If I had been a Heathen,I'd have praised the purple vine,My slaves should dig the vineyards,And I would drink the wine.But Higgins is a Heathen,And his slaves grow lean and grey,That he may drink some tepid milkExactly twice a day. If I had been a Heathen,I'd have crowned Neaera's curls,And filled my life with love … Continue reading Poem – “The Song of the Strange Ascetic”
Chesterton
Friday Flotsam: Job Search Reset, Chesterton Meets Johnson, and a Few Thoughts
1. Another disappointing week as far as job prospects are concerned. A job I really wanted and would love to do turns out to have a relocation requirement that’s likely to make it impractical. Meaning I’m once again back to square one. My life feels a lot like that board game I mentioned a while … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Job Search Reset, Chesterton Meets Johnson, and a Few Thoughts
Friday Flotsam: Some Aphorisms
1. Loving your enemy does not mean forgetting that he is your enemy. 2. That we cannot judge what we don't know doesn't mean that we can't judge what we do know. E.g. I don't know the state of X's soul, nor the internal motions that lead him to act as he does, but I … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Some Aphorisms
Quotation of the Day: The Ballad of the White Horse
"But you and all the kind of ChristAre ignorant and brave,And you have wars you hardly winAnd souls you hardly save."I tell you naught for your comfort,Yea, naught for your desire,Save that the sky grows darker yetAnd the sea rises higher."Night will be thrice night over you,And Heaven an iron cope.Do you have joy without … Continue reading Quotation of the Day: The Ballad of the White Horse
Lepanto
White founts falling in the courts of the sun,And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run;There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared,It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard,It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips,For the inmost sea of all the earth … Continue reading Lepanto
Ballade of Moderns
(Meant to have a post today, but ran into last-minute problems with my coding project, so instead here's a Chesterton poem:) On deserts red and deserts grey The temples into sand have slid; Go search that splendour of decay To find the final secret hid In mummies' painted coffin-lid In hieroglyphs of hunt and play. … Continue reading Ballade of Moderns
The Ballad of the White Horse
Before the gods that made the gods Had seen their sunrise pass, The White Horse of the White Horse Vale Was cut out of the grass. So opens G.K. Chesterton's poetic masterpiece, The Ballad of the White Horse, the tale of King Alfred and his war against the invading Norsemen. The ballad is a glorious celebration … Continue reading The Ballad of the White Horse
Serpent's Den 