William Blake

[Lazy Luke]

The long hot spell, not seen in 40+yrs has now ended. Strong blustery winds have lowered the temperatures, (too sharply for my taste, and the second time this year the weather has abruptly changed, and proved irksome). Most remarkable has been the unusual colours: browns and yellows replacing grass green, and tree trunks bone dry and devoid of birds ...

William Blake (1757 - 1827) says it better than me:

To Summer

O Thou who passest thro' our vallies in
Thy strength, curb thy fierce steeds, allay the heat
That flames from their large nostrils! thou, O Summer,
Oft pitched'st here thy golden tent, and oft
Beneath our oaks hast slept, while we beheld
With joy, thy ruddy limbs and flourishing hair.

Beneath our thickest shades we oft have heard
Thy voice, when noon upon his fervid car
Rode o'er the deep of heaven; beside our springs
Sit down, and in our mossy vallies, on
Some bank beside a river clear, throw thy
Silk draperies off, and rush into the stream
Our vallies love the Summer in his pride.

Our bards are fam'd who strike the silver wire:
Our youth are bolder than the southern swains:
Our maidens fairer in the sprightly dance:
We lack not songs, nor intruments of joy,
Nor echoes sweet, nor waters clear as heaven,
Nor laurel wreaths against the sultry heat.