by Percy Shelly
Rough wind, that moanest loud Grief too sad for song; Wild wind, when sullen cloud Knells all the night long; Sad storm whose tears are vain, Bare woods, whose branches strain, Deep caves and dreary main,-- Wail, for the world’s wrong!
by Seamus Heaney
Human beings suffer They torture one another, They get hurt and get hard. No poem or play or song Can fully right a wrong Inflicted and endured. The innocent in gaols Beat on their bars together. A hunger-striker’s father Stands in the graveyard dumb. The police widow in veils Faints at the funeral home. History says, Don’t hope On this side of the grave… But then, once in a lifetime The longed-for tidal wave Of justice can rise up, And hope and history rhyme. So hope for a great sea-change On the far side of revenge. Believe that a further shore Is reachable from here. Believe in miracles And cures and healing wells. Call miracle self-healing: The utter, self-revealing Double-take of feeling. If there’s fire on the mountain Or lightning and storm And a god speaks from the sky. That means someone is hearing The outcry and the birth-cry Of new life at its term. It means once in a lifetime That justice can rise up And hope and history rhyme.
by David McCullough
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I’ve always found McCullough’s books entertaining. I found this one pretty boring. Repetitive and way overlong. Should have half the length. Fire the editor.
The premise of the book was unique. A history of the many Americans that went to Paris to study – or in some cases just party – during it’s heyday as the world’s capital of knowledge and art.
[A schoolmaster is] a man hired to tell lies to little boys. – Henry Adams
Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, had always been the systematic organization of hatreds – Henry Adams
This was my favorite series perhaps ever. Quirky, funny, occasionally profound. Great combo.
He’s basically an essayist with a camera. A very, very lowbrow very poor man’s Thoreau.
A more than decent British series about a couple breaking up due, mostly, to infidelity. Billie Piper stars, apparently a big name in England.