Suppose it were Friday lxxvii: Smith girl in transit

Ages ago, they came down to
my college in New Jersey in
buses, too brilliant to  be
trusted, too sharp to be re-
sisted. Not now. Theirs are
qualities that educate good
men-in-learning, even in con-
sternation. Patience and dis-
cretion find their day, and 
their night. Tonight, I re- 
visit Northampton, home al-
so of Roderick Hudson; and I
do remember this gentle phra-
sing of the obvious, from
Judge Mary C. Jacobson's
unanswerable judgement in a
closely watched case. A very
long time in coming, you say.
And is this not her day, too.


Granting a stay [of judgment] 
would simply allow the State to 
continue to violate the equal 
protection rights of New Jersey 
same-sex couples, which can hard-
ly be considered a public interest.”

 Garden State Equality v. Dow

The New York Times
October 10, 2013

Origins of Wednesday ii

  ..

  The circling streams, once thought but pools, of blood

  (Whether life's fuel or the body's food)

  From dark oblivion Harvey's name shall save,

  While Ent keeps all the honour that he gave.

  Nor are you, learned friend, the least renowned,

  Whose fame, not circumscribed with English ground,

  Flies like the nimble journeys of the light

  And is, like that, unspent too in its flight.

  Whatever truths have been, by art or chance,

  Redeemed from error or from ignorance,

  ..

  Such is the healing virtue of your pen,

  To perfect cures on books as well as men.

  Nor is this work the least: you well may give

  To men new vigour, who make stones to live.

  Through you, the Danes (their short dominion lost)

  A longer conquest than the Saxons boast.

  Stonehenge, once thought a temple, you have found

  A throne, where kings, our earthly gods, were crowned ..

John Dryden

To my honoured friend,

  Dr Charleton ..

  [fragment]

1662

Selected Poems

Steven N. Zwicker and

  David Bywaters, editors

Penguin Selected English Poets

op. cit.

A nice young member of his family

       

       One can certainly

       imagine that this

       might have been a

       life.