Enigmatic Eric
@bloodaxe137
"The World's a wood in which all lose their way Though by a different path each goes astray." Earl of Rochester "And health & hope have gone the way of love Into the drear oblivion of lost things." Ernest Dowson "Nullius in Verba" 🚫 DMs
Sea Fever ~ John Masefield I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by; And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking, And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.
Come live with me and be my love And we will all the pleasures prove That valleys, groves hills and fields Woods or steepy mountain yields Marlow With your hand in mine idly we'll recline Amid bowers of neuroses While the sun seeks rest in the great red west We will sit & match psychoses D. Parker
Ernest Dowson ~ 1867 - 1900 Oscar Wilde wrote of the death of Dowson: "Poor wounded wonderful fellow that he was, a tragic reproduction of all tragic poetry, like a symbol, or a scene. I hope bay leaves will be laid on his tomb, and rue and myrtle too, for he knew what love is."
The MANIAC ~ 2023 novel by Chilean author Benjamín Labatut. A fictionalised biography of physicist, John von Neumann whom Labatut calls "the smartest human being of the 20th century". Maniac was an early computer developed by Neumann. I really enjoyed this book but it will not appeal to everyone!
In the year Nineteen Hundred and Two, There was great sadness and to-do. All the world did – alack – don a pall, To mourn poor William McGonagall Before he was cruelly struck down, He was a poet of great renown. His use of rhymes was very thorough, Until he died in Edinburgh.
Paradise Lost 'Nigh on the Plain in many cells prepar'd That underneath had veins of liquid fire' John Milton 1608 - 1674
Dreams Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams For when dreams go Life is a barren field Frozen with snow. Langston Hughes
In December 1910, an armed gang of Latvian revolutionaries attempted to rob a jeweller's shop in Houndsditch, in the City of London. In their escape, they killed three policemen and crippled another two.
Richard Dadd 1817~1886 The Halt in the Desert - 1845 Encamped by the Dead Sea
But once in a while the odd thing happens, Once in a while, the dream comes true, And the whole pattern of life is altered, Once in a while, the moon turns blue. Wystan Hugh Auden 1907 ~ 1973
Teach Your Cat Welsh - Anne Cakebread The original book was inspired by Frieda, a rescue whippet, who only understood Welsh commands. Anne, as a Welsh learner, realised that she was less nervous about speaking Welsh aloud by talking to her dog.
I thought of Chatterton the marvellous Boy The sleepless soul that perished in his pride Of him who walked in glory & in joy Following his plough along the mountain-side By our own spirits are we deified We Poets in our youth begin in gladness But thereof come in the end despondency & madness WW
The First Folio: The weyward Sisters, hand in hand, Posters of the Sea and Land...
Life is a wretched business, Long , tedious and lonely, A uselessly disturbing episode False, fleeting and phoney.
The Cloud Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 ~ 1822 I am the daughter of Earth and Water, And the nursling of the Sky; I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores; I change, but I cannot die....
Drink White tea in April And Green tea in May And Rooibus tea in June, To ease the mind's decay.
Wetwang: A village in Yorkshire England. There are two interpretations of the name. One is from the Old Norse vaett-vangr, or 'field for the trial of a legal action'. Another theory is that it was the "Wet Field" compared to the nearby dry field at Driffield
Christopher Hitchens: AND YET... Terry Eagleton: 'He mixes the loquaciousness of the barfly with the fluency of the literary artist, & could not pen a dull sentence if he tried.' Two best essays are on Che Guevara & George Orwell.