music
19th July – On This Day In History
Born:
1947 Brian May (rock guitarist – Queen)
Died:
2013 Phil Woosnam (footballer & manager)
On This Day:
1969 Apollo 11 goes into moon orbit
Have a good Wednesday, 19th July
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Minstrelsy
For ever, since my childish looks
Could rest on Nature’s pictured books;
For ever, since my childish tongue
Could name the themes our bards have sung;
So long, the sweetness of their singing
Hath been to me a rapture bringing!
Yet ask me not the reason why
I have delight in minstrelsy.
I know that much whereof I sing,
Is shapen but for vanishing;
I know that summer’s flower and leaf
And shine and shade are very brief,
And that the heart they brighten, may,
Before them all, be sheathed in clay! —
I do not know the reason why
I have delight in minstrelsy.
A few there are, whose smile and praise
My minstrel hope, would kindly raise:
But, of those few — Death may impress
The lips of some with silentness;
While some may friendship’s faith resign,
And heed no more a song of mine. —
Ask not, ask not the reason why
I have delight in minstrelsy.
The sweetest song that minstrels sing,
Will charm not Joy to tarrying;
The greenest bay that earth can grow,
Will shelter not in burning woe;
A thousand voices will not cheer,
When one is mute that aye is dear! —
Is there, alas! no reason why
I have delight in minstrelsy.
I do not know! The turf is green
Beneath the rain’s fast-dropping sheen,
Yet asks not why that deeper hue
Doth all its tender leaves renew; —
And I, like-minded, am content,
While music to my soul is sent,
To question not the reason why
I have delight in minstrelsy.
Years pass — my life with them shall pass:
And soon, the cricket in the grass
And summer bird, shall louder sing
Than she who owns a minstrel’s string.
Oh then may some, the dear and few,
Recall her love, whose truth they knew;
When all forget to question why
She had delight in minstrelsy!
– Elizabeth Barrett Browning
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Perplexed Music
Experience, like a pale musician, holds
A dulcimer of patience in his hand,
Whence harmonies, we cannot understand,
Of God; will in his worlds, the strain unfolds
In sad-perplexed minors: deathly colds
Fall on us while we hear, and countermand
Our sanguine heart back from the fancyland
With nightingales in visionary wolds.
We murmur ‘ Where is any certain tune
Or measured music in such notes as these ? ‘
But angels, leaning from the golden seat,
Are not so minded their fine ear hath won
The issue of completed cadences,
And, smiling down the stars, they whisper–
SWEET.
– Elizabeth Barrett Browning
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3rd July – On This Day In History
Born:
1962 Tom Cruise (actor)
Died:
1971 Jim Morrison (musician – The Doors)
On This Day:
1890 Idaho becomes the 43rd State of the USA
Have a good Monday, 3rd July
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26th June – On This Day In History
Born:
1956 Chris Isaak (singer & songwriter)
Died:
2003 Denis Thatcher, MBE (husband of Margaret)
On This Day:
1857 First recipients of the Victoria Cross are awarded by Queen Victoria (Crimean War)
Have a good Monday, 26th June
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25th June – On This Day In History
Born:
1903 George Orwell (author – Animal Farm)
Died:
2009 Michael Jackson (musician & entertainer)
On This Day:
1876 The Battle of Little Bighorn
Have a good Sunday, 25th June
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24th June – On This Day In History
Born:
1947 Mick Fleetwood (musician, Fleetwood-Mac)
Died:
1712 Simon van der Stel (Dutch Governor of the Cape Colony)
On This Day
1441 Eton College founded (by Henry VI)
Have a good Saturday, 24th June
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