Moment of Joy

O Fortuna from Orff’s Carmina Burana is a joyful song. Here it is paired with a scene from Excalibur. On a mythic level, it exemplifies the sympathetic link between the king and the land (James Frazer would be so proud) as the land comes back to life with the renewal of King Arthur:

Eclipse Day part 2

We were supposed to get a little more over 90% of the sun covered during the eclipse. It was fun watching the bite taken out of the sun get bigger and bigger until it was just a little crescent, but that’s when the cloud coverage came fully in. Here are a couple of photos before that happened (taken by my science colleague, Mark, who had more luck with photos than I did):

And just to round out the day, a couple of ancient eclipses worth noting. First, in the seventh century BCE, the Greek poet Archilochus wrote the following in response to a full eclipse:

And second, the earliest event datable to an exact day comes from the sixth century BCE when an eclipse occurred during a battle, bringing a war to an end (if only that would work these days).

The NYTimes as a nice write up on Thales and the history of predicting eclipses. So happy eclipse day everyone. 🌙

Moment of Joy

A poem for Spring

The sun does arise,
And make happy the skies.
The merry bells ring
To welcome the Spring.
The sky-lark and thrush,
The birds of the bush,
Sing louder around,
To the bells’ cheerful sound.
While our sports shall be seen
On the Ecchoing Green.
Old John, with white hair
Does laugh away care,
Sitting under the oak,
Among the old folk,
They laugh at our play,
And soon they all say.
‘Such, such were the joys.
When we all girls & boys,
In our youth-time were seen,
On the Ecchoing Green.’
Till the little ones weary
No more can be merry
The sun does descend,
And our sports have an end:
Round the laps of their mothers,
Many sisters and brothers,
Like birds in their nest,
Are ready for rest;
And sport no more seen,
On the darkening Green.
Ecchoing Green in Songs of Innocence and Experience via the Metropolitan Museum