Monday, March 13, 2006

Snow Day

what a lovely day
when the snow comes
an unplanned vacation

spent the morning
resting, reading,
thinking, and writing

fetched Chaucer from the shelf*
and dove into
Troilus and Cressida

reading by the fire
a love story from 1380 or so
albeit in modern English

(with middle English in ye middle)**

such a confused arrangement
with a go-between
a sure recipe for disaster

demanding rhyming structure
supplications at the start of each section
to keep the poem going

i don't blame him
or the translators
who pulled it off

tomorrow, it's back to work
but better rested
and the richer for having read


*see Aurora Antonovic's inspiring post on spending time at the bookstore
**here of course i would love to have been able to say it in middle English
***this footnote is going nowhere, and is just for show

5 comments:

steve said...

aurora - thank you

floots said...

nice picture of your day
snow has gone here
i spent time digging ditches
and looking at budding daffodils
won't be long and then i can say ....
Whan that April with his shoures soote etc etc

(but i'm going to torquay not canterbury) :)

steve said...

floots - thank you for that glimpse of spring and the 'opening line' - i looked through the traveling party and saw no musician nor poet there, but perhaps one is revealed among them later. in any event, i plan to read it next. have a great holiday when that time comes (i've heard there are palm trees...).

more snow tonight, i hear.

steve said...

i see the miller plays bagpipe - but you already knew, and i have lots to learn...

full moon tonight

Pat Paulk said...

Don't want any snow, but the poem is great!