scotland
23rd March – On This Day In History
Born:
1645 William Kidd (pirate)
Died:
2011 Elizabeth Taylor (actress)
On This Day:
1881 End of the First Anglo – Boer War (Peace Accord signed)
Have a good Thursday, 23rd March
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19th March – On This Day In History
Born:
1813 David Livingstone (Scottish explorer)
Died:
2008 Arthur C Clarke (Science fiction author)
On This Day:
1915 Pluto photographed for the first time (although nobody knew then that it was Pluto)
Have a good Sunday, 19th March
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7th March – On This Day In History
Born:
1945 John Heard (actor)
Died:
1968 Yuri Gagarin (USSR Cosmonaut and first man in space)
On This Day:
1876 Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone
Have a good Tuesday, 7th March
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3rd March – On This Day In History
Born:
1847 Alexander Graham Bell (inventor of the telephone)
Died:
2016 Martin Crowe (New Zealand international cricketer)
On This Day:
1845 Florida becomes the 27th State to join the USA
Have a good Friday, 3rd March
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Ode To Apollo
1.
In thy western halls of gold
When thou sittest in thy state,
Bards, that erst sublimely told
Heroic deeds, and sang of fate,
With fervour seize their adamantine lyres,
Whose chords are solid rays, and twinkle radiant fires.
2.
Here Homer with his nervous arms
Strikes the twanging harp of war,
And even the western splendour warms,
While the trumpets sound afar:
But, what creates the most intense surprise,
His soul looks out through renovated eyes.
3.
Then, through thy Temple wide, melodious swells
The sweet majestic tone of Maro’s lyre:
The soul delighted on each accent dwells,–
Enraptur’d dwells,–not daring to respire,
The while he tells of grief around a funeral pyre.
4.
‘Tis awful silence then again;
Expectant stand the spheres;
Breathless the laurell’d peers,
Nor move, till ends the lofty strain,
Nor move till Milton’s tuneful thunders cease,
And leave once more the ravish’d heavens in peace.
5.
Thou biddest Shakespeare wave his hand,
And quickly forward spring
The Passions–a terrific band–
And each vibrates the string
That with its tyrant temper best accords,
While from their Master’s lips pour forth the inspiring words.
6.
A silver trumpet Spenser blows,
And, as its martial notes to silence flee,
From a virgin chorus flows
A hymn in praise of spotless Chastity.
‘Tis still! Wild warblings from the Aeolian lyre
Enchantment softly breathe, and tremblingly expire.
7.
Next thy Tasso’s ardent numbers
Float along the pleased air,
Calling youth from idle slumbers,
Rousing them from Pleasure’s lair:–
Then o’er the strings his fingers gently move,
And melt the soul to pity and to love.
8.
But when Thou joinest with the Nine,
And all the powers of song combine,
We listen here on earth:
Thy dying tones that fill the air,
And charm the ear of evening fair,
From thee, great God of Bards, receive their heavenly birth.
– John Keats
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The Gadfly
1.
All gentle folks who owe a grudge
To any living thing
Open your ears and stay your t[r]udge
Whilst I in dudgeon sing.
2.
The Gadfly he hath stung me sore–
O may he ne’er sting you!
But we have many a horrid bore
He may sting black and blue.
3.
Has any here an old grey Mare
With three legs all her store,
O put it to her Buttocks bare
And straight she’ll run on four.
4.
Has any here a Lawyer suit
Of 1743,
Take Lawyer’s nose and put it to’t
And you the end will see.
5.
Is there a Man in Parliament
Dum[b-] founder’d in his speech,
O let his neighbour make a rent
And put one in his breech.
6.
O Lowther how much better thou
Hadst figur’d t’other day
When to the folks thou mad’st a bow
And hadst no more to say.
7.
If lucky Gadfly had but ta’en
His seat * * * * * * * * *
And put thee to a little pain
To save thee from a worse.
8.
Better than Southey it had been,
Better than Mr. D——-,
Better than Wordsworth too, I ween,
Better than Mr. V——-.
9.
Forgive me pray good people all
For deviating so —
In spirit sure I had a call —
And now I on will go.
10.
Has any here a daughter fair
Too fond of reading novels,
Too apt to fall in love with care
And charming Mister Lovels,
11.
O put a Gadfly to that thing
She keeps so white and pert —
I mean the finger for the ring,
And it will breed a wort.
12.
Has any here a pious spouse
Who seven times a day
Scolds as King David pray’d, to chouse
And have her holy way —
13.
O let a Gadfly’s little sting
Persuade her sacred tongue
That noises are a common thing,
But that her bell has rung.
14.
And as this is the summon bo
num of all conquering,
I leave ‘withouten wordes mo’
The Gadfly’s little sting.
– John Keats
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On Visiting The Tomb Of Burns
The town, the churchyard, and the setting sun,
The clouds, the trees, the rounded hills all seem,
Though beautiful, cold- strange- as in a dream
I dreamed long ago, now new begun.
The short-liv’d, paly summer is but won
From winter’s ague for one hour’s gleam;
Through sapphire warm their stars do never beam:
All is cold Beauty; pain is never done.
For who has mind to relish, Minos-wise,
The real of Beauty, free from that dead hue
Sickly imagination and sick pride
Cast wan upon it? Burns! with honour due
I oft have honour’d thee. Great shadow, hide
Thy face; I sin against thy native skies.
– John Keats
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