These beauteous forms,
Through a long absence, have not been to me
As is a landscape to a blind man's eye:
But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din
Of towns and cities, I have owed to them,
In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;
And passing even into my purer mind
With tranquil restoration:—feelings too
Of unremembered pleasure: such, perhaps,
As have no slight or trivial influence
On that best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered, acts
Of kindness and of love. Nor less, I trust,
To them I may have owed another gift,
Of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood,
In which the burthen of the mystery,
In which the heavy and the weary weight
Of all this unintelligible world,
Is lightened:—that serene and blessed mood,
In which the affections gently lead us on,—
Until, the breath of this corporeal frame
And even the motion of our human blood
Almost suspended, we are laid asleep
In body, and become a living soul:
While with an eye made quiet by the power
Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
We see into the life of things.
—William Wordsworth, Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798
New year's greetings from the far left coast where Christmas just kept coming with a wine delivery on the 26th and a Vacu Vin Wine Saver on the 27th! Thanks to Trani and Candace! And an extra-special shout-out to our DuCard Vineyards connection and lifelong friend Janelle from the Dutch Fork in South Carolina, who landed in Charlottesville as Trani landed in Tulsa and I in Portland!
I closed out 2023 with an afternoon viewing of Oki's Movie (2010), a film by Hong Sang-soo I found so-so until the ending redeemed it splendidly. After dinner I uncorked a bottle of Popham Run Red (2021), "a fruit-forward Bordeaux-style blend," and settled in with a mystery novel, Who Cries for the Lost, by C.S. Harris. Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, investigates a series of gruesome murders in London, 1815, set against the backdrop of Napoleon's return from Elba and impending war with France. Ah.
These beauteous forms in "Tintern Abbey" are scenes Wordsworth takes in as he tramps along the Wye for the first time in years, five summers passed "with the length of five long winters" and again hears "These waters rolling, from their mountain-springs / With a soft inland murmur," beholds "steep and lofty cliffs, / That on a wild secluded scene impress / Thoughts of more deep seclusion and connect / The landscape with the quiet of the sky." He finds in nature a capacity for restoration and redemption we find in poetry and art, where "the burthen of the mystery…the heavy and the weary weight / Of all this unintelligible world, / Is lightened…"
"Yet," Harold Bloom wrote in his anthology The Best Poems of the English Language, "this great poem is not a celebration, though it would like to be. It is almost a lament." In the lines immediately following the passage quoted above, Wordsworth suggests that the sentiments expressed there may "be but a vain belief."
That time is past,
And all its aching joys are now no more,
And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this,
Faint I, nor mourn nor murmur; other gifts
Have followed; for such loss, I would believe,
Abundant recompense. For I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity…
The deep power of joy, the still, sad music of humanity, these are with me at the dawn of the new year. The first lightening the heavy and the weary weight of all this unintelligible world, echoing distant joys and dizzying raptures of thoughtless youth, the second sobering, with reflection upon the the state of things.
New at Portable Bohemia Substack.
Holiday Greetings, Mes Amis!, December 22, 2023. Happy holidays! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Diwali, Winter Solstice for Pagans, and all the rest! May you be graced with merriment, cheer, and good spirit!…read more>>
I Hold to Myths of Freedom and Dignity (a poem), December 26, 2023. “I Hold to Myths of Freedom and Dignity” was first published in the May 2011 issue of Quill & Parchment. This is what it sounds like…read more>>
Year's End 2023: Looking Back, Taking Stock, Bumbling Onward, Ha!, December 28, 2023. As another year careens to a close it is time once again to reflect…read more>>
Upcoming, on my mind, at any rate. Trump and Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. Thinking about speech, Stefanik and the university presidents, Substack's nazi foofaraw, To Kill a Mockingbird under fire from both sides of the ideological chasm, etc., etc. Israel, Gaza, the West Bank. Ukraine. Nikki Haley's embrace of a false narrative that should have consigned to the rubbish heap of history long ago. Lindsey Graham's call for mass deportations. And on a brighter note, Phillies phever, looking ahead to spring training!
Keep the faith.
Stand with Ukraine.
yr obdt svt
