Poem for Sunday

Sonnet LX
By William Shakespeare

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore
So do our minutes hasten to their end;
Each changing place with that which goes before,
In sequent toil all forwards do contend.
Nativity, once in the main of light,
Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown’d,
Crooked eclipses ’gainst his glory fight,
And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.
Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth
And delves the parallels in beauty’s brow,
Feeds on the rarities of nature’s truth,
And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow:
    And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand,
    Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.

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Poet's Choice will be a day late this week in honor of the Bard's birthday. Also in honor of the Bard's birthday, we are going to the birthday party at the Folger Shakespeare Library, so I will not be around much in the afternoon after the kids get home from Hebrew school!

Saturday it rained hard all morning. However, they did not call my son's soccer game until nine kids from his team had arrived and only three from the other team did...and they have not yet granted my son's team the forfeit even though technically the week counts! We are totally mystified. In the afternoon the rain had slowed to a drizzle and we decided to go to the National Arboretum to see the azaleas, which the web site said were supposed to peak Tuesday but we suspected might have been affected by the downpour and would not be around by next weekend. They were glorious, just like last year and two years ago, and because it was drizzly there were no crowds whatsoever. And azaleas look almost more dramatic on a gray day than a sunny one, and we were not melting in the heat as we have on previous visits, so it was a perfectly gorgeous afternoon! Here are azaleas just after the rain:










I also wrote up Scott Bakula at the National Press Club, which took most of the early part of the day, but was a lot of fun to revisit...I did not transcribe his whole speech but was impressed all over again listening. I also read enough of my friends list to find everyone making romance novel covers, so here's mine -- fannish, of course, and really not very original but the Remus/Sirius pic worked lots better than the Remus/Severus pics I had: The Shaggy Secret!

In the evening we all watched the first part of Elizabeth I on HBO, which I enjoyed far more than I should have, given that the screenplay was yet another "Elizabeth's love life caused her no end of trouble" drama with almost nothing about anything else that happened during her reign (the Armada was an excuse for Leicester to tell her that she had the heart and stomach of a king). But HELEN MIRREN as Elizabeth! And JEREMY IRONS as Leicester! And HUGH DANCY as Essex! (The latter two of whom were so hot together that, as I said to , I wondered why Leicester was shagging Essex's mother instead of Essex himself once he grew up.) The sets and costumes were wonderful...I am sure someone is about to tell me that Mary Queen of Scots' costume was made out of some material that did not actually exist until 43 years later but I wouldn't know...and interesting that rather than casting Mary young and pretty, like Katharine Hepburn in that role, they cast her looking nearly as old as Mirren herself and with none of the charm or charisma. Some of the dialogue was quite witty and Mirren and Irons have lovely chemistry. I am looking forward to part two on Monday!