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Tag 19
Bahnhofstrasse
James Joyce
The eyes that mock me sign the way
Whereto I pass at eve of day.
Grey way whose violet signals are
The trysting and the twining star.
Ah star of evil! star of pain!
Highhearted youth comes not again
Nor old heart's wisdom yet to know
The signs that mock me as I go.
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(Untitled)
Apologies; my several-day absence was due to the discovery that if I so desired Internet access in my hotel, I would be required to pay 15 pounds for it. In Austria, it seems they just don't make you pay for things, and I've come to take them for granted--things like an included breakfast and free Internet. In light of this I decided that it wasn't ( Read more... ) -
Tag 13
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
William Butler Yeats
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the ( Read more... ) -
Tag 12
From Tristia
Ovid
Little book -- no, I don't begrudge it you -- you're off to the City
without me, going where your only begetter is banned!
On your way, then -- but penny-plain, as befits an exile's
sad offering, and my present life.
For you no purple slip-case (that's a colour
goes ill with grief), no title-line picked out
in vermilion, no cedar- ( Read more... ) -
Tag 11
Dirge (Memorial to D.C.)
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Boys and girls that held her dear,
Do your weeping now;
All you loved of her lies here.
Brought to earth the arrogant brow,
And the withering tongue
Chastened; do your weeping now.
Sing whatever songs are sung,
Wind whatever ( Read more... ) -
(Untitled)
Tomorrow I am going to Bratislava, to fly to Dublin, because it seems there are no direct flights from Vienna to Dublin, but there are from Bratislava. Then I'm to stay in Dublin for two days before going to Edinburgh. We'll take a day in St Andrew's, which is the real gem of the trip for me. I've never been in Scotland, and I haven't been in ( Read more... ) -
Tag 10
From 'Therefore is the name of it called Babel'
Osbert Sitwell
And still we stood and stared far down
Into that ember-glowing town
Which every shaft and shock of fate
Had shorn into its base. Too late
Came carelessly Serenity.
Now torn and broken houses gaze
On the rat-infested maze
That once sent up rose- ( Read more... ) -
(Untitled)
There was a reason behind choosing "Picnic, Lightning" for April 9. Of course, I hope that each poem has a reason to represent the day, but sometimes it's more of a simple emotion, a passing feeling, rather than an actual event. This one is an actual event, and though it seems silly, it actually effected me pretty hard.
I've been in love with the ( Read more... ) -
Tag 9
Picnic, Lightning
Billy Collins
It is possible to be struck by a
meteor or a single-engine plane while
reading in a chair at home.
Pedestrians
are flattened by safes falling from
rooftops mostly
within the panels of the comics, but still,
we know it is
possible, as well as the flash
of summer lightning, the thermos toppling over,
spilling out on the ( Read more... )
