Tuesday, October 12, 2010

To Bend with Apples


Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.-first stanza, To Autumn (John Keats)

I cannot help it (the Keats business). It's all Tina at the English Muse's fault because she mentioned yesterday's NYTimes Sunday travel section. I was perhaps unnaturally happy yesterday morning when I saw the Protestant Cemetery mentioned in a 36 Hours in Rome bit. But there you are. More To Autumn posts. Last night I was tossing about & thinking about Keats & his politics. His horror at the gap between rich & poor (about which he knew quite a lot first-hand). He would be agonized by today's lack of progress. So I'll leave it there & just pick up stanza by stanza. (I'm sort of kidding.) Someone else preoccupied today with autumn & poetry today is secret, fragile skies. Lovely photograph, too. (photograph via bohemea tumblr & on Julie's blog here)

PS: I've been fussing about to get the poem layout properly & Blogger is being defiant. So in it goes, unformatted. I'll try again later. Update - I hit publish on this yesterday with the wrong time on it & the feed stuck. So if you think, I saw that yesterday. Yes, you did. It's me, not you.

7 comments:

simon said...

keats- yes very nice.

Rachel Wright {The Inspired House of Wright} said...

Blogger always seems defiant :) I love your blog, nice and refreshing. I love the car pic with the apples too...very unique!

Giulia said...

Simon -- thanks

Rachel -- your blog is so pretty. You seem to have tamed Blogger. I need lessons. I wish I could take credit for the apple car...alas no.

simon said...

yes I like this sort of seasonal poem. Lake Isle of Innisfree is another, as well as Linden Lea....

Giulia said...

Simon--I swear. You're a marvellous tutor. I utterly forgot about Linden Lea (of course, Yeats I always remember). So I looked up LL & just read about William Barnes & his fascinating life. He was Thomas Hardy's tutor, as well. You see? You always bring up something interesting. Or new-to-me. I shall try not to feel an idiot & feel grateful instead. (Also, I will do more than read a Poetry Foundation page on him.) xo

simon said...

thats whats so great about blogging!!- there is something new and all via a common thread from a different perspective. :o)

lettuce said...

love this photo!