FRIDAY 8th FEBRUARY
No. 8

THE OLD BRIDGE, FRANCE

1910

Guy Rose

1867-1925

Nationality - American

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There is something haunting in the light of the moon; it has all the dispassionateness of a disembodied soul, and something of its inconceivable mystery - Joseph Conrad 1857-1924

Slowly, silently, now the moon

Walks the night in her silver shoon;

This way, and that, she peers, and sees

Silver fruit upon silver trees;

One by one the casements catch

Her beams beneath the silvery thatch;

Couched in his kennel, like a log,

With paws of silver sleeps the dog;

From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep

Of doves in silver-feathered sleep

A harvest mouse goes scampering by,

With silver claws, and silver eye;

And moveless fish in the water gleam,

By silver reeds in a silver stream.

- Walter de la Mare 1873-1956

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THREE POEMS BY THOMAS HARDY

JOHN AND JANE

I
He sees the world as a boisterous place
Where all things bear a laughing face,
And humorous scenes go hourly on,
Does John.

II
They find the world a pleasant place
Where all is ecstasy and grace,
Where a light has risen that cannot wane,
Do John and Jane.

III
They see as a palace their cottage-place,
Containing a pearl of the human race,
A hero, maybe, hereafter styled,
Do John and Jane with a baby-child.

IV
They rate the world as a gruesome place,
Where fair looks fade to a skull's grimace, -
As a pilgrimage they would fain get done -
Do John and Jane with their worthless son.
John and Jane

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ON A FINE MORNING

Whence comes Solace? Not from seeing 
What is doing, suffering, being, 
Not from noting Life's conditions, 
Nor from heeding Time's monitions; 
   But in cleaving to the Dream, 
   And in gazing at the gleam 
   Whereby gray things golden seem.  

Thus do I this heyday, holding 
Shadows but as lights unfolding, 
As no specious show this moment 
With its irised embowment; 
   But as nothing other than 
Part of a benignant plan; 
Proof that earth was made for man.


JUST THE SAME

I sat.  It all was past;
Hope never would hail again;
Fair days had ceased at a blast,
The world was a darkened den.

The beauty and dream were gone,
And the halo in which I had hied
So gaily gallantly on
Had suffered blot and died!

I went forth, heedless whither,
In a cloud too black for name:
- People frisked hither and thither;
The world was just the same.

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STORMY WEATHER, IONA
1929
Oil on Canvas
Samuel Peploe
1871-1935
Nationality - Scottish

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QUOTES FROM THE WISE AND THE WITTY

Yoko Ono - Think peace, act peace, spread peace, imagine peace.

Barbara De Angelis - Marriage is not a noun; it's a verb. It isn't something you get. It's something you do. It's the way you love your partner every day.

George Moore - There is always a right way and a wrong way, and the wrong way always seems the more reasonable.

William Shakespeare - How poor they are that have not patience. (OTHELLO 11.3)

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I HAD A SILVER PENNY
Charles Causley 1917-2003

I had a silver penny
And an apricot tree
And I said to the sailor
On the white quay

‘Sailor O sailor
Will you bring me
If I give you my penny
And my apricot tree

‘A fez from Algeria
An Arab drum to beat
A little gilt sword
And a parakeet?’

And he smiled and he kissed me
As strong as death
And I saw his red tongue
And I felt his sweet breath

‘You may keep your penny
And your apricot tree
And I’ll bring your presents
Back from sea.’

O the ship dipped down
On the rim of the sky
And I waited while three
Long summers went by

Then one steel morning
On the white quay
I saw a grey ship
Come in from sea

Slowly she came
Across the bay
For her flashing rigging
Was shot away


All round her wake
The seabirds cried
And flew in and out
Of the hole in her side

Slowly she came
In the path of the sun
And I heard the sound
Of a distant gun

And a stranger came running
Up to me
From the deck of the ship
And he said, said he

‘O are you the boy
Who would wait on the quay
With the silver penny
And the apricot tree?

‘I’ve a plum-coloured fez
And a drum for thee
And a sword and a parakeet
From over the sea.’

‘O where is the sailor
With bold red hair?
And what is that volley
On the bright air?

‘O where are the other
Girls and boys?
And why have you brought me
Children’s toys?’

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UNDER THE GABLES
Daniel Garber
1880-1958
Nationality - American 

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NEXT POST FRIDAY 15th FEBRUARY

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