A garland of quotations LXXIII
Culled from the finest California dreamers in literary history, and re-woven every Wednesday
Take heed; have open eye, for thieves do foot by night:
Take heed, ere summer comes or cuckoo-birds do sing.
•Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor (1597?).
Th’ teacher she kisses you good-bye an’ cries—
An’ all th’ girls they are wipin’ their eyes.
Huh! Think what she does when you don’t mind th’ rule—
Oh th’ last day is th’ best day of all days in school!
•Wilbur D. Nesbit, “School’s Out” (1913).
God made a little Gentian—
It tried—to be a Rose—
And failed—and all the Summer laughed—
•Dickinson, “God made a little Gentian” (c.1862).
The King and the Queen were riding Upon a Summer’s day, And a Blackbird flew above them, To hear what they did say. The King said he liked apples, The Queen said she liked pears. And what shall we do to the Blackbird Who listens unawares. •Kate Greenaway, “Child’s Song” (1885).
Eternal life begins in June.
Her name is fill the name in.
•Frederick Seidel, “June” (2002).
I carried her in my bosom as a man carries a lamb
I loved her I gave her all my soul & my delight
I hid her in soft gardens & in secret bowers of Summer
Weaving mazes of delight along the sunny Paradise
Inextricable labyrinths, She bore me sons & daughters
And they have taken her away & hid her from my sight
They have surrounded me with walls of iron & brass…
•Blake, Vala, or The Four Zoas (1797–1807).
This was the summer whose gradual splendor Burned the meridian while the deep sea Whispering, murmuring, watched the surrender, Cradled my union, my loved one, with thee. •John Jay Chapman, “Sappho’s Last Song” (1919
Even if gossip is as thick as the grasses in a summer field So what if my love and I have slept entwined together •Manyôshû (coll, 760).
Stainer of wolf’s teeth, we
shall wave our swords in the sun, we
have something to achieve
in the valley-fish’s mercy.
•Egil Skallagrimsson (C10).
The summer like a Rajah dies,
And every widowed tree
Kindles for Congregational eyes
An alien suttee.
•Ogden Nash, “Kipling’s Vermont” (1953).
All things are symbols: the external shows Of Nature have their image in the mind, As flowers and fruits and falling of the leaves; The song-birds leave us at the summer’s close, Only the empty nests are left behind, And pipings of the quail among the sheaves. •Longfellow, ”The Harvest Moon” (1878).
References: Nesbit: Clare Briggs, Oh, Skin-nay: The Days of Real Sport (D&Q, 2007); Dickinson: The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (Little, Brown, 1976); Greenaway, Marigold Garden (Frederick Warne, 1885); Seidel: Area Code 212 (FSG, 2014); Chapman, Songs and Poems (Scribner’s, 1919); Manyôshû: trans. Harold Wright, Ten Thousand Leaves (Overlook, 1985); Egil: trans. Anthony Faulkes, Edda (Everyman’s, 1992) [stainer of wolf’s teeth = warrior, valley-fish’s mercy = summer]; Nash: The Private Dining Room (Little, Brown, 1953); Longfellow: Kéramos and Other Poems (Houghton, Osgood, 1878); some of this material is copyrighted, and I plead only fair use.