Wed 1 Jun 2005
National Poetry Month has come and gone but we are still enjoying poetry around here. Even my oldest, home for a month from the Navy, is known to quote poetry. He carries his Singer Prose and Poetry (stolen from home) with him wherever he goes. If you are a newcomer to poetry get on EBAY and buy a copy of this old text.
Benjamin, 11, is deperately trying to memorize Paul Revere’s Ride just like his older brother did so many years ago. Timothy and I can still quote Paul Revere unfortunately once it starts playing in your head IT will continue on to the bitter end.
And in the midst of all this today is June 1st. A day to enjoy one of my all-time favorite poems, The Vision of Sir Launfal by James Russell Lowell. Here is the June excerpt but by all means read the whole Vision today if you can find the time.
“Earth gets its price for what Earth gives us;
The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in,
The priest hath his fee who comes and shrives us,
We bargain for the graves we lie in;
At the Devil’s booth are all things sold
Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold;
For a cap and bells our lives we pay,
Bubbles we earn with a whole soul’s tasking:
‘Tis heaven alone that is given away,
‘Tis only God may be had for the asking;
There is no price set on the lavish summer,
And June may be had by the poorest comer.”
I have never once read these words without being stirred. Were ever truer words written by mortal man: “Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold?”
