The newspapers this morning have all sorts of gloomy news. Evidently, the fall leef peeper traffic in New England is way down, not just because of the rainy weather, but because the color is not up to its usual intensity. The Boston Globe actually has a map of the autumnal effects this year as compared to last. (Clike on "Drab Season" a bit down in the article for the map.) This, and a slow apple season, is affecting the New England economy. Finally, the rain continues. Today, we have flood watches. In any case, The Lone Elm is getting quite tired of all this! So, how about a little poetry?
The Wind Among the Reeds
I went out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.
When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire a-flame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And someone called me by my name:
It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.
Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done,
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.
This is one of my favorite poems, in part because of a couple of settings to music. The group Village Harmony did a rendition (with just their male singers) that I found quite memorable and Paul Winter's Celtic Solstice album has another haunting rendition.
The poem works whether or not you know the legend on which it is based.
But I'm just an amateur. Asking the hive-mind Google, yields much fruit:
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1.html
and references to another large handful of musical renditions.
Posted by: jemcginness | October 20, 2005 at 01:14 AM