Nature writings

Hard-Luck Henry

Council Member
Feb 19, 2005
2,194
0
36
Yo yo yo, peapod!

What do you know about this Charles Jencks, and his 'Garden of Cosmic Speculation?' I saw this programme on TV, but the only images I can find to show are a few here (scroll down and click where it says 'visit a picture selection ... ')

And there's a bit about it

here.

Anyway, it's in the Scottish Borders, so I'm going to find it and take my own pictures.
 

Hard-Luck Henry

Council Member
Feb 19, 2005
2,194
0
36
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
“Why came I hither but to that intent?
Think you a little din can daunt mine ears?
Have I not in my time heard Lions roar?
Have I not heard the sea, puffed up with winds,
Rage like an angry boar, chafèd with sweat?
Have I not heard great ordnance in the field
And heaven’s arrtilery thunder in the skies?
Have I not in pitchèd battle heard
Loud ‘larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?
And do you tell me of a woman’s tongue,
That gives not half so great a blow to hear
As will a chesnut in a farmer’s fire?” :wink:
 

Hard-Luck Henry

Council Member
Feb 19, 2005
2,194
0
36
8)This shouldn't take too long. :wink:

"O SOLITUDE! if I must with thee dwell,
Let it not be among the jumbled heap
Of murky buildings; climb with me the steep,—
Nature’s observatory—whence the dell,
Its flowery slopes, its river’s crystal swell,
May seem a span; let me thy vigils keep
’Mongst boughs pavillion’d, where the deer’s swift leap
Startles the wild bee from the fox-glove bell.
But though I’ll gladly trace these scenes with thee,
Yet the sweet converse of an innocent mind,
Whose words are images of thoughts refin’d,
Is my soul’s pleasure; and it sure must be
Almost the highest bliss of human-kind,
When to thy haunts two kindred spirits flee."
 

Hard-Luck Henry

Council Member
Feb 19, 2005
2,194
0
36
:cry: Keats and cough medicine for me, pea., but yes, I did notice that. 8) And you are the man (sorta) :wink: :lol:
 

peapod

Hall of Fame Member
Jun 26, 2004
10,745
0
36
pumpkin pie bungalow
Yes I can see how you would think that henry, I think for myself. Don't worry tho...there are alot of paris hiltons out there. :lol: :lol: :lol:
 

Hard-Luck Henry

Council Member
Feb 19, 2005
2,194
0
36
"A Blonde was vacationing in Louisiana. Whilst there, she wanted to pick up a pair of authentic, genuine alligator boots. So she stopped in at a thrift store and picked herself a pair.

'How much are these?' she asked the owner.

'Those are $500.00.'

'What? That's ridiculous.'

'That's the going price. You want the authentic genuine thing, that's what it's gonna cost you.'

'I'll go somewhere else.'

'Be my guest. Price'll be the same all around here.' Then he quipped.
'You want them cheaper, why don't you go off into the swamp and get them
yourself?'

The Blonde huffed out.

Later that day, the store owner is walking past a stretch of narrow river when he sees the Blonde, chest deep in murky water, making cooing gestures.

'Jesus, I was kidding.' And he shouts out to her, 'get out the water you crazy broad, you're gonna get yourself killed.'

Just then, a huge alligator rises up behind her. Before the store owner can shout a warning to her, it strikes.

As the beast lunges for her, she spins about and grabs its jaws, holding it at bay. It begins to roll and she leaps astride the monster. The battle is furious but she wrestles it into submission, finally taking a hunting knife and burying it to the hilt between the creature's eyes.

The store owner watches amazed as she tows the hulking brute back to shore and heaves it up the bank. To his further astonishment, he notices that there are already several dead alligators strewn around.

Nimbly, she flips the beast over. 'Damn it,' she exclaims, 'this one isn't wearing any boots either.'"
 

peapod

Hall of Fame Member
Jun 26, 2004
10,745
0
36
pumpkin pie bungalow
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Daffodils
"I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils"
 

Hard-Luck Henry

Council Member
Feb 19, 2005
2,194
0
36
:p You know Wordsworth used to tramp the same mountains that I do today? In fact, one of his poems - Fidelity the Dog - was inspired by an event which took place on Helvellyn, the mountain I'll be on next week. The poem is actually scribed into a rock somewhere on the mountain, as a memorial - I'll post a picture, if I can find it. In the meantime, this is from a poem he wrote about climbing Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales:

" … and from the shore
At distance not the third part of a mile
Was a blue chasm; a fracture in the vapour,
A deep and gloomy breathing-place, through which
Mounted the roar of waters, torrents, streams
Innumerable, roaring with one voice.
The universal spectacle throughout
Was shaped for admiration and delight,
Grand in itself alone, but in that breach
Through which the homeless voice of waters rose,
That dark deep thoroughfare, had Nature lodged
The Soul, the Imagination of the whole." 8)
 

peapod

Hall of Fame Member
Jun 26, 2004
10,745
0
36
pumpkin pie bungalow
It would appearing fitting that you trample the same woods as wordworth henry. Who better to follow in his footsteps 8) :wink:
Henry read the site of John Ikerd, I posted it in the economics of substainability. I know you will really enjoy his ideas. :wink:

Ode To A Nightingale
My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
But being too happy in thine happiness,--
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been
Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South,
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple-stained mouth;
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
And with thee fade away into the forest dim:

Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget
What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,
Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;
Where but to think is to be full of sorrow
And leaden-eyed despairs,
Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,
Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.

Away! away! for I will fly to thee,
Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,
But on the viewless wings of Poesy,
Though the dull brain perplexes and retards:
Already with thee! tender is the night,
And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,
Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays;
But here there is no light,
Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown
Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.

I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,
Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,
But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet
Wherewith the seasonable month endows
The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;
White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;
Fast fading violets cover'd up in leaves;
And mid-May's eldest child,
The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,
The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.

Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain--
To thy high requiem become a sod.

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
The same that oft-times hath
Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.

Forlorn! the very word is like a bell
To toll me back from thee to my sole self!
Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well
As she is fam'd to do, deceiving elf.
Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades
Past the near meadows, over the still stream,
Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep
In the next valley-glades:
Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
Fled is that music:--Do I wake or sleep?.
 

Hard-Luck Henry

Council Member
Feb 19, 2005
2,194
0
36
Hey P. Here's a poem about the mountain I had my adventure on yesterday. Wordsworth wrote a poem about the same incident (The one in 1805, not the one I had yesterday). Striding edge is the ridge I mentioned to you. (A fishy anecdote - Red Tarn is the highest body of water in England, and contains our rarest fish, the Schelly). Anyway, who wrote this poem?

"I climb'd the dark brow of the mighty Helvellyn, Lakes and mountains beneath me gleam'd misty and white, All was still, save by fits, when the eagle was yelling, And starting around me the echoes replied, On the right, Striden-edge round the Red-tarn was bending, And Catchedicam its left verge was defending, One huge nameless rock in the front was ascending, When I mark'd the sad spot where the wanderer had died.

Dark green was that spot 'mid the brown mountain heather, Where the Pilgrim of Nature lay stretched in decay, Like the corpse of an outcast abandon'd to weather, Till the mountain winds wasted the tenantless clay, Nor yet quite deserted, though lonely extended, For, faithful in death, his mute favorite attended, The much-loved remains of her master defended, And chased the hill-fox and the raven away,

How long didst thou think his silence was slumber? When the wind waved his garment, how oft didst thou start? How many long days and long weeks didst thou number? Ere he faded before thee, the friend of thy heart? And, oh! Was it meet, that - no requiem read o'er him- No mother to weep, and no friend to deplore him, And thou, little guardian, alone stretch'd before him- Unhonour'd the Pilgrim from life should depart?

When a prince to the fate of the peasant has yielded, The tapestry waves dark round the dim-lighted hall With scutcheons of silver the coffin is shielded, And pages stand mute by the canopial pall: Through the courts, at deep midnight, the torches are gleaming, In the proudly-arched chapel the banners are beaming, Far adown the long aisle sacred music is streaming, Lamenting a chief of the people should fall.

But meeter for thee, gentle lover of nature, To lay down thy head like the meek mountain lamb, When, ‘wilder’d, he drops from some cliff huge in stature And draws his last sob by the side of his dam. And more stately thy couch by this desert lake lying, Thy obsequies sung by the gray plover flying, With one faithful friend but to witness thy dying, In the arms of Helvellyn and Cathedicam."
 

peapod

Hall of Fame Member
Jun 26, 2004
10,745
0
36
pumpkin pie bungalow
Bloody Brillant henry! guess I have been around the dibbs to much lately...blimey 8O I will have to root around in a book and return the favor...oh I know just the one....remember I told you about it......oh and it is soooooooooooooooooooooooo good big H :wink: