Month: July 2018
18th July – On This Day In History
Born:
1918 Nelson Mandela (South African leader and iconic statesman)
Died:
1817 Jane Austin (novelist – Pride and Prejudice)
On This Day:
2012 Kim Jong-un is appointed the Supreme Leader of North Korea
Have a good Wednesday, 18th July
Church – Door Should Still Stand Open
Church-doors should still stand open, night and day,
Open to all who come for praise or prayer,
Laden with gift of love or load of care,
Nimbused with gold, or flecked with locks of gray,
Mother, or snow-white bride, or pallid clay,
The blithe, the sad, the uncomely as the fair,
Each on his secret errand wending there,
Nor even the mighty and strong be turned away.
And so the poet’s heart should ever be
Portal of joy and welcomer of woe,
That makes the deaf to hear, the blind to see,
Open confessional for high and low,
An unshut shrine where all may come and go,
And by their tears an enriched sanctuary.
– Alfred Austin
17th July – On This Day In History
Born:
1954 Angela Merkel (Chancellor of Germany)
Died:
2009 Walter Cronkite (broadcaster and news reporter for CBS)
On This Day:
1919 Finland adopts its constitution
Have a good Tuesday, 17th July
The Evening Light
I
Angels their silvery trumpets blow,
At dawn, to greet the Morning Glow,
And mortals lift adoring eyes
To see the glorious sun arise.
Then, winged by Faith, and spurred by Hope
Youth scans the hill, youth scales the slope.
Its pulses bound, its thoughts exult,
It finds no danger difficult,
Quickens its pace, disdaining ease
Victor before it comes and sees,
Feeling the Universe its own,
The Sovereign of a Self-made Throne.
II
Each hope fulfilled, obtained each prayer,
We glory in the Noonday Glare.
Welcome the blinding heat of strife,
Deeming resistance part of life.
We deal the blow, return the stroke,
Fighting our way through dust and smoke,
Until, our battle-banner furled,
We tower above a conquered World;
Whether one leads mankind along
By gift of speech or grace of song,
Seizes by forceful hand the helm,
Or adds an Empire to the Realm,
Confronts the sun with forehead bare,
Exulting in the Noonday Glare.
III
But, as the lengthening shadows glide
Silent towards the eventide,
And dew baptizes leaf and flower
In twilight’s sanctuary hour,
A sacred Something haunts the air,
Tender as love, devout as prayer,
And in the lofty dome afar
Glimmers one bright outriding star,
Announcing to the watchful sight
Coming battalions of the Night.
Then Noonday Glare and Morning Glow
Fade into shadowy Long-ago.
One feels Earth’s vain ambitions fade
Into the vanished dust they made.
All that the glow of dawn foretold,
And all the glare of noon unrolled,
Seem nothing to the quiet joy
No clamour mars, no cares destroy,
‘Twixt restless day and restful night,
That cometh with the Evening Light.
– Alfred Austin
16th July – On This Day In History
Born:
1911 Ginger Rogers (actress)
Died:
2012 Kitty Wells (country music singer)
On This Day:
1970 Iraq puts its constitution into effect
Have a good Monday, 16th July
To Robert Louis Stevenson
I never saw you, never grasped your hand,
Nor wrote nor read lines absence loves to trace,
Ne’er with you sate in your accustomed place,
Nor waited for your coming on sea or land.
But this I know, if along unseen strand,
Or anywhere in God’s eternal space,
You heard my voice, or I beheld your face,
That we should greet, and both would understand.
So, till that hour, wherever you abide,
On circling star, or interstellar sea,
Or where, from man’s imagination free,
There moves no planet and there sounds no tide,
Welcome, as though from friend long known and tried,
This gift of loving fellowship from me.
– Alfred Austin
15th July – On This Day In History
Born:
1606 Rembrandt van Rijn (painter – Night Watch)
Died:
1997 Gianni Versace (fashion designer)
On This Day:
1799 The Rosetta Stone is discovered, allowing for translation of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics
Have a good Sunday, 15th July
