Month: October 2016
Night Images
Late in the cold night wakened, and heard wind,
And lay with eyes closed and silent, knowing
These words how bodiless they are, this darkness
Empty under my roof and the panes rattling
Roughed by wind. And so lay and imagined
Somewhere far off black seas heavy-shouldered
Plunging on sand and the ebb off-streaming and
Thunder forever. So lying bethought me, friend,
What traffic ghouls have, or this be legend,
In low inland hollows of the earth, under
Shade of moon, the night moaning, and bitter frost;
And feared the riches of my bones, long given
Into this earth, should tumble to their hands.
No girl or ghost beside me, and I lonely,
Remembering gardens, lilac scent, or twilight
Descending late in summer on that town,
I lay and found my years departed from me,
And feared the cold bed and the wind, absurdly
Alone with silence and the trick of tears.
– Robert Fitzgerald
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11th October – On This Day In History
Born:
1957 Dawn French (comedian)
Died:
1985 Tex Williams (country singer)
On This Day:
1972 Panama adopts its constitution
Have a good Tuesday, 11th October
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The Lake
In spring of youth it was my lot
To haunt of the wide world a spot
The which I could not love the less-
So lovely was the loneliness
Of a wild lake, with black rock bound,
And the tall pines that towered around.
But when the Night had thrown her pall
Upon that spot, as upon all,
And the mystic wind went by
Murmuring in melody-
Then- ah then I would awake
To the terror of the lone lake.
Yet that terror was not fright,
But a tremulous delight-
A feeling not the jewelled mine
Could teach or bribe me to define-
Nor Love- although the Love were thine.
Death was in that poisonous wave,
And in its gulf a fitting grave
For him who thence could solace bring
To his lone imagining-
Whose solitary soul could make
An Eden of that dim lake.
– Edgar Allan Poe
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10th October – On This Day In History
Born:
1825 Paul Kruger (President of The South African Republic in 1883 and Boer leader)
Died:
1875 Alexsey Tolstoy (Russian novelist)
On This Day:
1959 PanAm begins scheduled flights around the world
Have a good Monday, 10th October
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To The River
Fair river! in thy bright, clear flow
Of crystal, wandering water,
Thou art an emblem of the glow
Of beauty- the unhidden heart-
The playful maziness of art
In old Alberto’s daughter;
But when within thy wave she looks-
Which glistens then, and trembles-
Why, then, the prettiest of brooks
Her worshipper resembles;
For in his heart, as in thy stream,
Her image deeply lies-
His heart which trembles at the beam
Of her soul-searching eyes.
– Edgar Allan Poe
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9th October – On This Day In History
Born:
1940 John Lennon (musician and member of The Beatles)
Died:
1974 Oskar Schindler (German businessman responsible for rescuing hundreds of Jews from Nazi concentration camps)
On This Day
1888 Washington Monument is open to the public
Have a good Sunday, 9th October
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The Greenest Of Our Valleys
I.
In the greenest of our valleys,
By good angels tenanted,
Once fair and stately palace —
Radiant palace –reared its head.
In the monarch Thought’s dominion —
It stood there!
Never seraph spread a pinion
Over fabric half so fair.
II.
Banners yellow, glorious, golden,
On its roof did float and flow;
(This –all this –was in the olden
Time long ago)
And every gentle air that dallied,
In that sweet day,
Along the ramparts plumed and pallid,
A winged odour went away.
III.
Wanderers in that happy valley
Through two luminous windows saw
Spirits moving musically
To a lute’s well-tuned law,
Round about a throne, where sitting
(Porphyrogene!)
In state his glory well befitting,
The ruler of the realm was seen.
IV.
And all with pearl and ruby glowing
Was the fair palace door,
Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing
And sparkling evermore,
A troop of Echoes whose sweet duty
Was but to sing,
In voices of surpassing beauty,
The wit and wisdom of their king.
V.
But evil things, in robes of sorrow,
Assailed the monarch’s high estate;
(Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow
Shall dawn upon him, desolate!)
And, round about his home, the glory
That blushed and bloomed
Is but a dim-remembered story
Of the old time entombed.
VI.
And travellers now within that valley,
Through the red-litten windows, see
Vast forms that move fantastically
To a discordant melody;
While, like a rapid ghastly river,
Through the pale door,
A hideous throng rush out forever,
And laugh –but smile no more.
– Edgar Allan Poe
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8th October – On This Day In History
Born:
1949 Sigourney Weaver (actress – Alien)
Died:
2015 Hugh Scully (TV presenter)
On This Day:
1600 San Marino adopts its constitution
Have a good Saturday, 8th October
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The Forest Reverie
‘Tis said that when
The hands of men
Tamed this primeval wood,
And hoary trees with groans of woe,
Like warriors by an unknown foe,
Were in their strength subdued,
The virgin Earth Gave instant birth
To springs that ne’er did flow
That in the sun Did rivulets run,
And all around rare flowers did blow
The wild rose pale Perfumed the gale
And the queenly lily adown the dale
(Whom the sun and the dew
And the winds did woo),
With the gourd and the grape luxuriant grew.
So when in tears
The love of years
Is wasted like the snow,
And the fine fibrils of its life
By the rude wrong of instant strife
Are broken at a blow
Within the heart
Do springs upstart
Of which it doth now know,
And strange, sweet dreams,
Like silent streams
That from new fountains overflow,
With the earlier tide
Of rivers glide
Deep in the heart whose hope has died–
Quenching the fires its ashes hide,–
Its ashes, whence will spring and grow
Sweet flowers, ere long,
The rare and radiant flowers of song!
– Edgar Allan Poe
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7th October – On This Day In History
Born:
1931 Desmond Tuto (South African Archbishop and Noble Peace Prize winner)
Died:
1849 Edgar Allan Poe (poet)
On This Day:
1919 KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) is established. It is the oldest existing airline
Have a good Friday, 7th October
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