Monday, May 16, 2011

Poem for Monday, Thor, Washingtonian Geese

I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark, Not Day
By Gerard Manley Hopkins


I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day.
What hours, O what black hours we have spent
This night! what sights you, heart, saw; ways you went!
And more must, in yet longer light's delay.

With witness I speak this. But where I say
Hours I mean years, mean life. And my lament
Is cries countless, cries like dead letters sent
To dearest him that lives alas! away.

I am gall, I am heartburn. God's most deep decree
Bitter would have me taste: my taste was me;
Bones built in me, flesh filled, blood brimmed the curse.

Selfyeast of spirit a dull dough sours. I see
The lost are like this, and their scourge to be
As I am mine, their sweating selves, but worse.

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We were planning to go to Winterthur and Longwood Gardens with Dementordelta to see the azaleas, but there was an 80% chance of rain and a flood warning in the Brandywine Valley on Sunday, so instead we had grilled cheese and took her and Adam's friend Daniel Wigle to see Thor. I have nothing profound to say about it: the visual effects are great, the acting is okay, the dialogue is meh, the story is predictable (I never read the comic book and it's been years since I've refreshed my Norse mythology, but anyone who's ever seen a superhero movie -- even this week's Smallville finale with its father and sibling complexes -- will have no trouble guessing). The women's roles, as I expected, were unimpressive. After the movie we were going to go for a walk around Washingtonian Lake to see if there were any ducklings or goslings, but it started to rain so we only saw a few adults:









Daniel Wigle stayed for dinner and spent lots of time playing noisy video games in our ears. He had never seen The King's Speech, so we did our civic duty and put it on (he barely watched, we didn't miss a line of course). Then we decided we were still in a royal mood and watched The Young Victoria and Mrs Brown -- the former much more cheerful than the latter but both delightful and very well acted. Plus we finished the leftover derby and toll house pie, and Mike Huckabee is not running for president, so it must be accounted a good evening!

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