Another Spring Poem

Here is another poem about this fairest of seasons, one in which i selected whilst reading this analysis of his oeuvre.




Spring
BY GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS

Nothing is so beautiful as Spring –
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.

What is all this juice and all this joy?
A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden. – Have, get, before it cloy,
Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,
Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,
Most, O maid’s child, thy choice and worthy the winning.

Book 30 - Larissa Bonfante, Judith Swaddling "Etruscan Myths (The Legendary Past)"

Larissa Bonfante & Judith Swaddling "Etruscan Myths (The Legendary Past)" (British Museum Press)




The Etruscan culture flourished for nearly a thousand years, playing an important part in the history of the Mediterranean, alongside the Greeks, Phoenicians and Romans. Eventually they were subsumed by the Roman Empire but left a substantial legacy to western civilization. While Etruscan literature has not survived, their mythology and beliefs are vividly illustrated in their art, which includes interpretations of scenes from Greek mythology. This book serves as an excellent introduction to the world of the Etruscans and their mythology, and is plentifully illustrated with images from the vast collection of the British Museum and other international museums.

This is the amalgam of sex, ritual, and myth that is closely related and always with us, and hence, part of the foundations of Western culture.

Procrastinating

I really do not fancy doing much today but the hoovering needs to be done, I am just trying to get myself in the mood for it. The cat is sleeping on my bed so it seems a good time to do the downstairs at a minimum. Think i shall have  another coffee before doing anything else ,then  read a few chapters of the Hopkins book, or some poems from the Christina Rossetti collection i have loaded on the tablet.

Okay, i know i am procrastinating, one of less redeeming features. 

Catnip

For the cat lovers among you, a picture of Flo asleep on my bed. I feel the same but must get up now.

Frolics in Faversham

Well in the end i did the hoovering around  midday. Then after a wash and shave, i took the short train ride to Faversham to get some salad stuff and sell a few books. I nonchalantly walked up West Street, camera in hand  and took a few snaps.



Along the way i stopped and sampled some food, cider, and various chilli sauces at the stalls in the town as the beginning of each month, on the first Saturday,  they have a food market.



I then popped into the Leading Light pub to have a pint of the Yeastie Boys  Gunnamatta Tea Leaf IPA (6.5 % ABV) and one of the Norwegian Nogne O Brown Ale  (4.5 % ABV).



I haven't tried the  one from Wayne Wombles - does he know the furry creatures from Wimbledon?




After selling the books at Past Sentence i preambled  to the Fleur Bookshop and came out with these for a
couple of pounds.






Yet another version of the Hindemith Variations.








And from a charity shop opposite the Spoons pub this classic history book for 35 pence in paperback.