Dec 19

Today’s Vanilla Chai was particularly nice. So much so that we finally got an opportunity to take advantage of the teabag rest (china, cat shaped, a gift from a friend, not the one in the office) so we could re-infuse it later. All very Barbara Pym. In the office, we re-infuse tea all the time, primarily because there are signs everywhere asking us to be “mindful of our consumption” and we can get through an awful lot of tea. Also, a mug doesn’t seem like adequate use of a teabag.

Typically when we work from home it’s leaf tea all the time, but this calendar does a line in teabags, so that’s what we’ve been using. Because it was chai, and also because of the vanilla, we sweetened it again and the result tasted excellent. It also got us through three high-profile reports, and that’s not nothing.

Candidly, when it was all done we didn’t have the energy for the blog. Or for books , or for flipping mindlessly through various channels to find something maybe watchable. We just want to sleep for a week. But anyway.

The other day we gabbled on at you about the sestina, which is rare and hard to find in literature. Today we went in search of another structured poem, the villanelle. Turns out, whereas the sestina mostly died out because it’s a linguistic hell to write, the villanelle became bizarrely popular in the 1980s. The most famous example is Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle, probably with good reason. But his isn’t the only villanelle. Have this one by Auden. It’s quite good too.

Villanelle
W.H.Auden
Time can say nothing but I told you so,
Time only knows the price we have to pay;
If I could tell you, I would let you know.

If we should weep when clowns put on their show,
If we should stumble when musicians play,
Time can say nothing but I told you so.

There are no fortunes to be told, although
Because I love you more than I can say,
If I could tell you, I would let you know.

The winds must come from somewhere when they blow,
There must be reasons why the leaves decay;
Time can say nothing but I told you so.

Perhaps the roses really want to grow,
The vision seriously intends to stay;
If I could tell you, I would let you know.

Suppose the lions all get up and go,
And all the brooks and soldiers run away?
Time can say nothing but I told you so.
If I could tell you, I would let you know.