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March 01, 2007

World Book Day

In the UK and Ireland, it's the 10th celebration of World Book Day.

To honour our friends across the pond, I am carrying Iain Banks' The Wasp Factory to the launderette and will read it proudly whilst I wait for the spin cycle to complete. Since I am only 20 pages from the end, I will put a copy of Ian McEwan's Amsterdam in the bag with the washing powder to ensure I have something to read as my knickers dry.

I must ready to depart, so I leave you with this most excellent poem.

When You Are Old
by W.B. Yeats

When you are old and gray and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.



comments

Enjoy Amsterdam! I liked it. If I ever read it again (which I might well), I shall not be able to do so without thinking of your knickers!

Today I carried around Mario Vargas Llosa's Death In the Andes. I've just started it (for class, hehe).

Thanks for Yeat's poem.Was it Frost who said a poem begins with a lump in the throat? This poem ends with a lump in the throat.Where are the Pilgrim Souls? Cole

Maxine, I'm enjoying it so far. If you do have a second go, I hope my knickers don't interfere too much with your reading experience. LOL!

Ana, you are so up on Latin authors. Somewhere around here is a pile of "south of the border" books, and I need to find it so I can catch up with you.

Cole, you're welcome. Although it is probably Yeats's most quoted, it seemed appropriate. I had books by a Scot and a Brit, so a little study on reading by an Irish poet was fitting.

I adore AMSTERDAM. That was my first experience with McEwan and I've been a huge fan ever since?

Are you familiar with a musical by Alan Menken called WEIRD ROMANCE? It's two one acts, the second act is called "Her Pilgrim Soul" and utilizes the Yeats poem very effectively. There's my geeky moment for the day.

Brian, good geeky moment. :)

For some reason, I am having trouble getting into Amsterdam. I've had a lot of distractions recently, so maybe I'm suffering from a dearth of reading time.

 

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