Book description
This book is about the pleasures to be found in Winter. Beginning with
an exquisite passage from the Japanese, translated by Arthur Waley, we
turn to those lines from the Old Testament in which Job enquires,
"Hast thou entered into treasures of the Snow?" From there we
go to two Japanese poems of over a thousand years ago, translated by
Arthur Waley. The book includes a generally unknown sonnet of great
beauty by Lord Herbert of Cherbury, a little-known poem by Henry King, a
song by Wyatt, and strange passages about the Northern Lights by early
travellers. There are poems by Blake, Byron, Donne, Phineas Fletcher,
Campion, Herrick, Villon, Mallarme, Baudelaire and Marot. There are ten
poems "For Christmas Day", including several carols that are
little known. There is a section under the heading of "By the
Fire", and one devoted to "The Winter Night". The latter
contains several religious meditations of great beauty, as well as
passages devoted to "Fairies and Spirits". Finally, after all
adventures, we find ourselves at the beginning of spring, just as the
ice begins to melt. This book is about the pleasures to be found in
Winter. Beginning with an exquisite passage from the Japanese,
translated by Arthur Waley, we turn to those lines from the Old
Testament in which Job enquires, "Hast thou entered into treasures
of the Snow?" From there we go to two Japanese poems of over a
thousand years ago, translated by Arthur Waley. The book includes a
generally unknown sonnet of great beauty by Lord Herbert of Cherbury, a
little-known poem by Henry King, a song by Wyatt, and strange passages
about the Northern Lights by early travellers. There are poems by Blake,
Byron, Donne, Phineas Fletcher, Campion, Herrick, Villon, Mallarme,
Baudelaire and Marot. There are ten poems "For Christmas Day",
including several carols that are little known. There is a section under
the heading of "By the Fire", and one devoted to "The
Winter Night". The latter contains several religious meditations of
great beauty, as well as passages devoted to "Fairies and
Spirits". Finally, after all adventures, we find ourselves at the
beginning of spring, just as the ice begins to melt.
