Of Courtesy, it is much lessThan Courage of Heart or Holiness,Yet in my Walks it seems to meThat the Grace of God is in Courtesy. On Monks I did in Storrington fall,They took me straight into their Hall;I saw Three Pictures on a wall,And Courtesy was in them all. The first the Annunciation;The second the … Continue reading Poem – “Courtesy”
Poetry
Friday Flotsam: In Which I Critique Both Walt Whitman and Muhammed, but Mostly the Former
1. If nothing else, it's a relief to actually have an election that ended 'clean'. No talk of cheating or collusion, no 'too close to call', just a clear outcome arrived at in the space of a single night. Seems to me that used to be the norm, once upon a time. 2. I really … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: In Which I Critique Both Walt Whitman and Muhammed, but Mostly the Former
Poem – “The Witches’s Spell”
Round about the cauldron go;In the poison'd entrails throw.Toad, that under cold stoneDays and nights has thirty-oneSwelter'd venom sleeping got,Boil thou first i' the charmed pot. Double, double toil and trouble;Fire burn, and cauldron bubble. Fillet of a fenny snake,In the cauldron boil and bake;Eye of newt and toe of frog,Wool of bat and tongue … Continue reading Poem – “The Witches’s Spell”
Poem – “The Hag”
The Hag is astrideThis night for to ride,The Devill and shee together;Through thick and through thin,Now out and then in,Though ne'er so foul be the weather. A Thorn or a BurrShe takes for a Spurre, With a lash of a Bramble she rides now;Through Brakes and through Briars,O'er Ditches and Mires,She follows the Spirit that … Continue reading Poem – “The Hag”
Poetry – “Sonnet 57”
Being your slave, what should I do but tendUpon the hours and times of your desire?I have no precious time at all to spend,Nor services to do, till you require.Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hourWhilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you,Nor think the bitterness of absence sourWhen you have bid your servant … Continue reading Poetry – “Sonnet 57”
Poem – “Fact and Fancy”
How dull the wretch, whose philosophic mindDisdains the pleasures of fantastic kind;Whose prosy thoughts the joys of life exclude,And wreck the solace of the poet’s mood!Young Zeno, practic’d in the Stoic’s art,Rejects the language of the glowing heart;Dissolves sweet Nature to a mess of laws;Condemns th’ effect whilst looking for the cause;Freezes poor Ovid in … Continue reading Poem – “Fact and Fancy”
Poem – “On Looking Up by Chance at the Constellations”
You'll wait a long, long time for anything muchTo happen in heaven beyond the floats of cloudAnd the Northern Lights that run like tingling nerves.The sun and moon get crossed, but they never touch,Nor strike out fire from each other nor crash out loud.The planets seem to interfere in their curvesBut nothing ever happens, no … Continue reading Poem – “On Looking Up by Chance at the Constellations”
Poetry – “A Dream”
In visions of the dark nightI have dreamed of joy departed—But a waking dream of life and lightHath left me broken-hearted. Ah! what is not a dream by dayTo him whose eyes are castOn things around him with a rayTurned back upon the past? That holy dream—that holy dream,While all the world were chiding,Hath cheered … Continue reading Poetry – “A Dream”
Saturday Flotsam
1. I seem to be missing Friday Flotsams quite a bit lately. These are confusing times. 2. My first year of teaching has officially concluded in a chaotic rush of a 'center cleaning day'. It was truly a life-changing experience, and I've learned an enormous amount even in a single year. I feel that, at … Continue reading Saturday Flotsam
Poem – “Paul Revere’s Ride”
Listen, my children, and you shall hearOf the midnight ride of Paul Revere,On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five:Hardly a man is now aliveWho remembers that famous day and year. He said to his friend,—"If the British marchBy land or sea from the town to-night,Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry-archOf the North-Church-tower, as a … Continue reading Poem – “Paul Revere’s Ride”
Serpent's Den 