By Robert Graves
The child alone a poet is:
Spring and Fairyland are his.
Truth and Reason show but dim,
And all's poetry with him.
Rhyme and music flow in plenty
For the lad of one-and-twenty,
But Spring for him is no more now
Than daisies to a munching cow;
Just a cheery pleasant season,
Daisy buds to live at ease on.
He's forgotten how he smiled
And shrieked at snowdrops when a child,
Or wept one evening secretly
For April's glorious misery.
Wisdom made him old and wary
Banishing the Lords of Faery.
Wisdom made a breach and battered
Babylon to bits: she scattered
To the hedges and ditches
All our nursery gnomes and witches.
Lob and Puck, poor frantic elves,
Drag their treasures from the shelves.
Jack the Giant-killer's gone,
Mother Goose and Oberon,
Bluebeard and King Solomon.
Robin, and Red Riding Hood
Take together to the wood,
And Sir Galahad lies hid
In a cave with Captain Kidd.
None of all the magic hosts,
None remain but a few ghosts
Of timorous heart, to linger on
Weeping for lost Babylon.
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It was an uneventful Monday except for chores, which I'm sure you don't want to hear about. Well, emptying the dishwasher was a bit exciting because something seems to be partially blocking the filter at the bottom, but I don't want to think about that. My laundry-folding movie for the week was Revolutionary Road, which has very good performances by Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, but otherwise...just remind me next time that if a movie's summary begins, "A couple's crumbling marriage..." then I don't want to watch it no matter how good it's supposed to be! Also, spoilers for the ending: I am so sick of the absolute predictability of what will happen if a woman decides to end a pregnancy, even if it's causing her so much grief that she feels suicidal behavior is a better option than having a(nother) child. Quick: when a woman decides to have an abortion in a movie: 1) will she be just fine, even if her husband had previously expressed the opinion that no decent woman or mother could consider such a thing, with him admitting that really he doesn't want another child or the life that has made them both feel so trapped that he fucks secretaries on his lunch hour? or 2) will she die horribly in a pool of her own blood while her husband screams that she did this to herself? If you guessed 2) you are, of course, correct.
Daniel has been working on college essays, which I have been trying to advise him about without advising him to death -- he's supposed to meet with his English teacher about them later in the week. We had homemade chili for dinner, which was awesome, then watched the director's cut of Robin Hood, which has its flaws but is still hugely enjoyable -- great cast (except Eleanor of Aquitaine), great music, beautiful cinematography (except for the too-long choppy fight sequences), entertaining take on the story (I like that he gets to be both Sir Robert Loxley and Robin Longstride, though the fact that he and Marion have the same style on horseback, fighting with staffs, and dancing just makes no sense). The Yankees always seem to play worse when we don't watch them, so since they were losing every time we put the game on, we kept switching back to Monday Night Football and other things! Here are some of the residents of Whispering Meadows Farm, which is primarily an alpaca farm, but as you'll see they also have other animals. Adam took the fabulous second photo with my camera.
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