Poem for Thursday and Day Downtown

To Ellen
By Thomas Jefferson

Tis hope supports each noble flame,
'Tis hope inspires poetic lays,
Our heroes fight in hopes of fame,
And poets write in hopes of praise.

She sings sweet songs of future years,
And dries the tears of present sorrow,
Bids doubting mortals cease their fears,
And tells them of a bright to-morrow.

And when true love a visit pays,
The minstrel hope is always there,
To soothe young Cupid with her lays,
And keep the lover from despair.

Why fades the rose upon thy cheek;
Why droop the lilies in the vein?
Thy cause of sorrow, Ellen speak,
Why alter'd thus thy sprightly hue?

Each day, alas! with breaking heart,
I see they beauteous form decline;
Yet fear my anguish to impart,
Lest it should add a pang to thine.

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I spent a lot of Wednesday with my parents, who drove me downtown in the morning to meet my sister Nicole and her daughter Isabel for brunch at the Jefferson Hotel. I have walked by it many times before -- most recently last Sunday on the way to the National Geographic Museum, when I spun its Pokestop and was rewarded with a Relicanth -- but never went inside, so I didn't know the hotel had a little Thomas Jefferson museum with several of his original letters, government documents, even a check he wrote. It also has a beautiful skylight restaurant where I had eggs benedict.















I went with my parents to drive Nicole and Isabel to the airport, then we went back into DC to the National Gallery of Art for a couple of hours, mostly the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist galleries plus some of the modern and postmodern East Wing galleries (pics of that tomorrow). After I got home, I did some chores, then went out during raid hour in the pouring rain for one more shiny Rayquaza. After dinner (leftover Asian food from the past few days), Paul and I watched more of The Boys, which got darker but also pointedly sarcastic about contemporary politics.