Poem for November: Autumn, by Thomas Nashe

Autumn

Thomas Nashe

Autumn hath all the summer’s fruitful treasure ;

Gone is our sport, fled is poor Croydon’s pleasure.

Short days, sharp days, long nights come on apace,—

Ah, who shall hide us from the winter’s face?

Cold doth increase, the sickness will not cease,

And here we lie, God knows, with little ease.

From winter, plague, and pestilence, good Lord deliver us!

London doth mourn, Lambeth is quite forlorn ;

Trades cry, Woe worth that ever they were born.

The want of term is town and city’s harm ;

Close chambers we do want to keep us warm.

Long banished must we live from our friends ;

This low-built house will bring us to our ends.

From winter, plague, and pestilence, good Lord deliver us!

I’m not so much a fan of winter. I memorized this poem simply so I could declaim the last line in each stanza on particularly nasty days.

This was somewhat challenging to memorize, mostly because I wasn’t sure what some of the references were. Because I memorize while walking, I tended to forget to look up “Croydon” (now a commercial center south of London) and “Lambeth” (a district of South London) and see what they were. For difficult lines I tend to associate words with a picture in my mind. This is very hard to do when you don’t have any idea what the poet is talking about. And “want of term” what does that mean? Ah! I’ve just googled it and found a link with a website that tells me. It means “lack of an end” which makes sense now. It also helpfully decodes Croydon and Lambeth. Thanks, Poets Corner!

Books read in November

I only read three books this month! Three! I started a bunch over Thanksgiving, though and so December will have more books. Also, alas, the books I read weren’t very good this month.

Read
Little Earthquakes
Jennifer Weiner
This suffers a bit from some of the characters being just a bit too much. The control freak was just a bit too controlling, the mother-in-law from hell was just a bit too hellish, the depressed one was too depressed. It distracted from the story. Though I probably won’t remember much about this book in five years, the characterizations of early motherhood were nicely done and I enjoyed the humor sprinkled throughout the book.

The Elements of Style
Wendy Wasserstein
Oh, how I detested this book. This was disappointing, as I enjoy Wasserstein’s plays, and was hoping that this book would recapture some of that magic. It didn’t. Stuffed full of entirely unlikeable, incredibly wealthy Manhattenites, who attempt to navigate their very privileged lives in a post-9/11 world. I could care less about them, their “problems” and their entirely vapid hopes. I only finished reading this novel because it was the only thing in the house and it was slightly more exciting than the back of soup cans. Not recommended.

Revive: How to overcome fatigue naturally
Jill Thomas
I attempt to combat my seemingly unending fatigue by reading this book and another one. This was the far superior version. Not surprisingly, I need to eat more vegetables and fruit as well as up my fiber intake in general and recommit to regular exercise. The inexplicable red font was a bit distracting, but other than that, the quiet helpful and succinct tone of this manual was just what the Naturopath ordered.

Started but did not finish

Honey in the Horn
H.L. Davis
Oh, how I want to be the type of reader who actually reads classic literature. This isn’t even very old. My Grandmother was in her 20’s when this won the Pulitzer Prize. It’s set in frontier Oregon, the narrative is a strong one. I just couldn’t force my lazy reading self to keep on keeping on. Alas. If you are made of sterner stuff than me, enjoy.

The Exhaustion Cure: up your energy from low to go in 21 days.
Laura Stack
This did not speak to me as much as Jill Thomas’ Revive, though people not familiar with Naturopathy might be more comfortable with it. Includes quizzes, but also a lot of product placement, which I ultimately found distracting.

Lapham Rising: a novel
Roger Rosenblatt
There’s good quirky (Wonderboys) and then there is a bit too quirky. This fits into the latter category. The sculpture of the ex-wife sitting at the kitchen table; the bazillionare’s mansion being built across the street with a device that air conditions the entire property; the skinny-dipping Realtor; the dog that actually speaks? It was just too much.