ANECDOTE FOR FATHERS BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH 

William Wordsworth was the great initiator of the Romantic movement. His poetry is full of joy, exploration, seeing the beauty stark and as a vision that becomes unbearable, and needs to be expressed. They are full of the joy of Nature, of life and soothe the heart and the mind in a unique and profoundly original way. For him life was simply an endless fascination for life, nature, living and self discovery. At times he sees with such a blinding vision of divine beauty, it leaves us shocked, and he makes that divinity of nature believable, as he had experienced. 

ANECDOTE FOR FATHERS BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH 

I HAVE a boy of five years old; 

His face is fair and fresh to see; 

His limbs are cast in beauty's mold 

And dearly he loves me. 

One morn we strolled on our dry walk, 

Or quiet home all full in view, 

And held such intermittent talk 

As we are wont to do. 

My thoughts on former pleasures ran; 

I thought of Kilve's delightful shore, 

Our pleasant home when spring began, 

A long, long year before. 

A day it was when I could bear 

Some fond regrets to entertain; 

With so much happiness to spare, 

I could not feel a pain. 

The green earth echoed to the feet 

Of lambs that bounded through the glade, 

From shade to sunshine, and as fleet 

From sunshine back to shade. 

Birds warbled round me and each trace 

Of inward sadness had its charm; 

Kilve, thought I, was a favoured place, 

And so is Liswyn farm. 

My boy beside me tripped, so slim 

And graceful in his rustic dress! 

And, as we talked, I questioned him, 

In very idleness. 

'Now tell me, had you rather be,' 

I said. and took him by the arm, 

'On Kilve's smooth shore, by the green sea, 

Or here at Liswyn farm?' 

In careless mood he looked at me, 

While still I held him by the arm, 

And said, 'At Kilve I'd rather be 

Than here at Liswyn farm.' 

'Now, little Edward, say why so 

My little Edward, tell me why.' 

'I cannot tell, I do not know.' 

'Why, this is strange,' said I; 

'For, here are woods, hills smooth and warm: 

There surely must one reason be 

Why you would change sweet Liswyn farm 

For Kilve by the green sea.' 

At this, my boy hung down his head, 

He blushed with shame, nor made reply; 

And three times to the child I said, 

'Why, :Edward, tell me why?' 

His head he raised there was in sight, 

It caught his eye, he saw it plain 

Upon the house-top, glittering bright, 

A broad and gilded vane. 

Then did the boy his tongue unlock, 

And eased his mind with this reply: 

'At Kilve there was no weather-cock; 

And that's the reaon why.' 

O dearest, dearest boy! my heart 

For better lore would seldom yearn, 

Could I but teach the hundredth part 

Of what from thee I learn.

TELEVISION BY ROALD DAHL

*

TELEVISION BY ROALD DAHL

The most important thing we've learned,

So far as children are concerned,

Is never, NEVER, NEVER let

Them near your television set -

Or better still, just don't install

The idiotic thing at all.

In almost every house we've been,

We've watched them gaping at the screen.

They loll and slop and lounge about,

And stare until their eyes pop out.

(Last week in someone's place we saw

A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)

They sit and stare and stare and sit

Until they're hypnotised by it,

Until they're absolutely drunk

With all that shocking ghastly junk.

Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,

They don't climb out the window sill,

They never fight or kick or punch,

They leave you free to cook the lunch

And wash the dishes in the sink --

But did you ever stop to think,

To wonder just exactly what

This does to your beloved tot?

IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!

IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!

IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!

IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND

HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND

A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!

HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!

HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!

HE CANNOT THINK -- HE ONLY SEES!

'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,

'But if we take the set away,

What shall we do to entertain

Our darling children? Please explain!'

We'll answer this by asking you,

'What used the darling ones to do?

'How used they keep themselves contented

Before this monster was invented?'

Have you forgotten? Don't you know?

We'll say it very loud and slow:

THEY ... USED ... TO ... READ! They'd READ and READ,

AND READ and READ, and then proceed

To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!

One half their lives was reading books!

The nursery shelves held books galore!

Books cluttered up the nursery floor!

And in the bedroom, by the bed,

More books were waiting to be read!

Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales

Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales

And treasure isles, and distant shores

Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,

And pirates wearing purple pants,

And sailing ships and elephants,

And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,

Stirring away at something hot.

(It smells so good, what can it be?

Good gracious, it's Penelope.)

The younger ones had Beatrix Potter

With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,

And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,

And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-

Just How The Camel Got His Hump,

And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,

And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,

There's Mr. Rat and Mr. Mole-

Oh, books, what books they used to know,

Those children living long ago!

So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,

Go throw your TV set away,

And in its place you can install

A lovely bookshelf on the wall.

Then fill the shelves with lots of books,

Ignoring all the dirty looks,

The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,

And children hitting you with sticks-

Fear not, because we promise you

That, in about a week or two

Of having nothing else to do,

They'll now begin to feel the need

Of having something to read.

And once they start - oh boy, oh boy!

You watch the slowly growing joy

That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen

They'll wonder what they'd ever seen

In that ridiculous machine,

That nauseating, foul, unclean,

Repulsive television screen!

And later, each and every kid

Will love you more for what you did.

ON FRIENDSHIP BY KAHLIL GIBRAN

ON FRIENDSHIP BY KAHLIL GIBRAN 

And a youth said, "Speak to us of Friendship."

Your friend is your needs answered.

He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanks giving.

And he is your board and your fireside.

For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.

When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay."

And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;

For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unclaimed.

When you part from your friend, you grieve not;

For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.

And let your best be for your friend.

If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.

For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?

Seek him always with hours to live.

For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.

For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

MOTHER'S DAY BY SHIV K KUMAR

MOTHER'S DAY BY SHIV K KUMAR

We do it differently

in this dark continent.

Not just once a year

a string of spurious verses

ensconced in a bouquet

shaped like Chinese house of dreams.

My mother is more demanding -

an obeisance at each sunrise,

like a devotee throwing a handful

of yellow rice to the birds.

Holding a candelabrum before an idol,

Just once a year

Is desecrating it.

Whenever I see a caterpillar slouching

towards a pansy's eye,

or hear ancestral voices in a wind's howl,

I invoke my deity -

sometimes twice a day.