By Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Since all that beat about in Nature's range,
Or veer or vanish; why should'st thou remain
The only constant in a world of change,
O yearning Thought! that liv'st but in the brain?
Call to the Hours, that in the distance play,
The faery people of the future day-
Fond Thought! not one of all that shining swarm
Will breathe on thee with life-enkindling breath,
Till when, like strangers shelt'ring from a storm,
Hope and Despair meet in the porch of Death!
Yet still thou haunt'st me; and though well I see,
She is not thou, and only thou are she,
Still, still as though some dear embodied Good,
Some living Love before my eyes there stood
With answering look a ready ear to lend,
I mourn to thee and say-'Ah! loveliest friend!
That this the meed of all my toils might be,
To have a home, an English home, and thee!'
Vain repetition! Home and Thou are one.
The peacefull'st cot, the moon shall shine upon,
Lulled by the thrush and wakened by the lark,
Without thee were but a becalméd bark,
Whose Helmsman on an ocean waste and wide
Sits mute and pale his mouldering helm beside.
And art thou nothing? Such thou art, as when
The woodman winding westward up the glen
At wintry dawn, where o'er the sheep-track's maze
The viewless snow-mist weaves a glist'ning haze,
Sees full before him, gliding without tread,
An image with a glory round its head;
The enamoured rustic worships its fair hues,
Nor knows he makes the shadow, he pursues!
--------
For reasons I don't understand, I am far more likely to get a migraine when there's a snowstorm coming than when there's a rainstorm coming, even if there are massive weather fronts involved in the latter while we're only supposed to get an inch or so from the former (sorry, New England). So I have had a blinding headache this evening and will keep this short. My major expedition of the day was a trip to CVS, during which I realized that my house key was not on my keychain and had to get Paul to let me back in the house, so perhaps my brain was clouded even earlier.
In happy news, the National Zoo's research institute has a pair of clouded leopard cubs and a kiwi chick born in the past couple of days and Les Mis fandom is awesome. I had to watch a DS9 two-parter for review, and evening TV -- Beauty and the Beast and Elementary -- was quite satisfying though there are still too many damsels in distress on the latter (these days as long as there aren't too many corpses, I'm happy), whereas Catherine on the former makes me happy in pretty much every way, far more than the original did. Since I am headachy, have a few happy local squirrel photos:
No comments:
Post a Comment