Poem for Rainy Monday

Remembrance
By Emily Bronte

Cold in the earth--and the deep snow piled above thee,
Far, far removed, cold in the dreary grave!
Have I forgot, my only Love, to love thee,
Severed at last by Time's all-severing wave?

Now, when alone, do my thoughts no longer hover
Over the mountains, on that northern shore,
Resting their wings where heath and fern leaves cover
Thy noble heart forever, ever more?

Cold in the earth--and fifteen wild Decembers,
From those brown hills, have melted into spring;
Faithful, indeed, is the spirit that remembers
After such years of change and suffering!

Sweet Love of youth, forgive, if I forget thee,
While the world's tide is bearing me along;
Other desires and other hopes beset me,
Hopes which obscure, but cannot do thee wrong!

No later light has lightened up my heaven,
No second morn has ever shone for me;
All my life's bliss from thy dear life was given,
All my life's bliss is in the grave with thee.

But, when the days of golden dreams had perished,
And even Despair was powerless to destroy,
Then did I learn how existence could be cherished,
Strengthened, and fed without the aid of joy.

Then did I check the tears of useless passion--
Weaned my young soul from yearning after thine;
Sternly denied its burning wish to hasten
Down to that tomb already more than mine.

And, even yet, I dare not let it languish,
Dare not indulge in memory's rapturous pain;
Once drinking deep of that divinest anguish,
How could I seek the empty world again?

--------


Last night's Dead Zone was absolutely stunning. It wasn't the episode the ads had hyped at all; in fact, I was wondering halfway through whether the season finale was in fact next week instead of this week, because the intense family-and-faith episode they were showing seemed to have nothing to do with the assassination episode from the promos. When the storylines finally did converge, it was ten times more powerful, so for once I am grateful to a network for promoting the exploitative storyline instead of the emotional one. Still, I hope they didn't scare off any slash fans, because there's a moment between Johnny and Bruce and another in which Bruce discusses Johnny with someone else that were beautiful and so strong that I'd hardly call them subtext.

I almost posted the above poem yesterday, then read The Washington Post Book World and changed it. And now I know it was meant to be that way because though I'm not really a big Bronte fan, this poem goes well with some of the themes of The Dead Zone. It's also much gutsier about dealing with race and religion than any other genre show I can think of. There were a lot of things in the finale that reminded me of Trek -- alternate futures, dead characters coming back to life -- but it didn't feel gimmicky, it felt powerful and real, like metaphors for the way people cope with life rather than cheesy science fiction.

My MSN horoscope for the week -- I am very much an astrology skeptic yet this made me groan anyway: Be vigilant at work as Mercury squares both Jupiter and Neptune, and this might confuse matters. You might find that something is either not as you expected it to be, but quite different, or you might accidentally place yourself in the position of offering more than you can deliver. It won't be fatal, but it might create delays, which you could probably do without. The same goes if you are making a public speech or presentation. Make it simple, otherwise your general message could get lost in delivery.

A quiz from that I just love:


You're "Queen Christina"- the 1933
classic in which Garbo plays controversial
Queen Christina, the queen of Sweden who is
caught between love and duty.
The stunning final shot with Garbo standing in the
bow of the ship, the wind in her hair, gazing
into nothingness, as the camera slowly zooms in
remains the Mona Lisa image of film.
Which Greta Garbo classic are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Happy Birthday !