By Edgar Allan Poe
In the greenest of our valleys
By good angels tenanted,
Once a fair and stately palace—
Radiant palace—reared its head.
In the monarch Thought’s dominion—
It stood there!
Never seraph spread a pinion
Over fabric half so fair!
Banners yellow, glorious, golden,
On its roof did float and flow,
(This—all this—was in the olden
Time long ago,)
And every gentle air that dallied,
In that sweet day,
Along the ramparts plumed and pallid,
A winged odor went away.
Wanderers in that happy valley,
Through two luminous windows, saw
Spirits moving musically,
To a lute’s well-tuned law,
Round about a throne where, sitting
(Porphyrogene!)
In state his glory well-befitting,
The ruler of the realm was seen.
And all with pearl and ruby glowing
Was the fair palace door,
Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing,
And sparkling evermore,
A troop of Echoes, whose sweet duty
Was but to sing,
In voices of surpassing beauty,
The wit and wisdom of their king.
But evil things, in robes of sorrow,
Assailed the monarch’s high estate.
(Ah, let us mourn!—for never morrow
Shall dawn upon him desolate!)
And round about his home the glory
That blushed and bloomed,
Is but a dim-remembered story
Of the old time entombed.
And travellers, now, within that valley,
Through the red-litten windows see
Vast forms, that move fantastically
To a discordant melody,
While, like a ghastly rapid river,
Through the pale door
A hideous throng rush out forever
And laugh—but smile no more.
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I had a very nice Friday, though it involved several hours of work, as I needed to review Voyager's "Prototype" and hadn't seen it in a couple of decades. I forgot that I really loved that episode; I wouldn't say it's great, since it's very predictable and the androids look like they wandered in from a '50s movie, but it's a great Janeway-Torres story with lots of traditional Trek arguments and women doing science.
I had a shirt I needed to return at Macy's, so I went to see what was on sale and got a fuzzy poncho at a huge bargain. Then I stopped at Locust Grove on the way home because I could see that the leaves looked very pretty as I was driving by. There were lots of squirrels and chipmunks hoarding acorns and making irritated noises at me as I walked along the creek, plus painted pumpkins outside the nature center.
We had dinner with my parents and watched Billy Joel sing the Star Spangled Banner, then came home and watched the Mets victory around the Bones-Sleepy Hollow two-parter, which was hilarious -- I had never seen an episode of Bones before and now I have no idea why not, Emily Deschanel's reactions to Tom Mison are awesome. Some Halloween photos, including one from Locust Grove and another with my mother after dinner:
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