Month: May 2016
In Springtime
My garden blazes brightly with the rose-bush and the peach,
And the koil sings above it, in the siris by the well,
From the creeper-covered trellis comes the squirrel’s chattering speech,
And the blue jay screams and flutters where the cheery sat-bhai dwell.
But the rose has lost its fragrance, and the koil’s note is strange;
I am sick of endless sunshine, sick of blossom-burdened bough.
Give me back the leafless woodlands where the winds of Springtime range —
Give me back one day in England, for it’s Spring in England now!
Through the pines the gusts are booming, o’er the brown fields blowing chill,
From the furrow of the ploughshare streams the fragrance of the loam,
And the hawk nests on the cliffside and the jackdaw in the hill,
And my heart is back in England ‘mid the sights and sounds of Home.
But the garland of the sacrifice this wealth of rose and peach is,
Ah! koil, little koil, singing on the siris bough,
In my ears the knell of exile your ceaseless bell like speech is —
Can you tell me aught of England or of Spring in England now?
– Rudyard Kipling
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21st May – On This Day In History
Born:
1952 Mr T (actor – The A team)
Died:
2000 Sir John Gielgud (actor)
On This Day:
1932 Amelia Earhart lands in Ireland after completing the first solo trans Atlantic flight by a woman
Have a good Saturday, 21st May
Spring
Sound the flute!
Now it’s mute!
Bird’s delight,
Day and night,
Nightingale,
In the dale,
Lark in sky,–
Merrily,
Merrily merrily, to welcome in the year.
Little boy,
Full of joy;
Little girl,
Sweet and small;
Cock does crow,
So do you;
Merry voice,
Infant noise;
Merrily, merrily, to welcome in the year.
Little lamb,
Here I am;
Come and lick
My white neck;
Let me pull
Your soft wool;
Let me kiss
Your soft face;
Merrily, merrily, to welcome in the year.
– William Blake
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20th May – On This Day In History
Born:
1944 Joe Cocker (rock vocalist)
Died:
1506 Christopher Columbus (explorer)
On This Day:
1927 Aviator Charles Lindbergh takes off from New York to fly to Paris – first person to fly across the Atlantic
Have a good Friday, 20th May
Early Spring
Harshness vanished. A sudden softness
has replaced the meadows’ wintry grey.
Little rivulets of water changed
their singing accents. Tendernesses,
hesitantly, reach toward the earth
from space, and country lanes are showing
these unexpected subtle risings
that find expression in the empty trees.
– Rainer Maria Rilke
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19th May – On This Day In History
Born:
1953 Victoria Wood (comedy actress)
Died:
1864 Nathaniel Hawthorne (author – The Scarlet Letter)
On This Day:
1536 Ann Boleyne (2nd wife of Henry VIII) is beheaded for treason
Have a good Tu, 19th May
Flower God, God Of Spring
FLOWER god, god of the spring, beautiful, bountiful,
Cold-dyed shield in the sky, lover of versicles,
Here I wander in April
Cold, grey-headed; and still to my
Heart, Spring comes with a bound, Spring the deliverer,
Spring, song-leader in woods, chorally resonant;
Spring, flower-planter in meadows,
Child-conductor in willowy
Fields deep dotted with bloom, daisies and crocuses:
Here that child from his heart drinks of eternity:
O child, happy are children!
She still smiles on their innocence,
She, dear mother in God, fostering violets,
Fills earth full of her scents, voices and violins:
Thus one cunning in music
Wakes old chords in the memory:
Thus fair earth in the Spring leads her performances.
One more touch of the bow, smell of the virginal
Green – one more, and my bosom
Feels new life with an ecstasy.
– Robert Louis Stevenson
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18th May – On This Day In History
Born:
1868 Nicholas II (last Tsar of Russia)
Died:
1980 Ian Curtis (vocalist of rock band Joy Division)
On This Day:
1971 Constitution of Bulgaria is put into effect
Have a good Wednesday, 18th May
Spring Rain
I thought I had forgotten,
But it all came back again
To-night with the first spring thunder
In a rush of rain.
I remembered a darkened doorway
Where we stood while the storm swept by,
Thunder gripping the earth
And lightning scrawled on the sky.
The passing motor busses swayed,
For the street was a river of rain,
Lashed into little golden waves
In the lamp light’s stain.
With the wild spring rain and thunder
My heart was wild and gay;
Your eyes said more to me that night
Than your lips would ever say. . . .
I thought I had forgotten,
But it all came back again
To-night with the first spring thunder
In a rush of rain.
– Sara Teasdale
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17th May – On This Day In History
Born:
1749 Edward Jenner (discovered vaccination)
Died:
1985 Bobby Ewing (fictional character from the soap opera “Dallas”)
On This Day:
1814 Norwegian constitution passed
Have a good Tuesday, 17th May
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