the suspense...

A day with no library blog? Perish the thought...

The blogger is working on a project. You'll see tomorrow what it is, if all goes well.

It involves '80s hair. That's all I'm saying.

I will leave you with this. Thank you to my friend who reminded me of it, and to the wonderful library database The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry.


Ash Wednesday
by Thomas Stearns (T.S.) Eliot



I



1Because I do not hope to turn again
Because I do not hope
Because I do not hope to turn
Desiring this man's gift and that man's scope
5 I no longer strive to strive towards such things
(Why should the aged eagle stretch its wings?)
Why should I mourn
The vanished power of the usual reign?

Because I do not hope to know again
10 The infirm glory of the positive hour
Because I do not think
Because I know I shall not know
The one veritable transitory power
Because I cannot drink
15 There, where trees flower, and springs flow, for there is nothing again

Because I know that time is always time
And place is always and only place
And what is actual is actual only for one time
And only for one place
20 I rejoice that things are as they are and
I renounce the blessed face
And renounce the voice
Because I cannot hope to turn again
Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something
25 Upon which to rejoice

And pray to God to have mercy upon us
And I pray that I may forget
These matters that with myself I too much discuss
Too much explain
30 Because I do not hope to turn again
Let these words answer
For what is done, not to be done again
May the judgement not be too heavy upon us

Because these wings are no longer wings to fly
35 But merely vans to beat the air
The air which is now thoroughly small and dry
Smaller and dryer than the will
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still.

40 Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death
Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.


Click here for the rest.