Such tribute as to winter chill
The lonely redbreast pays!
Hedgerows heavy with their bounty await the pickers and the birds, fields freshly shorn with bales neatly stacked, the coolness of the morning with clouds more grey than white – goodbye summer, let’s hope your Indian cousin visits soon.
September, 1819 by William Wordsworth
Departing summer hath assumed
An aspect tenderly illumed,
The gentlest look of spring;
That calls from yonder leafy shade
Unfaded, yet prepared to fade,
A timely carolling.
No faint and hesitating trill,
Such tribute as to winter chill
The lonely redbreast pays!
Clear, loud, and lively is the din,
From social warblers gathering in
Their harvest of sweet lays.
Nor doth the example fail to cheer
Me, conscious that my leaf is sere,
And yellow on the bough:-
Fall, rosy garlands, from my head!
Ye myrtle wreaths, your fragrance shed
Around a younger brow!
Yet will I temperately rejoice;
Wide is the range, and free the choice
Of undiscordant themes;
Which, haply, kindred souls may prize
Not less than vernal ecstasies,
And passion’s feverish dreams.
For deathless powers to verse belong,
And they like Demi-gods are strong
On whom the Muses smile;
But some their function have disclaimed,
Best pleased with what is aptliest framed
To enervate and defile.
Not such the initiatory strains
Committed to the silent plains
In Britain’s earliest dawn:
Trembled the groves, the stars grew pale,
While all-too-daringly the veil
Of nature was withdrawn!
Nor such the spirit-stirring note
When the live chords Alcæus smote,
Inflamed by sense of wrong;
Woe! woe to Tyrants! from the lyre
Broke threateningly, in sparkles dire
Of fierce vindictive song.
And not unhallowed was the page
By wingèd Love inscribed, to assuage
The pangs of vain pursuit;
Love listening while the Lesbian Maid
With finest touch of passion swayed
Her own Æolian lute.
O ye, who patiently explore
The wreck of Herculanean lore,
What rapture! could ye seize
Some Theban fragment, or unroll
One precious, tender-hearted scroll
Of pure Simonides.
That were, indeed, a genuine birth
Of poesy; a bursting forth
Of genius from the dust:
What Horace gloried to behold,
What Maro loved, shall we enfold?
Can haughty Time be just!
This week hails another week of superb discounted titles! Lee Child is back with a collection of short crime stories, entitled Safe Enough – usually £22, we’re selling this for £11. Robert Harris also returns with Precipice, a novel that seamlessly blends fact and fiction, as Great Britain heads into war with Germany in the 1940s and national secrets are leaked, but by who? This retails at £22, but we’re selling it for £15!
New in non-fiction, for the football fans we have David Peace’s Munich; the brilliant Mark Haddon has released a collection of short stories entitled Dogs and Monsters; for gothic crime fans we have I Died at Fallow Hall by Bonnie Burke-Patel; and Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree is a lovely, feel-good, queer fantasy.
In non-fiction, for the crafty types, there is the Pokemon Snorlax Crochet Kit which is bound to keep you entertained for hours! Art, Annotated is a beautiful coffee-table book, explaining some of the complexities behind your favourite works of art. Society of Snow by Pablo Vierci is a history of the 1972 disaster, which saw a Uruguayan young rugby team crash in the Andean mountains. And The Criminal Mind by Dr Duncan Harding is a journey through the mind as leading forensic psychiatrist explains what drives people to perform explicable crimes.
Lastly, for children two years and above, Ladybird Songs and Rhymes for Everyday is a beautifully illustrated collection of 100 loved songs and nursery rhymes. Whilst, for ages seven and above, How to be a Super Awesome Artist by Henry Carroll and Rose Blake gives us 20 exciting challenges to help children become great artists.
As always, if there’s something you need help with, or a book you need ordering, please call or email us!
From Amber
The full newsletter with linkd to books – including this week’s Signed Editions – can be found HERE
