Pray for sunshine, and some peace

     Given any weather 

     someone's candy's 

     gonna run.

  

   

  It is to the strength of     this amazing invention we     are to attribute that         unequal'd fire and rapture,   which is so forcible, that   no man of a true poetical     spirit is master of himself   while he reads him. 

     On its face, it seems

     unseasonable this week 

     for one to be remember-

     ing the poem of force,

     as Simone Weil so ex-

     actly saw it, even as

     its most radiant heir

     recited it in English,

     capturing the distur-

     bance, say, the shock

     and awe of genius.

     I make allowances for

     the best, or what are

     holiday wishes worth?

     Peace will never seem

     more perfect, than in

     this recorded absence.

Alexander Pope

Preface

  The Iliad of Homer

  Alexander Pope,

    translation

June 6, 1715

Penguin Classics, 1996©