Poem for Friday, Mount Vernon Camel, Lost in Translation

To Marina
By Sarah Fyge Field Egerton

Plague to thy husband, scandal to thy sex,
Whose wearying tongue does every ear perplex;
False to thy own false soul, thou dost declare
How lust and pride do reign and revel there,
Tell the world too how nicely chaste you are.
This dull, compulsive virtue's owned: for who,
With one so odious, would have aught to do?
But this misfortune you too oft condole,
Whilst loosest thoughts debauch your willing soul.
Thy best discourse is but mere ribaldry,
Telling how fond all that e'er see thee be,
And, loving all thyself, think'st all in love with thee.
With pious heart thou studies! vanity,
And talk'st obscene by rules of modesty.
Thus sins nick-named speak the infernal saint,
Whose shining robes are tawdry clothes and paint:
Extravagance and cheats you mark for wit,
Thou abstract of contention, fraud and spite.
If Socrates could have made choice of thee,
Thou wouldst have baffled his philosophy,
And turned his patience to a lunacy.
The restless waters of the raging sea
Are a serene and halcyon stream to thee:
They keep their banks and sometimes can be still,
Thou art all tempest, know'st no bounds in ill.
Pride, lust, contention reign and yet repine:
Vesuvius' noise and flame has less of hell than thine.

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We had snow forecast for Thursday -- initially 3-5 inches, later reduced to 1-2 inches, and ultimately a promise of flurries -- but we did not see a single flake and the temperature stayed in the 40s. Paul worked from home, in part due to the weather forecast and in part because we were having the house appraised to refinance our mortgage. (I am not sure whether they can reject us on the grounds that it's a mess.)

So we had a rare mid-week lunch with the entire family home, though Adam had been out in the morning for a tech meeting at school and went out in the afternoon to work out. Daniel watched DS9 with me, I folded laundry, I took a walk in the woods and saw five deer. In the evening we watched Lost in Translation (great cast, overrating directing). Here are some photos of the camel at Mount Vernon being petted by me and kissing Adam: