Poem for Monday and Museum of Natural History

Midsummer
By William Cullen Bryant

A power is on the earth and in the air,
  From which the vital spirit shrinks afraid,
  And shelters him in nooks of deepest shade,
From the hot steam and from the fiery glare.
Look forth upon the earth—her thousand plants
  Are smitten; even the dark sun-loving maize
  Faints in the field beneath the torrid blaze;
The herd beside the shaded fountain pants;
For life is driven from all the landscape brown;
  The bird hath sought his tree, the snake his den,
  The trout floats dead in the hot stream, and men
Drop by the sunstroke in the populous town:
  As if the Day of Fire had dawned, and sent
  Its deadly breath into the firmament.

--------

Sunday was my mother's birthday, so after she and Adam got done working at Hebrew school, we picked up my parents and went to the National Museum of Natural History, mostly to see the Jerusalem IMAX, which is terrific -- gorgeous cinematography, beautiful shots inside the places of worship, and it focuses on three girls, one Jewish, one Christian, one Muslim, growing up in the city, interspersed with a very brief history of the region (narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch; is there anything he is NOT doing?). We also went to see the human genome exhibit, the Dom Pedro aquamarine, and a bit of the ocean hall.

Then we went out to dinner at Clyde's, where I had the maple-glazed acorn squash, which is one of the best things ever. We came back to our house for dessert -- Paul made a dark chocolate cheesecake -- before taking my parents back to their house and Daniel back to College Park, where Maryland managed to beat Virginia in its last-ever ACC game (he starts spring break next weekend after a long week of exams and projects due). I stayed back so I could start recording the awesome new Cosmos, which we watched with Adam; then he went to finish homework and we caught up on Nashville!