeze of summer the tall grass shall wave;
I would breathe my last sigh as the bright hues of even
Are melting away in the blue arch of Heaven.
Let me die on the prairie! unwept and unknown,
I would pass from this fair Earth forgotten, alone;—
Yet no! – there are hearts I have learned to revere,
And methinks there is bliss in affection’s warm tear.
Oh, speak not to me of the green cypress shade;
I would sleep where the bones of the Indian are laid,
And the deer will bound o’er me with step light and free,
And the carol of birds will my requiem be.
Let me die on the prairie! I have wished for it long;
There floats in wild numbers the bold hunter’s song;
’Tis the spot of all others the dearest to me,
And how sweet in its bosom my slumber will be!
— Frances Jane Crosby van Alstyne, Let Me Die On The Prairie

Thoughts on ‘The Tudors’

In between work work, housework, family, writing, and collapsing into unconsciousness for a few hours each day, I’ve been watching the television show ‘The Tudors.’  It’s a wonderful romp telling the story of the court of King Henry VIII of England as he marries, beheads, eats, and tantrums his way through the Reformation.

I have a few observations:

  • If your system of government is based on near absolute monarchy with patrilineal succession, it is good to have an heir and a spare.
    • Just make sure your ‘spare’ isn’t a self-indulgent prat with a rather bloody mind and absolutely no managerial skills.  You never know when you’ll have to pull his sorry butt out of the trunk and bolt him to the Ford Anglia of state.
  • A lot of problems could have been avoided if King Henry had listened to that old adage, “Thou shalt not date thy brother’s ex.”
  • A lot more would have been avoided if King Henry had ever uttered the words, “Well, I suppose we should just find Mary a good husband to run the country with her.”
  • You should not repeatedly use the team of women who take care of your wife as your personal dating pool.
  • If your mistress was easy to get into bed and eager to break up your marriage, don’t be surprised if she doesn’t change her ways after you put a ring on her finger.
  • If you start executing your friends, don’t be surprised when you don’t have many left.
  • Pro tip – Do not commit to marriage without at least meeting your future spouse. That is, unless you’re a good man who will stand by his oaths no matter what, but let’s not get silly.
  • Sixteen year old girls don’t accidentally learn how to seduce middle-aged kings.
  • If sleeping around on your husband can lead to you getting shorter by a head, I suggest ice cream and female-centric entertainment to fill your lonely nights.
  • If sleeping with somebody’s wife is likely to lead to you being tortured to death, after weeks of torture, with a side of torture to go with it, then maybe you ought to volunteer for overseas service.
  • If you don’t let people proclaim their beliefs and disagreements in public, they will whisper them in secret.

A Year of Poetry – Day 147

Winken, Blinken, and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe,
Sailed off on a river of crystal light,
Into a sea of dew.

“Where are you going, and what do you wish?”
The old moon asked the three.
“We have come to fish for the herring fish
That live in the beautiful sea;
Nets of silver and gold have we!”
Said Winken,
Blinken,

And Nod.

The old moon laughed and sang a song,
As they rocked in the wooden shoe,
And the wind that sped them all night long,
Ruffled the waves of dew.
The little stars were the herring fish
That lived in the beautiful sea.
“Now cast your nets wherever you wish—
Never afeard are we”;
So cried the stars to the fisherman three:
Winken,
Blinken,
And Nod.

All night long their nets they threw
To the stars in the twinkling foam—
Then down from the skies came a wooden shoe
Bringing the fishermen home;
T’was all so pretty a sail it seemed
As if it could not be,
And some folks thought t’was a dream they’d dreamed
Of sailing that beautiful sea—
But I shall name you the fisherman three:
Winken,
Blinken,
And Nod.

Winken and Blinken are two little eyes,
And Nod is a little head,
And the wooden shoes that sailed the skies
Is the wee one’s trundle-bed.
So shut your eyes while your mother sings
Of wonderful sights that be,
And you shall see the beautiful things
As you rock in the misty sea,
Where the old shoe rocked the fisherman three:
Winken,
Blinken,
And Nod.

— Mother Goose, Winken, Blinken, and Nod

A Year of Poetry – Day 146

Green groweth the holly, so doth the ivy.
Though winter blasts blow never so high,
Green groweth the holly.

As the holly groweth green
And never changeth hue,
So I am, and ever hath been,
Unto my lady true.
Green groweth  .  .  .  etc.

As the holly groweth green,
With ivy all alone,
When flowerys cannot be seen
And green-wood leaves be gone,
ut supra

Now unto my lady
Promise to her I make:
From all other only
To her I me betake.
ut supra

Adieu, mine own lady,
Adieu, my specïal,
Who hath my heart truly,
Be sure, and ever shall.

Green groweth the holly, so doth the ivy.
Though winter blasts blow never so high,
Green groweth the holly. 

— King Henry VIII, Green Groweth the Holly

A Year of Poetry – Day 145

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

— Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

A Year of Poetry – Day 144

Love came to Flora asking for a flower
That would of flowers be undisputed queen,
The lily and the rose, long, long had been
Rivals for that high honor. Bards of power
Had sung their claims. ‘The rose can never tower
Like the pale lily with her Juno mien’ –
‘But is the lily lovelier?’ Thus between
Flower-factions rang the strife in Psyche’s bower.
‘Give me a flower delicious as the rose
And stately as the lily in her pride’ –
But of what color?’ – ‘Rose-red,’ Love first chose,
Then prayed – ‘No, lily-white – or, both provide;’
And Flora gave the lotus, ‘rose-red’ dyed,
And ‘lily-white’ – the queenliest flower that blows.

— Toru Dutt, Love Came To Flora Asking For A Flower

A Year of Poetry – Day 143

To outer senses there is peace,
A dreamy peace on either hand
Deep silence in the shadowy land,
Deep silence where the shadows cease.

Save for a cry that echoes shrill
From some lone bird disconsolate;
A corncrake calling to its mate;
The answer from the misty hill.

And suddenly the moon withdraws
Her sickle from the lightening skies,
And to her sombre cavern flies,
Wrapped in a veil of yellow gauze.

— Oscar Wilde, La Fuite de la Lune