Speaking of Cassie Claire...

[flemmings]

Here is Housman's poem:

When the bells justle in the tower
      The hollow night amid,
Then on my tongue the taste is sour
      Of all I ever did.

Last encountered in The Thirteen Gun Salute, and wasn't I surprised to see it there, in a novel set forty years before its author was born. I rather liked that-- one doesn't expect shout-outs from mainstream authors. Whatever, there's a paper on the subject, for anyone interested.

O'Brian, however, was not above amusing himself by peppering his work with unexplained, untranslated foreign phrases; unattributed fragments of literary works, both ancient and modern, known and obscure; and elusive, unsubstantial references to actual people and events.

*My* kind of writer.

I have a fondness for this one:

I to my perils
     Of cheat and charmer
     Came clad in armour
          By stars benign.
Hope lies to mortals
      And most believe her
      But man's deceiver
          Was never mine.

The thoughts of others
     Were light and fleeting,
     Of lovers' meeting
         Or luck or fame.
Mine were of trouble,
     And mine were steady,
     So I was ready
          When trouble came.

I am also chuffed that my sister tells me innumerable of her friends have said this last year has sucked donkey balls (which probably made the donkey very happy, but is hard on us.) 'So it isn't just me.' Annus horribilis indeed; and should I be operated on in an annus horribilis? Or will the year's luck have turned by December?

Comments

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

maybe it's the shift of the universe and colliding comets or what have you ... I totally agree that this year has not been the easiest I've seen and I will not put it down to me getting older!

Although i have to laugh about the donkey whose balls are being sucked even if I don't want to think about it too hard!

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Sunspots, my sister said. But those are year after next, IIRC.