Wondering

From A New-Years Eve by Bernard Barton

A New-Years Eve by Bernard Barton - taken from  A New Years Eve and Other Poems. New Years Eve - is a 29 stanza poem. Here is the first verse,

"A New Years Eve ! Methinks 'tis good to sit
At such an hour alone,
Tracing that record, by pen unwrit,
Which every human heart has of its own,
Of joys and griefs, of hopes and fears unknown
To all beside; to let the spirit feel,
In all its force, the deep and solemn tone
Of Time's unflattering, eloquent appeal,
Which Truth to every breast would inwardly reveal"

Obtained via Google books.

Bernard Barton was born 31/01/1784 and died 19/02/1849. His parents were Quakers and he worked as a bank clerk. A gentle and likable man he was involved in the protests against the severe penal code of nineteenth century Britain.

Mongolian Flora

Click on the image (from e-mongol.com) for  a closer look at Grape Hyacinths, Scabious and Edelweiss

Saddam Hussein

Have been watching news reports of the execution of Saddam Hussein.  I'm not sure that execution was the right solution. Perhaps life imprisonment was more appropriate. I suppose that the latter option posed too many security risks in the minds of those in control. I also doubt the pro-execution ex-governor of Texas will be too concerned.

Apparently Saddam appealed to the Arab/Sunni Islamic constituency at his execution with the call of 'God is Great' and by references to Palestine being for Arabs. Perhaps the West has made a martyr today. It remains to be seen if there is any backlash from Saddam's personal supporters or from the wider Arab groupings.

One thing did make me wonder.  Can a trial in Iraq have been  entirely just or entirely expository, in the sense of full investigation of evidence. Was it a show trial which we will live to regret? If Saddam Hussein had been Slobodan Milosevic, i.e caucasian, would he have been placed on trial in The Hague. My fear is that evidence may not have been handled correctly even though we can be reasonably certain of Saddam Hussein's complicity in crimes against humanity. 

William Blake

Am about to start an essay on William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Song's of Experience. The guy was a genius.   I'm particularly focussed on his Introductions to each collection at the moment.

SONGS OF INNOCENCE

Piping down the valleys wild,
Piping songs of pleasant glee,
On a cloud I saw a child,
And he laughing said to me:

"Pipe a song about a Lamb!"
So I piped with merry cheer.
"Piper, pipe that song again;"
So I piped: he wept to hear.

"Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe;
Sing thy songs of happy cheer!"
So I sung the same again,
While he wept with joy to hear.

"Piper, sit thee down and write
In a book, that all may read."
So he vanished from my sight,
And I plucked a hollow reed,

And I made a rural pen,
And I stained the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs
Every child may joy to hear.

SONGS OF EXPERIENCE

Hear the voice of the Bard,

Who present, past, and future, sees;

Whose ears have heard

The Holy Word

That walked among the ancient trees;

Calling the lapsed soul,

And weeping in the evening dew;

That might control

The starry pole,

And fallen, fallen light renew!

'O Earth, O Earth, return!

Arise from out the dewy grass!

Night is worn,

And the morn

Rises from the slumbrous mass.

'Turn away no more;

Why wilt thou turn away?

The starry floor,

The watery shore,

Is given thee till the break of day.'