Departed Days by Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894)

picture bykoozeh


YES, dear departed, cherished days,
Could Memory's hand restore
Your morning light, your evening rays,
From Time's gray urn once more,
Then might this restless heart be still,
This straining eye might close,
And Hope her fainting pinions fold,
While the fair phantoms rose.

But, like a child in ocean's arms,
We strive against the stream,
Each moment farther from the shore
Where life's young fountains gleam;
Each moment fainter wave the fields,
And wider rolls the sea;
The mist grows dark, -- the sun goes down, --
Day breaks, -- and where are we?

This is my favorite quote, I remember it every time I have to do and/or redo something. [For me] This is as good as poetry.


I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. ~Thomas Edison

Sisyphus's Pet Rock by Thomas Carper

I have my rock, my hill. So, every day
My task, though hard, is known. And as I roll
My rock, its weight seems always to convey
A certain satisfaction to the soul.
Near sunset-time, just before I can see
The highest point, I purposely let go.
My rock responds and, thanks to gravity,
Takes its own way back to the plain below.
I follow willingly, our duties done,
And grateful that another day's in store,
And glad to think my rock and I are one
In labor and in meaning. Surely, more
Is not to be expected; surely we
Will have our task throughout eternity.

Background Info.

I never saw a moor by Emily Dickinson

I NEVER saw a moor,
I never saw the sea;
Yet know I how the heather looks,
And what a wave must be.
I never spoke with God, 5
Nor visited in heaven;
Yet certain am I of the spot
As if the chart were given.

Emily Dickinson (1830–86).

Complete Poems. 1924. Part One: Life

VI

IF I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

John Milton's Paradise Lost

John Milton (1608-1674)

"One of the greatest poets of the English language, best-known for his epic poem PARADISE LOST (1667). Milton's powerful, rhetoric prose and the eloquence of his poetry had an immense influence especially on the 18th-century verse".

I liked Paradise Lost when I read it in school because it conveyed "Satan's side of the story", how he failed from grace and how he considers to be better to reign in hell than serve in Heaven. I thought it very interesting and FALSE! I find this irony kind of funny. I plan to read it again, now that it's here. Hope you enjoy it!