Because one has need of cheer

[flemmings]

Epitaph from the Greek Treasury

I'm Callicratia
who bore
29 children,
saw none die,
lived 105
years & never once
used walking sticks

I'm not exactly a fan of Philip Larkin. He reads like not a nice person, and certainly a very unhappy one: malicious because miserable, in his small-souled fashion; or maybe just congenitally incapable of the small happinesses of life. The body of his poems often strike me as forgettable, undistinguished, and then he one-two sucker punches me with the ending.

This one is reminiscent of Unseen Academicals: though the influence, if any, must go from Larkin to Pratchett, and anyway I'm pretty sure Pratchett is drawing on that much-loved English archetype, the Oxbridge Thing, exactly as Larkin is.

Tonight we dine without the Master
(Nocturnal vapours do not please);
The port goes round so much the faster,
Topics are raised with no less ease –
Which advowson looks the fairest,
What the wood from Snape will fetch,
Names for pudendum mulieris,
Why is Judas like Jack Ketch?

The candleflames grow thin, then broaden:
Our butler Starveling piles the logs
And sets behind the screen a jordan
(Quicker than going to the bogs).
The wine heats temper and complexion:
Oath-enforced assertions fly
On rheumy fevers, resurrection,
Regicide and rabbit pie.

The fields around are cold and muddy,
The cobbled streets close by are still,
A sizar shivers at his study,
The kitchen cat has made a kill;
The bells discuss the hour's gradations,
Dusty shelves hold prayers and proofs:
Above, Chaldean constellations
Sparkle over crowded roofs.

Comments

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

She's one strong lady! Good for her! Now if I can get half as far as her without sticks and then a bit more ... Ill be content. ^_^

*hugs for cheer*

I seem not to be able to find the original but here you may have seen them already but they still make me smile and the children's laughter is priceless.

have a Maru for more cheer ^_^ (http://laughingsquid.com/maru-the-cat-loves-to-attack-boxes/)

[avalonjones.livejournal.com]

One time the magazine I used to work for published the obituary of a man who had 18 living children and 5 more who had died as infants. Toward the end it said, "He was preceded in death by his wife Pauline," and I SO MUCH wanted to add "... who died of sheer exhaustion."

Can you even imagine?! That poor woman! She spent 17-1/4 years of her life pregnant!!

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

... I did mean in years and not in babies ... I love my two very much but I think they're plenty enough for me. ^_^

but ouf ... 17 years being pregnant! I would go insane! Just two generations ago (here anyways) where the norm was 7 or 8. (My dad is youngest of 8 children and my mother had 6 siblings in all) ...and then that halved and now it's one or two, usually. Our LRD is apparently suffering a birth deficit .. although I think 4 million squashed on one tiny island is not a good thing.

There must be some way of spreading evenly the world population right. Overpopulation in some and none in some ... I suspect that there are too many people already anyway. Gaah!