Poetry Sunday: In May by John Burroughs

This poem caught my eye because of the first line. The Rose-breasted Grosbeaks have been passing through our yard this past week and they were accompanied by Scarlet Tanagers. It's always such a joy to see these wonderful birds as they hurry on their way to their breeding grounds. And all the other signs of spring are present as well. John Burroughs described it beautifully. Indeed, "all the world is glad with May."

In May

by John Burroughs 

When grosbeaks show a damask rose
Amid the cherry blossoms white,
And early robins' nests disclose
To loving eyes a joyous sight;

When columbines like living coals
Are gleaming 'gainst the lichened rocks,
And at the foot of mossy boles
Are young anemones in flocks;

When ginger-root beneath twin leaves
Conceals its dusky floral bell,
And showy orchid shyly weaves
In humid nook its fragrant spell;

When dandelion's coin of gold
Anew is minted on the lawn,
And apple trees their buds unfold,
While warblers storm the groves at dawn;

When such delights greet eye and ear,
Then strike thy tasks and come away:
It is the joy-month of the year,
And onward sweeps the tide of May.

When farmhouse doors stand open wide
To welcome in the balmy air,
When truant boys plunge in the tide,
And school-girls knots of violets wear;

When grapevines crimson in the shoot,
Like fin of trout in meadow stream,
And morning brings the thrush's flute
Where dappled lilies nod and dream;

When varied tints outline the trees,
Like figures sketched upon a screen,
And all the forest shows degrees
Of tawny red and yellow-green;

When purple finches sing and soar,
Then drop to perch on open wing,
With vernal gladness running o'er—
The feathered lyrist of the spring:

When joys like these salute the sense,
And bloom and perfume fill the day,
Then waiting long hath recompense,
And all the world is glad with May.

This week in birds - #547

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment: 

A Snowy Egret searches for its meal while wading in the shallow waters at the edge of the Gulf of Mexico.

*~*~*~*

The virus H5N1 is devastating the world's birds once again.

*~*~*~*

And in Canada, leaks from tailings ponds at oil sands operations are also having a devastating effect on the environment.

*~*~*~*

Lights Out, Texas is Audubon's campaign to have Texans turn off outside lights at night from March 1 through June 15 to avoid disorienting birds during their spring migration through the state.

*~*~*~*

European countries are pledging to expand their use of "green power" by increasing their reliance on North Sea wind farms.

*~*~*~*

You probably will not be surprised to read that 2022 was "nasty, deadly, costly and hot."

*~*~*~*

Removing river barriers such as dams and weirs is allowing rivers in Europe to flow freely and migratory fish to reach their breeding areas. 

*~*~*~*

A bird of the prairies, the Horned Lark is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week.

*~*~*~*

Solar power microgrids in Puerto Rico are boosting the island's ability to withstand the effects of hurricanes.

*~*~*~*

Asia is experiencing record heat for the month of April which does not bode well for the coming summer months.

*~*~*~*

Amazing as it sounds, it seems that elephant seals are able to nap during their deep ocean dives.

*~*~*~*

Here's a link to Audubon's native plant database. These plants can help welcome birds to your yard.

*~*~*~*

Chimney Swifts are among my favorite summer visitors so I'm happy to see that municipalities in Canada are working to protect swift habitats.

*~*~*~*

As the climate heats up, trees are responding by moving farther north.

*~*~*~*

Here's a report on a 15-day bird tour in the bird-rich environment of Ecuador.

*~*~*~*

Coral reefs are in trouble. Can they be saved?

*~*~*~*

Big cats are endangered as well, but there is some good news on that front.

*~*~*~*

Hellbenders, the eastern salamander, are turning to cannibalism and that is a threat to the continued survival of the species.

*~*~*~*

An April heat wave in Spain has seen temperatures in excess of one hundred degrees Fahrenheit.

*~*~*~*

The climate crisis that is causing drought in the Horn of Africa has been caused in no small part by human actions.

*~*~*~*

The Menominee tribe in Wisconsin has sustainably logged its forest for 160 years but it is now facing a crisis.

*~*~*~*

It's good to know that my "elder generation" isn't leaving all the work to save the environment to the younger generation!

*~*~*~*

Life in the ocean's twilight zones could be facing drastic declines.

*~*~*~*

It's nesting season along the Texas coast and Audubon Texas is on the job protecting rookeries.

Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare: A review

Wait! What? Who? Miss Aldridge? 

The title of this book was guaranteed to get my attention. I used to be Miss Aldridge long ago. (Actually, long, long ago now, in what seems like another lifetime.) Ah, well, time marches on and so do I, so I read the book about this Miss Aldridge, and here's what I learned about her.

Lena Aldridge had hoped for a brilliant career in the theater but when we meet her she is reduced to being a nightclub singer. We are in London in 1936, so, fraught and disappointing times to begin with. Her married lover has just dumped Lena and she's wondering if anything is ever going to go her way.

Then, to make matters worse, her best friend's husband is murdered and her world truly seems to be falling apart. When a stranger unaccountably offers her a chance at a starring role on Broadway and a first-class ticket on the Queen Mary to take her there, she jumps at the chance without questioning her good fortune.

But then bad luck seems to have followed her on board when a fellow passenger is murdered in a strikingly similar manner to her friend's husband. Suspicion falls on her since she has now been in the vicinity of two murders during a short period of time. How can she extricate herself from this mess and maybe solve a murder in the process?

This was the first entry in what is dubbed the "Canary Club" mysteries, the Canary Club being the nightclub at which Lena performs. So it seems that more murders will follow, more chances for the nightclub singer to play detective. It was not a bad start. Lena is a sympathetic character and, of course, the late 1930s in London and in New York were interesting times, to put it mildly. There's plenty of material for drama there. It remains to be seen what Louise Hare will make of it.

 

Poetry Sunday: The Song of the Mischievous Dog by Dylan Thomas

There are many quite well-known poems by Dylan Thomas. This is not one of them. But it made me smile when I happened upon it last week. Perhaps it may do the same for you. 

The Song of the Mischievous Dog

by Dylan Thomas

There are many who say that a dog has its day,
And a cat has a number of lives;
There are others who think that a lobster is pink,
And that bees never work in their hives.

There are fewer, of course, who insist that a horse
Has a horn and two humps on its head,
And a fellow who jests that a mare can build nests
Is as rare as a donkey that's red.

Yet in spite of all this, I have moments of bliss,
For I cherish a passion for bones,
And though doubtful of biscuit, I'm willing to risk it,
And I love to chase rabbits and stones.

But my greatest delight is to take a good bite
At a calf that is plump and delicious;
And if I indulge in a bite at a bulge,
Let's hope you won't think me too vicious.

This week in birds - #546

 A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

Spotted Towhee searching for a meal. I love those red eyes! The photograph was taken on a trip to New Mexico.

*~*~*~*

A rainy winter has helped to create a glorious spring in California where a "super bloom" of wildflowers is in progress. Here's an explanation of how it came to be.

*~*~*~*

The Houston Arboretum had become badly overgrown, but never fear; the goats are on the job! 

*~*~*~*

Sex for tigers in a zoo can be an iffy and dangerous thing so sometimes their caretakers have to intercede.

*~*~*~*

Many waterways in America are endangered but the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon may be the most endangered of all.

*~*~*~*

A record amount of seaweed appears to be headed across the Atlantic toward Florida. 

*~*~*~*

A virtual "insect apocalypse" seems to be underway. Can it be reversed?

*~*~*~*

When buildings are taken down in the city, what becomes of all that material? "Urban mining" may offer a solution.

*~*~*~*

Eastern Hellbender males seem to be turning cannibalistic which is a threat to the continuing survival of the species.

*~*~*~*

Elephant seals can thrive on as little as two hours of sleep per 24-hour period.

*~*~*~*

The Atacama Desert in Chile may be the perfect place on Earth for an astronomical observatory and that is why a giant new telescope is going up there. 

*~*~*~*

Birds are vanishing from our skies and that is a crisis for all of us.

*~*~*~*

In North Carolina, a 1,000-year-old Native American canoe has been retrieved from a lake.

*~*~*~*

Do you still have lightning bugs where you live?

*~*~*~*

Are you familiar with BirdCast? It's a way of looking down from above - in other words, a bird's-eye view. 

*~*~*~*

Nature has some important secret weapons to fight against the effects of climate change.

*~*~*~*

Clean energy has been quite successful in Texas but it seems that the state's Republicans are working hard to change that.

*~*~*~*

The biggest cause of the water crisis in the West walks on four legs and munches grass.

*~*~*~*

Parrots making video calls? Yes, that is a thing!

*~*~*~*

North America's bat species face many perils including disease, climate change, and habitat loss.

*~*~*~*

A unique intercontinental collaboration has helped to ensure the survival of the Lord Howe Island stick insect - at least for now.

*~*~*~*

The author of Where the Crawdads Sing is a wildlife conservationist who is willing to make enemies in her work to protect wildlife and their habitats.

*~*~*~*

Meet the cockeye squid, an animal that can look in two directions at once.

*~*~*~*

Dam removals in California are benefiting many species there. 

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano: A review

 

Hello Beautiful is essentially a retelling of the plot of Little Women. We have the four Padavano sisters instead of the March sisters. Instead of Meg, Jo, Amy, and Beth, we have Julia, Sylvie, Cecilia, and Emiline. They are part of a Catholic household with a devout mother who taught them to respect the saints and a loving father who was a dreamer unable to provide an adequate financial base for his family. The book's title is the greeting that their father always used for his daughters. 

Julia is the ambitious high-achiever in the family. She is like a second mother to the other girls. Sylvie is the romantic who is waiting for a man to come along and sweep her off her feet. Cecilia and Emeline are twins who tend to live in their own world but they have quite different personalities. Cecilia is forthright and plain-speaking. Emeline is the peacemaker in the family who tries to make everyone feel better.

Then along comes William, an introvert from a family that neglected him. He had a sister who died as a child and his parents were stuck with her memory and unable to move on. 

William's salvation comes when he starts playing basketball with his peers. He finds a community and support with his teammates. He goes to Northwestern University on a basketball scholarship and meets Julia Padavano and the ambitious high-achiever chooses him to be her husband. But marrying Julia really means he is marrying the whole Padavono clan.

William's basketball career ends in injury. Julia, the fixer, sets out to make William into her ideal husband. That includes making him a college professor. They have a daughter, Alice. But then Julia's plans go a bit awry. 

William is overcome by depression and tries to end it all but fortunately, he is unsuccessful in the attempt. Sylvie becomes his salvation who pulls him back into life.

This is a family drama that draws the reader in and makes her care about all of these characters. Each character is multi-layered and three-dimensional in their make-up. Moreover, each of the sisters felt like a personal friend and I wanted the best for each of them. It isn't often that I feel so emotionally invested in characters and it is very rare indeed that I feel that a novel is worthy of a five-star rating. This is that book. 

City of the Beasts by Isabel Allende: A review

 

This book was first published in 2002 so it has been around for quite a while, but I had never encountered it although I have read other books by Isabel Allende. The book seems primarily directed toward a young adult audience, of which I meet only the second word in that description.

The two main characters are teenagers Alexander and Nadia. When Alexander's mother becomes quite ill, he is sent to New York to stay with his grandmother, Kate. She is a magazine reporter who is irascible and tough-minded, not qualities that one would normally associate with the word "grandmother." She had been planning a trip to the Amazon to search for a gigantic legendary creature known only as the Beast and to encounter the lost tribes who live in that region. Now, she'll be taking Alexander along with her.

The local guide for the trip into the Amazon has a teenage daughter named Nadia, and she and Alex quickly bond. Other members of the expedition include an anthropologist, a doctor, and a local entrepreneur. Pretty soon we come to suspect that not all of these people are pure of heart and at least one may have ulterior motives. 

Once in the Amazon, a local tribe known as the People of the Mists take Alexander and Nadia and they travel with them through jungle, mountains, and caves. The two young people get an education in what it is like to live as primitive hunter-gatherers.

Alexander and Nadia are presented as remarkably rational thinkers who are able to reason things out and come to logical solutions to problems. In this regard, they are more adept than many of the adults around them. 

This apparently was the first in a trilogy featuring these characters. I enjoyed it quite a bit and, at some point, would not be averse to reading the other two books, but I already have a full reading list and they will just have to take their place in the queue.  

Poetry Sunday: Spring Gladness by John Burroughs

John Burroughs celebrates the beauty and sounds of April in this poem. I think they are sentiments that we can all appreciate and agree with. 

Spring Gladness

by John Burroughs 

Now clap your hands together,
For this is April weather,
And love again is born;
The west wind is caressing,
The turf your feet are pressing
Is thrilling to the morn.

To see the grass a-greening,
To find each day new meaning
In sky and tree and ground;
To see the waters glisten,
To linger long, and listen
To every wakening sound!

To feel your nerves a-tingle
By grackle's strident jingle
Or starling's brooky call,
Or phoebe's salutation,
Or sparrow's proclamation
Atop the garden wall!

The maple trees are thrilling,
Their eager juices spilling
In many a sugar-camp.
I see the buckets gleaming,
I see the smoke and steaming,
I smell the fragrant damp.

The mourning-dove is cooing
The husky crow is wooing,
I hear his raucous vows;
The robin's breast is glowing,
Warm hues of earth are showing
Behind the early plows.

I love each April token
And every word that's spoken
In field or grove or vale,—
The hyla's twilight chorus,
The clanging geese that o'er us
Keep well the northern trail.

Oh, soon with heaping measures
The spring will bring her treasures
To gladden every breast;
The sky with warmth a-beaming,
The earth with love a-teeming —
In life itself new zest!

This week in birds - #545

 A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

The Northern Cardinal's cousin, the Pyrrhuloxia. I photographed this one on a trip to New Mexico. It is a resident of West Texas and southern parts of New Mexico and Arizona.

*~*~*~*

There has been a dramatic surge in sea levels along southeastern coastlines and the Gulf of Mexico since 2010.

*~*~*~*

A study reveals that nearly three billion birds have been lost on this continent since about 1970. That is a 30% decline in the total bird population.

*~*~*~*

Here's a commentary on E.O. Wilson's grand idea of how to save the planet.

*~*~*~*

This spring seems to be promising a spectacular bloom of wildflowers in the West.

*~*~*~*

With the help of conservationists, the seriously endangered Gray-breasted Parakeet is making a comeback in Brazil's Atlantic Forest. 

*~*~*~*

The Great Salt Lake had seemed to be in danger of drying up but this past winter's record snowpack has given it at least a temporary reprieve.

*~*~*~*

This is Bicknell's Thrush, a bird that keeps to the shadows and is not well-known to many people. Its numbers are decreasing and it needs our help to avoid extinction. It is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week.

*~*~*~*

The climate and biodiversity crises are so overwhelming that one often feels helpless to fight them, but, in fact, there are actions that individuals can take to help. You can start in your own backyard. Perhaps we just need the courage to act.

*~*~*~*

There's an exciting new find in the world of archaeology, a Mayan ball game "scoreboard."

*~*~*~*

Meet a man who walked around the world.

*~*~*~*

Environmental defenders are being murdered in rural communities across Mexico and Central America.

*~*~*~*

In the last twenty years, bumblebee populations in the United States have dropped by ninety percent.

*~*~*~*

Here's some rare good news regarding the world's tigers: India's conservation efforts have helped the big cats to bounce back from the road to extinction.

*~*~*~*

Thousands of iconic saguaro cacti plants have been wiped out by climate change. Can human intervention save the species?

*~*~*~*

A sauropod skull found in Queensland was from an animal that lived almost a hundred million years ago. It's only the fourth such specimen ever found.

*~*~*~*

A boom in the population of zooplankton in Lake Tahoe has given the lake unprecedented clarity.

*~*~*~*

The temperature of the world's ocean surface has hit an all-time high since records have been kept.

*~*~*~*

There is a hole in the ocean's floor that could be a harbinger of trouble ahead for the planet. 

*~*~*~*

It's been a grueling winter in the Yosemite valley and it has left its mark on the landscape.

*~*~*~*

Birdwatching is a newly flourishing activity in the Middle East.

*~*~*~*

Here's news from the front of the great goat war that is taking place in southern France.

*~*~*~*

Watch this clever Asian elephant peel bananas with her trunk! 

Plunder by Mary Anna Evans: A review

This is the seventh book in Mary Anna Evans' Faye Longchamp archaeology mystery series. In this one, archaeologist Faye Longchamp has married Joe Wolf Mantooth and together they have started an archaeology-based consulting business. Their first big job finds them working near the mouth of the Mississippi River, researching archaeological sites that may soon be flooded by oil. This is during the time of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.  

Their lives are now complicated by the fact that they have a son who is a toddler and they must provide for his care while they are working in the field. When their babysitter is injured, their solution to that particular problem is to hire a local teenager, Amande, who lives nearby with her eccentric grandmother. 

Then Amande's grandmother and her uncle are murdered, leaving her with only two other known relatives who are only interested in claiming her small inheritance, and Faye and Joe find themselves as surrogate parents who must protect the young woman from their avarice.

Silver coins that are hundreds of years old have been found in the era, leading to the possibility that there may be a shipwreck hiding under Gulf waters and who knows what riches it might contain. Meanwhile, the police are investigating the murders and Faye and Joe are attempting, in spite of the chaos, to carry on with the job that they have been hired to do. Of course, they do inevitably end up as part of the murder investigation.

Mary Ann Evans does a very good job of developing her characters, both the main characters and the supporting cast, with the result that they appear as fully-formed human beings, not just words on a page. It makes it easier for the reader to feel invested in the action of the novel and in its outcome. Those are important qualities for a cozy mystery series to have and "cozy" very much describes this series. The books are not challenging reads in any sense but they are quite satisfying for a reader who only wants to be entertained. 

River Spirit by Leila Abouela: A review

Set in nineteenth-century Sudan, this novel tells the story of the years that led up to the British conquest of that region in 1898. It explores the tensions that existed between not only Britain and Sudan but also between Christianity and Islam. We experience all of that through the eyes of a girl called Akuany.

Akuany and her brother Bol were orphaned by a raid on their village in South Sudan. Subsequently, a young merchant named Yaseen took them in and promised to care for them until they reached adulthood, but this proved difficult as events in the Ottoman Empire became more and more unsettled. Akuany at first lived with Yaseen's sister but was later enslaved.

A revolutionary leader who proclaimed himself the Mahdi (the prophesied redeemer of Islam) came to power in the region and the people had to choose sides between this "Mahdi" and those who opposed him. Yaseen's choice was to oppose him, even as this choice seemed to tear his family apart.

Akuany, now an adult, is sold and traded from house to house across the countryside, while always maintaining a link to Yaseen. Their relationship evolves over the years and even though the revolution separates them on occasions, they are drawn to each other and manage to remain a part of each other's lives.

The tale is told from various points of view - I must admit that I can't tell you exactly how many - but I found it to be an effective way to present the multiple sides of the story and the impact that it had on different segments of Sudanese society. It truly enriched my reading experience and, I think, gave me a fuller understanding of that period of history and of the sacrifices required of the people, especially the women, caught in that situation. All in all, I felt at least somewhat enlightened about a people and a period of history of which I had been fairly ignorant. What more could one ask of historical fiction? 

Poetry Sunday: Spring by Edna St. Vincent Millay

This poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay was published over a hundred years ago, in 1921. I've read that it was written after the end of her affair with another poet and that it reflected her emotions regarding the end of that affair. 

I was particularly arrested by her statement that it is not only underground that men's brains are eaten by maggots. I think I've met some of those people!

Still, in spite of everything, every year April comes down the hill "like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers." And aren't we grateful that it does!  

Spring

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

To what purpose, April, do you return again?
Beauty is not enough.
You can no longer quiet me with the redness
Of little leaves opening stickily.
I know what I know.

The sun is hot on my neck as I observe
The spikes of the crocus.
The smell of the earth is good.
It is apparent that there is no death.
But what does that signify?
Not only under ground are the brains of men
Eaten by maggots.
Life in itself
Is nothing,
An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs.
It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,
April
Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.

This week in birds - #544

 A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

 Cactus Wren photographed on a trip to New Mexico.

*~*~*~*

The Biden administration rather inexplicably approved an $8 billion project to drill for oil in the National Petroleum Preserve in Alaska, the nation's single largest expanse of untouched wilderness, and ConocoPhillips is moving full steam ahead on the plan.  

*~*~*~*

A mass hunt of bison on the outskirts of Yellowstone National Park has killed 1150 animals. The hunt was intended to help keep brucellosis from spreading to nearby livestock. 

*~*~*~*

Here's a commentary on planting native plants in your garden.

*~*~*~*

Is the Tasmanian tiger truly extinct or is it just very, very good at hiding itself from human eyes?

*~*~*~*

This is a snailfish that was filmed five miles underwater off the south coast of Japan. That is the deepest fish that has ever been recorded.

*~*~*~*

Tulare Lake in central California has been resurrected from a parched expanse of thirty square miles by recent storms in the area. Here are some pictures that show how reservoirs have been filled by the storms.

*~*~*~*

Conservationists and concerned citizens are opposing a plan to mine near the pristine Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia.

*~*~*~*

Mature forests are vital to the fight against global warming so why would you allow them to be logged? 

*~*~*~*

One of the better ideas to come along in recent years is the building of wildlife corridors alongside busy roads and now $350 million in infrastructure funds can be tapped for that purpose.

*~*~*~*

As a child, I first knew this late summer afternoon flier as the "Bullbat," but its proper name is Common Nighthawk and it is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week.

*~*~*~*

President Biden recently established the Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in Nevada preserving some of the most biologically diverse and visually stunning parts of the Mojave Desert. 

*~*~*~*

Certain animals show a surprising capacity for solving problems. Goats, for example.

*~*~*~*

Flying foxes cannot deal with extreme heat. When temperatures exceed 104 degrees Fahrenheit, thousands of the animals die.

*~*~*~*

An alarming crash in the numbers of salmon stocks along the West Coast has led to talk of fishing bans on the species.

*~*~*~*

A barrage of winter storms has led to record snowpack on the high slopes of Sierra Nevada.

*~*~*~*

This is the Akikiki, a small Hawaiian honeycreeper species that is on the brink of extinction.

*~*~*~*

If you are anywhere in the vicinity of Southern California and Arizona you may be in for a "super bloom" show of wildflowers this spring.

*~*~*~*

Those wildflowers would be manna for Nature's hardest workers, the bees. Not only are they hard workers, they are sentient beings.

*~*~*~*

The U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has denied a crucial water permit for a natural gas pipeline in West Virginia.

*~*~*~*

The official ban on incandescent light bulbs will take effect in August, after which only LED lights will be available from retailers.

*~*~*~*

Is there any hope left for us? As Emily Dickinson assured us, it is "the thing with feathers."

Killing a Cold One by Joseph Heywood: A review

In honor of my Michigan-born son-in-law, I decided to read another of these Woods Cop mysteries that are set in his home state. They feature "Woods Cop" Grady Service who patrols the Mosquito Wilderness area of that state. Though his official job is as a conservation officer, he always seems to get drawn into investigations of murders and that is the case once again in Killing a Cold One.

This one was a rather complicated story; moreover, there are a LOT of characters and I sometimes found it a bit difficult to keep them all straight. This was not made any easier by the author being inconsistent in the names that he used for them. Every character seemed to have at least three names and each of those names might be applied to him/her at different points in the narrative. Color me confused.

The story involved the violent killing and mutilation of two Native American girls. Their bodies were found in a tent in a remote area of the Huron Mountains and nearby there were strange, unidentified animal tracks. The governor of the state, nearing the end of her term in office, orders Grady to hunt down and kill the animal that made those tracks.

Is the creature a dogman? There are many in the area who believe that such an animal exists. There are also many who believe in Bigfoot, werewolves, vampires, and angels, but there haven't been any verified sightings of any of them either. Investigating what made the tracks and what might have killed the women takes Grady into some of the Upper Peninsula's harshest terrain. 

In this book, we get to know Tuesday Friday (yes, that's actually the name the author gave her) who is a coworker and potential romantic interest of Grady's and we spend a lot of time with woodsman Limpy Allerdyce who speaks in what I'm guessing is the patois of the area which sometimes gave me pause when trying to figure out what he was saying.  

It's interesting that I actually found Allerdyce a more likable and relatable character than Grady, who sometimes behaves like a bit of a jerk. But the two of them, along with Tuesday, do make a rather effective team and justice is served in the end.

Poetry Sunday: Prologue to the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

Long, long ago, I was a freshman in college and one of my required courses was English literature. Early in that course, the name of Chaucer came up and, inevitably, "The Canterbury Tales." Our teacher was a big fan and one of her requirements was that we learn and recite from memory the prologue to the tales in the Middle English in which it was written. I'm sure I have forgotten much of what I learned in college but I can still recite most of that prologue!

The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales

by Geoffrey Chaucer

Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote,
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licóur
Of which vertú engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye,
So priketh hem Natúre in hir corages,
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially, from every shires ende
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.