death is stronger than all proud men, throws pair of dice says: read ’em and weep
Death is stronger than all the governments because the governments are men and men die and then death laughs: Now you see ’em, now you don’t.
Death is stronger than all proud men and so death snips proud men on the nose, throws a pair of dice and says: Read ’em and weep.
Death sends a radiogram every day: When I want you I’ll drop in — and then one day he comes with a master-key and lets himself in and says: We’ll go now.
Death is a nurse mother with big arms: ‘Twont hurt you at all; it’s your time now; you just need a long sleep, child; what have you had anyhow better than sleep?
Death Snips Proud Men by Carl Sandberg as published in Smoke and Steel in The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg (Harcourt, Brace: New York, 1970).
Worth repeating.
Death is stronger than all the governments because the governments are men and men die and then death laughs: Now you see ’em, now you don’t.
Death is stronger than all proud men and so death snips proud men on the nose, throws a pair of dice and says: Read ’em and weep.
Worth repeating, but who will listen?
Death sends a radiogram every day: When I want you I’ll drop in — and then one day he comes with a master-key and lets himself in and says: We’ll go now.
the squall sweeps gray-winged sense summer anger passing summer gentleness
Squall line coming in from the Atlantic Ocean, looking towards Tybee from Hilton Head Island
The squall sweeps gray-winged across the obliterated hills, And the startled lake seems to run before it; From the wood comes a clamor of leaves, Tugging at the twigs, Pouring from the branches, And suddenly the birds are still.
Thunder crumples the sky, Lightning tears at it.
And now the rain! The rain — thudding — implacable — The wind, reveling in the confusion of great pines!
And a silver sifting of light, A coolness; A sense of summer anger passing, Of summer gentleness creeping nearer — Penitent, tearful, Forgiven!
Squall as published in A Canopic Jar by Leonora Speyer von Stosch (E.P. Dutton & company: New York, 1921).
According to Wikipedia, Leonora Speyer or Lady Speyer was an American poet and violinist. She was born in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Count Ferdinand von Stosch of Manze in Silesia, who fought for the Union in the American Civil War, and Julia Schayer, who was a writer.
However much money she had or the Speyer’s had or the von Stosch’s had, they had enough so that she had her portrait painted by John Singer Sargent.
Mr. Sargent made a lot of money painting portraits of people who had a lot of money.
It was Mr. Sargent who said that they hardest part of painting portraits of people who had a lot money was that he had to listen to those people talk while he painted.
As he put it, “Painting a portrait would be quite amusing if one were not forced to talk while working…. What a nuisance having to entertain the sitter and to look happy when one feels wretched.”
ups downs but always the sense of motion and the illusion of hope
But the years 1895 to 1900 which are the staple of this story exceed in vividness, variety and exertion anything I have known—except of course the opening months of the Great War.
When I look back upon them I cannot but return my sincere thanks to the high gods for the gift of existence.
All the days were good and each day better than the other.
Ups and downs, risks and journeys, but always the sense of motion, and the illusion of hope.
Come on now all you young men, all over the world.
You are needed more than ever now to fill the gap of a generation shorn by the War.
You have not an hour to lose. You must take your places in life’s fighting line.
Twenty to twenty-five! These are the years!
Don’t be content with things as they are.
‘The earth is yours and the fulness thereof’.
Enter upon your inheritance, accept your responsibilities.
Raise the glorious flags again, advance them upon the new enemies, who constantly gather upon the front of the human army, and have only to be assaulted to be overthrown.
Don’t take No for an answer.
Never submit to failure.
Do not be fobbed off with mere personal success or acceptance.
You will make all kinds of mistakes; but as long as you are generous and true, and also fierce, you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her.
She was made to be wooed and won by youth.
She has lived and thrived only by repeated subjugations.
FromMy Early Life. A Roving Commission by Winston Churchill (London: Thornton Butterworth, September 1931).
Twenty to twenty-five! These are the years!
Enter upon your inheritance, accept your responsibilities.
Never submit to failure.
Do not be fobbed off with mere personal success or acceptance.
Is this not possibly the best GraduationAddress ever made?
This was Winston Churchill looking back in 1931 to a time when he was 25.
Looking back.
Spent the holiday with the kids and grand kids.
And I thought about this speech and I thought about young people who are growing up today.
I can look back to a time when I thought Twenty to twenty-five! Those are the years!
But what the kids too young to look back.
Those kids who grew up in this day and age and feel that this day and age is the norm.
They have no clue to how it was before the darkness started.
I hope they have a future to look forward to because these days are not much worth being excited about.
I am reminded of this passage from the book, 1984, where George Orwell writes:
” … it occurred to him that the old man, who must be eighty at the least, had already been middle-aged when the Revolution happened.
He and a few others like him were the last links that now existed with the vanished world of capitalism.
In the Party itself there were not many people left whose ideas had been formed before the Revolution.
The older generation had mostly been wiped out in the great purges of the Fifties and Sixties, and the few who survived had long ago been terrified into complete intellectual surrender.
If there was anyone still alive who could give you a truthful account of conditions in the early part of the century, it could only be a prole.
Suddenly the passage from the history book that he had copied into his diary came back into Winston’s mind, and a lunatic impulse took hold of him.
He would go into the pub, he would scrape acquaintance with that old man and question him.
He would say to him:
“Tell me about your life when you were a boy.
What was it like in those days?
Were things better than they are now, or were they worse?”
“Tell me about your life when you were a boy. What was it like in those days? Were things better than they are now, or were they worse?”
aware of the toil blood, treasure, cost to maintain this declaration
As I will be traveling and with family for the 4th of July Holiday, I prepared a series of three holiday haiku based on the same letter.
It is a letter written by John Adams to his wife, Abigail, where Mr. Adams described the events of July 2, 1776 when the resolution of independence was adopted with twelve affirmative votes and one abstention, and the colonies formally severed political ties with Great Britain.
But on July 4th, the Declaration of Independence was ratified and approved so that the Declaration starts out … In Congress, July 4th … and so it went down in history.
Writing on July 3rd, Mr. Adams felt it would be the Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epocha.
The most memorable day in history.
This is the third in the series and is based on the lines You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. — I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States.
Here is his letter.
Philadelphia July 3d. 1776
Had a Declaration of Independency been made seven Months ago, it would have been attended with many great and glorious Effects . . . . We might before this Hour, have formed Alliances with foreign States. — We should have mastered Quebec and been in Possession of Canada …. You will perhaps wonder, how such a Declaration would have influenced our Affairs, in Canada, but if I could write with Freedom I could easily convince you, that it would, and explain to you the manner how. — Many Gentlemen in high Stations and of great Influence have been duped, by the ministerial Bubble of Commissioners to treat …. And in real, sincere Expectation of this effort Event, which they so fondly wished, they have been slow and languid, in promoting Measures for the Reduction of that Province. Others there are in the Colonies who really wished that our Enterprise in Canada would be defeated, that the Colonies might be brought into Danger and Distress between two Fires, and be thus induced to submit. Others really wished to defeat the Expedition to Canada, lest the Conquest of it, should elevate the Minds of the People too much to hearken to those Terms of Reconciliation which they believed would be offered Us. These jarring Views, Wishes and Designs, occasioned an opposition to many salutary Measures, which were proposed for the Support of that Expedition, and caused Obstructions, Embarrassments and studied Delays, which have finally, lost Us the Province.
All these Causes however in Conjunction would not have disappointed Us, if it had not been for a Misfortune, which could not be foreseen, and perhaps could not have been prevented, I mean the Prevalence of the small Pox among our Troops …. This fatal Pestilence compleated our Destruction. — It is a Frown of Providence upon Us, which We ought to lay to heart.
But on the other Hand, the Delay of this Declaration to this Time, has many great Advantages attending it. — The Hopes of Reconciliation, which were fondly entertained by Multitudes of honest and well meaning tho weak and mistaken People, have been gradually and at last totally extinguished. — Time has been given for the whole People, maturely to consider the great Question of Independence and to ripen their judgments, dissipate their Fears, and allure their Hopes, by discussing it in News Papers and Pamphletts, by debating it, in Assemblies, Conventions, Committees of Safety and Inspection, in Town and County Meetings, as well as in private Conversations, so that the whole People in every Colony of the 13, have now adopted it, as their own Act. — This will cement the Union, and avoid those Heats and perhaps Convulsions which might have been occasioned, by such a Declaration Six Months ago.
But the Day is past. The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epocha, in the History of America.
I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. — I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. — Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.
Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1776.
with pomp, parade, shews, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations
As I will be traveling and with family for the 4th of July Holiday, I prepared a series of three holiday haiku based on the same letter.
It is a letter written by John Adams to his wife, Abigail, where Mr. Adams described the events of July 2, 1776 when the resolution of independence was adopted with twelve affirmative votes and one abstention, and the colonies formally severed political ties with Great Britain.
But on July 4th, the Declaration of Independence was ratified and approved so that the Declaration starts out … In Congress, July 4th … and so it went down in history.
Writing on July 3rd, Mr. Adams felt it would be the Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epocha.
The most memorable day in history.
This is the first in the series and is based on the lines I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.
Here is his letter.
Philadelphia July 3d. 1776
Had a Declaration of Independency been made seven Months ago, it would have been attended with many great and glorious Effects . . . . We might before this Hour, have formed Alliances with foreign States. — We should have mastered Quebec and been in Possession of Canada …. You will perhaps wonder, how such a Declaration would have influenced our Affairs, in Canada, but if I could write with Freedom I could easily convince you, that it would, and explain to you the manner how. — Many Gentlemen in high Stations and of great Influence have been duped, by the ministerial Bubble of Commissioners to treat …. And in real, sincere Expectation of this effort Event, which they so fondly wished, they have been slow and languid, in promoting Measures for the Reduction of that Province. Others there are in the Colonies who really wished that our Enterprise in Canada would be defeated, that the Colonies might be brought into Danger and Distress between two Fires, and be thus induced to submit. Others really wished to defeat the Expedition to Canada, lest the Conquest of it, should elevate the Minds of the People too much to hearken to those Terms of Reconciliation which they believed would be offered Us. These jarring Views, Wishes and Designs, occasioned an opposition to many salutary Measures, which were proposed for the Support of that Expedition, and caused Obstructions, Embarrassments and studied Delays, which have finally, lost Us the Province.
All these Causes however in Conjunction would not have disappointed Us, if it had not been for a Misfortune, which could not be foreseen, and perhaps could not have been prevented, I mean the Prevalence of the small Pox among our Troops …. This fatal Pestilence compleated our Destruction. — It is a Frown of Providence upon Us, which We ought to lay to heart.
But on the other Hand, the Delay of this Declaration to this Time, has many great Advantages attending it. — The Hopes of Reconciliation, which were fondly entertained by Multitudes of honest and well meaning tho weak and mistaken People, have been gradually and at last totally extinguished. — Time has been given for the whole People, maturely to consider the great Question of Independence and to ripen their judgments, dissipate their Fears, and allure their Hopes, by discussing it in News Papers and Pamphletts, by debating it, in Assemblies, Conventions, Committees of Safety and Inspection, in Town and County Meetings, as well as in private Conversations, so that the whole People in every Colony of the 13, have now adopted it, as their own Act. — This will cement the Union, and avoid those Heats and perhaps Convulsions which might have been occasioned, by such a Declaration Six Months ago.
But the Day is past. The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epocha, in the History of America.
I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. — I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. — Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.
Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1776, “Had a Declaration…”
