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reetings from Australia.
Welcome to this Red-Letter Day. Below you will find today's global celebrations, birthdays and events.
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I reached Britain
with the leading vessels at about 9 a.m., and saw the enemy forces
standing under arms all along the heights. At this point of the
coast precipitous cliffs tower over the water, making it possible to
fire from above directly on to the beaches. 'It was clearly no place
to attempt a landing, so we rode at anchor until about 3.30 p.m.,
awaiting the rest of the fleet. During this interval I summoned my
staff and company commanders, passed on to them the information
obtained by Volusenus, and explained my plans.
She's led him in through ae dark door, Sing his praises that doth keep |
Little Hugh of Lincoln She's led him in through ae dark door, |
I heard among the solitary hills
Low breathings coming after me and sounds
Of indistinguishable motions, steps
Almost as silent as the turf they trod.
William Wordsworth; 'The
Prelude', Book One
From the forests and highlands
We come, we come;
From the river-girt islands,
Where loud waves are dumb
Listening to my sweet pipings.
The wind in the reeds and the rushes,
The bees on the bells of thyme,
The birds on the myrtle bushes,
The cicale above in the lime,
And the lizards below in the grass,
Were as silent as ever old Tmolus was,
Listening to my sweet pipings.
Liquid Peneus was flowing,
And all dark Tempe lay
In Pelion's shadow, outgrowing
The light of the dying day,
Speeded by my sweet pipings.
The Sileni, and Sylvans, and Fauns,
And the Nymphs of the woods and waves,
To the edge of the moist river-lawns,
And the brink of the dewy caves,
And all that did attend and follow,
Were silent with love, as you now, Apollo,
With envy of my sweet pipings.
I sang of the dancing stars,
I sang of the daedal Earth,
And of Heaven – and the giant wars,
And Love, and Death, and Birth, –
And then I changed my pipings, –
Singing how down the vale of Maenalus
I pursued a maiden and clasped a reed.
Gods and men, we are all deluded thus!
It breaks in our bosom and then we bleed:
All wept, as I think both ye now would,
If envy or age had not frozen your blood,
At sorrow of my sweet pipings.
Percy B Shelley (1792 - 1822);
'Hymn of Pan'
Veni, vidi, vici. [I came, I saw, I conquered.]
The Romans under Julius Caesar invaded Britain on
this day in 55 BCE.
It is often thought Caesar referred to Britain in this famous
quotation. However, these words were written in a report to Rome in 47 BCE after defeating Pharnaces II of Pontus at Zela in Asia Minor in just
five days.
The only possible death is to lose belief in this truth simply because the great end comes slowly, because time is long.
WEB DuBois, American-born author and sociologist, who died on August 27, 1963
There's not much to say. I haven't been at all deedy.
Dame Ivy
Compton-Burnett, English author who died on August 27, 1969; on her life, in a posthumously published interview in the
The Times of London
There is nobody in all this writing world even remotely like her.
Norman Shrapnel, in The Guardian, on Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett
It is a pity when we cannot judge by the surface, when it is so often arranged for us to judge by it.
Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett; from Mother and Son
"Ah, to know all is to forgive all," said Rhoda.
"I confess I have not found it so, my lady. To forgive, it is best to know as little as possible."
Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett; from A Heritage and Its History
Anyone who picks up a Compton-Burnett finds it very hard not to put it down.
Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett; quoted by Elizabeth Sprigge in The Life of Ivy Compton-Burnett
To keep a lamp burning we have to keep putting oil in it.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta (born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu), Yugoslavian-born Nobel Prize-winning missionary; in
'Saints Among Us,'
Time magazine, December 29, 1975
God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass – grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence …We need silence to be able to touch souls.
Mother Teresa; 'Willing Slaves to the Will of God', A Gift for
God, 1975
There should be less talk; a preaching point is not a meeting point. What do you do then? Take a broom and clean someone's house. That says enough.
Mother Teresa; 'Carriers of Christ's Love', A Gift for God, 1975
What we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if that drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. I do not agree with the big way of doing things.
Mother Teresa; ibid
God doesn't require us to succeed; he only requires that you try.
Mother Teresa; quoted by Robert F Kennedy,
Jr, in Rolling Stone, December, 1992
August 27
is
the 239th
day of the year in the Gregorian
Calendar (240th in leap years), with 126
days remaining.
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Feast day of Pan, ancient Greece
On the 9th day of Boedromion, the Greeks honoured the god Pan. Athenians ran a torch-bearing race which it is thought ended at his altar in the cave beneath the Acropolis.
Pan (Greek Παν, genitive Πανος) is the Greek god who watches over shepherds and their flocks. He has the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat, in the same manner as a satyr, and is one of the deities within the archetype of the Horned God. His parentage is unclear; in some legends he is the son of Zeus and in some he is the son of Hermes. His mother is said to be a nymph.
Pan/Puck in the Book of Days
Festival of the Volturnalia, Roman Empire
In ancient Rome, today was the day for honouring a deity, Volturnus (the father of the water nymph Juturna, goddess of wells and springs) who was variously identified as the Sirocco (a wind) or as a river in Campania – he was later identified as god of the river Tiber.
The Volturnus River, in southern Italy, is named for him. Both Volturnus and his daughter Juturna (a goddess of fountains and sacred springs) were honoured this day, the Volturnalia, with feasting, wine-drinking and games.
The Portunalia (August 17) was another festival associated with the Tiber.
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