tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post4010817617631940950..comments2024-03-23T20:37:37.891-07:00Comments on First Known When Lost: Perspective, Part Fifteen: BeetlesStephen Pentzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-68704890739817669282014-04-26T22:43:29.097-07:002014-04-26T22:43:29.097-07:00acornmoon: you're very welcome. I've now ...acornmoon: you're very welcome. I've now looked at recent photographs on the Internet -- it looks lovely. Yorkshire certainly has a number of wonderful ruined abbeys, doesn't it? I visited Rievaulx Abbey and Fountains Abbey long ago, but missed Bolton, unfortunately.<br /><br />Thank you very much for stopping by again.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-1398323638349882722014-04-26T10:13:48.527-07:002014-04-26T10:13:48.527-07:00Thank you for reminding me of past joys and Bolton...Thank you for reminding me of past joys and Bolton Abbey. As a child I held my father's hand as we made our way across a river via stepping stones. Now I must see if they are still there...Acornmoonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14982884920388966786noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-47340179843642232452014-04-25T10:22:51.866-07:002014-04-25T10:22:51.866-07:00Mr Floyd: it's good to hear from you again. T...Mr Floyd: it's good to hear from you again. Thank you for the Dickinson poem: I always appreciate your sharing her poetry, since I remain woefully ignorant of it. <br /><br />I understand what you say about the distinct turn of the seasons. When my family moved from Minnesota to southern California when I was young, I missed the separate seasons, all so different in that part of the country.<br /><br />Thank you very much for visiting, and for your thoughts.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-35082671472215204452014-04-25T10:17:17.952-07:002014-04-25T10:17:17.952-07:00Anonymous: thank you very much for the quote from ...Anonymous: thank you very much for the quote from Haldane: wonderful! A little Internet searching by me on the background of the quote turned up this similar passage from one of his books: "The Creator would appear as endowed with a passion for stars, on the one hand, and for beetles on the other." Stars and beetles!<br /><br />Thanks again.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-78309926332422657482014-04-25T10:13:39.007-07:002014-04-25T10:13:39.007-07:00Mr Ashton: thank you for those thoughts -- you'...Mr Ashton: thank you for those thoughts -- you've articulated what I was attempting to say about the feeling of the ground underfoot at this time of year.<br /><br />As I mentioned in a recent post, Hopkins and Gurney remind me of each other at times, and it has been suggested that Gurney was greatly influenced by Hopkins. The lines you quote are, I think, a good example: to me, at least, they could be mistaken for Gurney. For example, a poem I know you are familiar with -- "Common Things" -- comes to mind.<br /><br />I haven't explored Gibson's poetry as much as I ought to have -- I need to dig deeper.<br /><br />As ever, thank you very much for visiting.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-48857338010625765842014-04-24T09:58:49.723-07:002014-04-24T09:58:49.723-07:00A Light exists in Spring
Not present on the Year
...<br /> <br /><br /><br /> A Light exists in Spring<br /> Not present on the Year<br /> At any other period —<br />When March is scarcely here<br /><br /> A Color stands abroad<br /> On Solitary Fields<br /> That Science cannot overtake<br /> But Human Nature feels.<br /><br /> It waits upon the Lawn,<br /> It shows the furthest Tree<br /> Upon the furthest Slope you know<br /> It almost speaks to you.<br /><br /> Then as Horizons step<br /> Or Noons report away<br /> Without the Formula of sound<br /> It passes and we stay —<br /><br />A quality of loss<br /> Affecting our Content<br /> As Trade had suddenly encroached<br /> Upon a Sacrament.<br /><br />After a hard New England winter, nobody adored the coming of spring more than Emily Dickinson. She transformed it into a sacrament. <br /><br />Wallace Stevens says he is a poet of weather. To a large degree so is Frost. <br /><br />Dickinson says in one of her poems that she sees "New Englandly." It must be that New Englanders are more aware of the coming and going of the four seasons than the inhabitants of any other region of the country. <br /><br />The particulars of each season sharply define themselves in New England, each one with its own personality, a nature that Dickinson and Stevens could readily discern.<br /><br />A few days ago I talked with a man who lives in Los Angles. He said, "It's always 72 degrees there." In the deep South, winter slides into spring inconspicuously, until one day one notices, as if by accident, that the dogwoods and azaleas are blooming--and all too quickly come the scalding summers.<br /><br />Spring comes to New England in a colorful clamor, the arriving birds like saxophones in the trees--and Miss Emily watching and listening carefully from her window.<br /><br /> bruce floydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-68233163196673000922014-04-24T07:33:34.593-07:002014-04-24T07:33:34.593-07:00When asked what he could infer about the Creator f...When asked what he could infer about the Creator from his creation the great scientist JBS Haldane is supposed to have replied "God has an inordinate fondness for beetles"<br /><br />Not surprising when you consider there are over 450,000 species of beetle.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-15107689587262027062014-04-24T04:18:34.823-07:002014-04-24T04:18:34.823-07:00Thank you Mr Pentz for another wonderful post. Hop...Thank you Mr Pentz for another wonderful post. Hopkins' Pied Beauty is a long time favourite of mine.<br /> "All things counter, original, spare, strange;<br /> Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)<br /> With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;<br />Such wonderful lines.<br /><br /> I was walking in some woodland local to me a few days ago, there had been early rain and now the sun was shining through the trees, picking out the buds and catching the dust spiralling up from the ankle-deep leaf litter. The whole wood was as you say " alive - warm with life" Ladybirds, butterflies, tits and finches flitting busily to and fro, and it came into my mind to wonder, as I paused beside a fallen tree, thick with moss, how many worlds there were in this small part of the wood,hiddenly going on beneath my feet, beneath the bark of this tree I leaned on, beneath this debris of leaves and twigs.<br />The Gibson poem is unfamiliar. I once owned his Collected Poems, but it was lost during a house move and is one of those books that has become very difficult to find.John Ashtonnoreply@blogger.com