“Remember all men would be tyrants if they could.”
– Abigail Adams
Abigail quoting a line from a Daniel Defoe poem as a reminder to John of men’s natures.
She gets me.
McCullough, David. John Adams. Simon & Schuster, 2001. pg 102
Category: Poems
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Can there be any day but this,
Though many suns to shine endeavour?
We count three hundred, but we miss;
There is but one, and that one, ever.
As read from Herbert’s poem Easter.Warm Easter Greetings everyone!
Herbert, George. The Temple. United States, Canon Press, 2020. pg45
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“Griefs upon griefs! Disappointments upon disappointments. What then? This is a gay, merry world notwithstanding.”
– John Adams
The final John Adam’s quote in McCullough’s brilliant biography. A quote written in a letter to his friend Francis van der Kemp.
McCullough, David. John Adams. Simon & Schuster, 2001. pg 651
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If, as I maintain, a prime reason why we should read is to strengthen the self, then both Whitman and Dickinson are essential poets.
-Harold Bloom
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A stream of visitors continued through the seasons and among them was young Ralph Waldo Emerson, who a few years earlier had graduated from Harvard as class poet. He found Adams upstairs in his library seated in a large overstuffed armchair, dressed in a blue coat, a cotton cap covering his bald head. Recounting the interview, Emerson wrote, “He talks very distinctly for so old a man–enters bravely into long sentences which are interrupted by want of breath but carries them invariably to a conclusion without ever correcting a word.”
You know, you can just go visit your heroes.
Ralph Waldo Emerson for John. John for Sir William Herschel.
Posted while watching Iron Man. The first one.
McCullough, David. John Adams. Simon & Schuster, 2001. pg 640
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"Now first we fence the garden through,
With this for me and that for you,"
Said Oliver. - "Divine!" said Oakes,
"And I, while I raise artichokes,
Will do what I was born to do."As read from Edwin Arlington’s poem Two Gardens in Linndale.
The great quest of life…find what you were born to do.
Robinson, Edwin Arlington. Robinson: Poems: Edited by Scott Donaldson. United Kingdom: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2007. pg 106
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The thing you should try to do in your writing is to be grateful for being alive. Just to be suffused with gratitude at what is given you.
– Dana Gioia
A masterclass on tap. Coincidence that two of America’s best writers, The Gioia brothers, are also openly very metaphysical?
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Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
Yes, to the very end
Will the day's journey take the whole long day?
From morn to night, my friend.
But is there for the night a resting-place?
A roof for when the slow dark hours begin.
May not the darkness hide it from my face?
You cannot miss that inn.An excerpt from the poem UP-HILL by Christina Rossetti
As read from Harold Bloom’s Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages.
Bloom, Harold. Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages. United States, Scribner, 2002. pg 568
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Villagers all, this frosty tide,
Let your doors swing open wide,
Though wind may follow, and snow beside,
Yet draw us in by your fire to bide;
Joy shall be yours in the morning!Kenneth Grahame yuletide poet.
As read from the poem “Carol”.
Grahame, Kenneth. The Wind in the Willows. United Kingdom, Welbeck Editions, 2021. p91
Floodlights and Goalposts 