How beautiful is the rain!
After the dust and heat,
If colours had smells, green would be that of the soft, cooling rain which falls after weeks of sharp summer dryness. Distinct and fresh, a long, deep draw through the nostrils and the colour is unmistakably green. The primary colours which when coupled together make natures green have also been a significant part of this summer, and they too stimulate the senses – endless blue, some days so evenly painted and expansive the eyes struggle to focus on the depth, the golden yellow of the fields, perhaps a little harsh, but almost ready for the harvest. This has been a summer of colour – the endless sunshine like one of the spotlights in the shop – picking out and accentuating the vivid colours of the books on the shelves, striking and beautiful in equal measure – a full spectrum of colour is always to be found in a bookshop. The richness of the authors written word matched by the creativity of the illustrators and the book covers they produce. Yellow and blue are the bravest colours of this summer, they always will be.
Extract from ‘Rain in Summer’ by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
How beautiful is the rain!
After the dust and heat,
In the broad and fiery street,
In the narrow lane,
How beautiful is the rain!
How it clatters along the roofs,
Like the tramp of hoofs
How it gushes and struggles out
From the throat of the overflowing spout!
Across the window-pane
It pours and pours;
And swift and wide,
With a muddy tide,
Like a river down the gutter roars
The sick man from his chamber looks
At the twisted brooks;
He can feel the cool
Breath of each little pool;
His fevered brain
Grows calm again,
And he breathes a blessing on the rain.
From the neighbouring school
Come the boys,
With more than their wonted noise
And commotion;
And down the wet streets
Sail their mimic fleets,
Till the treacherous pool
Ingulfs them in its whirling
And turbulent ocean.
In the country, on every side,
Where far and wide,
Like a leopard’s tawny and spotted hide,
Stretches the plain,
To the dry grass and the drier grain
How welcome is the rain!
In the furrowed land
The toilsome and patient oxen stand;
Lifting the yoke encumbered head,
With their dilated nostrils spread,
They silently inhale
The clover-scented gale,
And the vapours that arise
From the well-watered and smoking soil.
For this rest in the furrow after toil
Their large and lustrous eyes
Seem to thank the Lord,
More than man’s spoken word.
Near at hand,
From under the sheltering trees,
The farmer sees
His pastures, and his fields of grain,
As they bend their tops
To the numberless beating drops
Of the incessant rain.
He counts it as no sin
That he sees therein
Only his own thrift and gain.
These, and far more than these,
The Poet sees!
He can behold
Aquarius old
Walking the fenceless fields of air;
And from each ample fold
Of the clouds about him rolled
Scattering everywhere
The showery rain,
As the farmer scatters his grain.
He can behold
Things manifold
That have not yet been wholly told,-
Have not been wholly sung nor said.
For his thought, that never stops,
Follows the water-drops
Down to the graves of the dead,
Down through chasms and gulfs profound,
To the dreary fountain-head
Of lakes and rivers under ground;
And sees them, when the rain is done,
On the bridge of colours seven
Climbing up once more to heaven,
Opposite the setting sun.
Thus the Seer,
With vision clear,
Sees forms appear and disappear,
In the perpetual round of strange,
Mysterious change
From birth to death, from death to birth,
From earth to heaven, from heaven to earth;
Till glimpses more sublime
Of things, unseen before,
Unto his wondering eyes reveal
The Universe, as an immeasurable wheel
Turning forevermore
In the rapid and rushing river of Time.
This is one of those eclectic weeks for Coles Signed Editions, a wide and diverse range of titles – a generous helping of award winning novelists; journeys into extraordinary lives, along with a splash of humour mixed with a little gentle laughter for younger readers.
The full newsletter with links to all the featured books can be found HERE
