Sad words...

For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: "It might have been!"

~~John Greenleaf Whittier.

This Bernie Sanders ad made people the happiest of any campaign spot in 2016

Sell-ebs

Celebrity season has begun...again, and with a vengance.

I have, as one among many of my unfortunate traits, an intense dislike of "celebrities". Celebrities, I hasten to add, are a breed related to, but different from, those who are simply actors, musicians, entertainers or sports people - many of whose work I enjoy. Celebrity is an added layer, fostered, courted by certain of these types of workers (yes they are workers - doing what they do for money - and lots of it). Celebrity is available to any of them who wish to court it. It feeds ego, and thrives on the need for news people of all types to provide readers and viewers with material, which then provides advertisers with space to peddle their wares, which then.......it's always the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

This time of year has regularly brought on the worst symptoms of my affliction. It's a bit like 'flu season, it is actually 'flu season as well as Golden Globes, Oscars etc. season. Unfortunately, there's no shot available for celebrity-itis. The best way to deal with it is to avoid places where it can be picked up.

I tried avoidance this time around, we didn't watch the Golden Globes show on Sunday evening. Monday morning brought news and commentary, all over the internet, of Meryl Streep's political remarks when doing her speechifying bit on the show. I didn't need to read further, I knew exactly what would have been the gist of her diatribe. She isn't one of the main "celebrity" for its own sake clique, but she is one of the leading limousine liberals of Hollywood, keen Clinton supporter during the election circus just passed. She preached to the choir of her peers. If she's so keen to be seen as political, let her get into the political fray proper, run for office herself - otherwise, get on with the job she has chosen and stfu.

"BILLIONS"

I rented the 4 x DVD set of the first season of Showtime's "Billions" last week, we watched it over 4 nights - 3 episodes a sitting. I'd been keen to see it due to its leading actors: Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis, two of my favourites. The series' subject matter (the world of high finance and hedge funds) isn't one that fills me with enthusiasm, but with these two in leading roles I'd watch absolutely anything!

Messrs Giamatti and Lewis didn't let me down - they never have, never will. Two first-class actors who put acting before celebrity, and can play perfectly just about any role presented to them.

In "Billions" Paul Giamatti as Chuck Rhoades, US Attorney for New York's southern district, an intense, determined, occasionally with peculiar quirks, is the major foe of Bobby Axelrod (played by Damian Lewis), a self-made billionaire, from humble background. Axelrod's obscene wealth comes from shady manipulations of financial markets. It's a tale with classic pedigree - think along the lines of Jean Valjean & Javert (Les Miserables), or Captain Ahab and Moby Dick, and you'll have the story's general theme of cat and mouse - but in this case which is which?

The series' other DNA strand is the anti-hero genre, one that has become popular of late. Viewers feel they should seriously dislike Bobby Axelrod ("Axe") the billionaire, but he's too charismatic, generous and nicely humane in so many ways that it's difficult. US Attorney Chuck Rhoades has moments of rage, moments of sweetness, moments of peculiarity, yet retains integrity, keen sense of justice, and humanity. These men are both multi-layered, strong characters - it takes great actors to play them. I'm not convinced that the whole story-line is quite up to standard, we're required to suspend disbelief here and there, but it does, just about get by, confidently carried by the actors' undeniable talents.

"Billions" has many quirks all its own, as became obvious from the opening scene of episode 1 when we saw US Attorney Chuck Rhoades bound and gagged, about to have a stiletto heel imprinted in his chest with something warm to follow!

The wives of US Attorney and billionaire provide good foils to all projected "alpha male" goings on: Maggie Siff as Wendy Rhoades, a psychiatrist/performance coach who works for Axelrod's firm, and Malin Aker as Lara Axelrod who runs her own restaurant.

Matters of high finance are a closed book to me, even after having seen other movies with a similar theme. I had to learn again, as the 12 episodes unfolded, what is "a short", "insider trading", a "squeezed short" etc.

It's not easy to see how a second series of Billions could follow; if a follow-up is intended. I'm wondering if, perhaps, it'd be in the same vein as the second season of True Detective: different cast of characters, same broad theme.

I'm glad to have added Billions to my list of "seen" performances by Giamatti and Lewis, and now look forward to their next outings, whatever they may be.

It's Music Monday - staying with a theme cat & mouse chases, though in very different environment:

"Pancho and Lefty" - Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard

Saturday & Sundries

 Cartoon by James Thurber

What grade to give for Obama's presidency?

I'd give him a "C" (could've done better).

Husband found this in an old newspaper during his researches of 19th/early 20th century photographers.

My husband says:

Staying on a vintage track, I found these thoughts on musical tastes and astrology, submitted to The National Astrological Journal in 1934 by one Edward Forsythe of Providence, R.I. -

The type pf music that appeals to a person can be found by noting the aspects of Venus in his horoscope.
Venus and Sun - stately pompous pieces
Venus and Moon - simple, novel things
Venus and Mercury - quick, light music
Venus and Mars - marches, military and descriptive war songs
Venus and Jupiter - church hymns or slow, stately marches
Venus and Saturn - old songs and solemn tunes
Venus and Uranus - uncommon, futuristic music, such as Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin
Venus and Neptune - dreamy, quiet, romantic and mystical music.

The good aspects to Venus give preference to the slower form of each type of music; the afflictions tend toward the faster and wilder form of each, as signified by the different planets.

Hmmm - in my case, with Venus trine Moon and Venus square Neptune I'm supposed to prefer - musically - the simple and novel (slower version); and romantic, mystical, dreamy (faster wilder version). Do I? Yes - but lots of other stuff also.

Adam Lambert with "Time for Miracles".....ain't it just?!

Arty Farty Friday ~ Robert Longo

Robert Longo, born on 7 January 1953 in Brooklyn, New York. An American artist who has, since the late 1970s, "created a large body of work that mines the collective unconscious of our culture - capturing archetypal themes that resonate deeply within us. He trolls the culture, and captures particular iconography evoking themes of power, aggression, and violence - both man made and natural. Educated at State University in Buffalo and coming to New York with friends and colleagues such as Cindy Sherman and others, these young artists became part of the Pictures Generation - a movement that challenged themes of minimalism and conceptual art. During the many years that followed, his work has included a variety of mediums – film, photography, performance art, painting and sculpture. Today his art consists, primarily, of powerful drawings made in charcoal, image making in black and white - a binary world suggestive of the power of the opposites."
(Information from the YouTube entry which follows)






As Mr Longo is still around, still working, I shall resist posting his natal chart, but for anyone interested there's a 12 noon version of it at Astrotheme here. Key placements for me, relevant to his art style, are Capricorn Sun opposite Uranus in Cancer with two loose squares to a conjunction of Neptune and Saturn in Libra the sign ruled by Venus, planet of the arts, forming a T-square. This indicates tension between tradition and modernity, fact and imagination. Though Mr Longo's style is modern in concept, he relies strongly on chiaroscuro (light-dark), an oil painting technique, developed during the Renaissance, using strong tonal contrasts between light and dark to model three-dimensional forms. Also, his natal Sun trines Jupiter in Taurus (the other sign ruled by Venus), Jupiter representing exaggeration and excess is reflected in the huge size of much of his artwork.
Just a sidelight: facially Mr Longo is what I think of as typically Capricorn-looking.

Robert Longo's charcoal drawings can easily be mistaken for photographs, especially when viewed online. He does use photographs as guides when creating his artwork, but his drawings are all by freehand - no computer acrobatics involved.

A handful of examples of Robert Longo's artwork - many more at Google Image here. There are also several more YouTube presentations and interviews relating to Mr Longo and his artworks.

Outer Planetary Transits - a different theory

In his book Astrology for the Millions American astrologer Grant Lewi put forward a thought-provoking theory. He considered that, with regard to transits of the outer planets, it is the length of time they spend in a particular position that is paramount in their influence upon matters on Earth, rather than any inherent differences in the astrological characteristics of the planets themselves. Transits of the inner planets, to near-exact degrees of a sign, can last from hours to weeks, whereas the outer planets' transits last from many months to several years. Lewi believed that the nature of the experience under transits of Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto is substantially the same.

"It is in reconciling the similarity of the experience with the lengthening out of the time process that you achieve an understanding of yourself, and of how to handle the influences"...

.....of Uranus, Neptune, etc. as they travel through the signs and houses and over the planets in the natal chart. He feels that, for instance, a Uranus transit to the Sun is essentially the same as a Saturn transit or even a Mars transit. The difference resides in the time the planet remains in one place (conjunct, or in aspect to, a natal planet or point).

Our bodies and minds are naturally conditioned to the fast transits of the inner planets and the Moon, even to relatively fast transits of Jupiter and Mars. By adulthood we have experienced several of these and instinctively, or subconsciously respond naturally to them. When we experience a conjunction or hard aspect involving one of the outer planets, lasting for much longer, it has to seem somehow different, though not in the ways we might first suppose: Saturn's influence is said to be restrictive or severe, Uranus brings the quirky and unexpected, Pluto is the transformer....etc. Mr Lewi theorised that these transits feel different because they last so much longer, and in truth, the influence itself is much the same in each case.

From chapter 12 (page 376) The Grand Strategy of Living - part 1: The Nature and Meaning of the Planets

"It used to be stated, or implied, in the older astrological texts, that each of the Planets had a different quality, character, or tone, because of something inherent in its nature, Thus Saturn might have been said to have the quality of iron, hardness, weight; the character of sobriety or gloom; the tone of G-sharp Minor below middle C, or of the rumble of distant thunder. Mars might have been said to have the quality of hot steel, the character of courage or recklessness, and the tone of an awakening bugle. Whether these attributes emanated from the physio-chemical structure of the planets, which caused them to emit rays of a certain quality, or from other causes, was not clarified.

The premise seems to have been that each Planet had a quality inherent in itself, differentiating it and its influence from that of other Planets because of this self-contained quality.

Over a long period of study, in contact with numerous charts viewed experimentally and clinically, I have come to the conclusion that, so far as their astrological influence is concerned, the Planets do not differ in inherent quality. We know from the astronomers, physicists, spectrum-analysts, and chemists that the physical structure of the Planets is different, quantitatively, with respect to the percentages in which the elements are found in them and their atmospheres; and qualitatively, with respect to their stages of hotness, coolness, age, youth, formedness or non-formedness. It is possible that these differences do bear on their astrological influence.

However, consistent observation of planetary effects in a very large number of charts leads me to the conclusion that, whether or not Planets differ in their inherent character, their chief observable difference as they act in the chart is traceable directly to the difference in the rate of motion with which they pass through the Vitasphere......" (Grant Lewi called the natal chart the Vitasphere.)"Once we disabuse our minds of the idea that Planets differ in quality, and base our view of the chart on their differences in rate of motion, we come to grips with the basic realities of the Vitasphere, with the meaning of planetary influences in the forming of character and the timing of opportunity."

That outer planets' transits might have more to do with the length of their stay than with the traditional definition of the nature of that planet is a new idea to me, but not an outlandish one. Pluto, Uranus and Saturn bring changes, their motion is so slow as to make a visit from them to natal planets something unusual in itself. Neptune is not as easy to see as a bringer of general change though - change of attitude perhaps, rather than changes in outside circumstances.

It's quite difficult to turn off the specific astrological definitions for individual outer planets as stored in memory. I still tend to fall back on traditional interpretations. Even so, Grant Lewi's idea is one to keep in mind; i.e. that Saturn transits need not be severe or restrictive, just different; Uranus need not bring eccentricities or the unexpected just a feeling of things not as usual; Pluto need not be the dark, initially painful bringer of transformation, but will, for sure, herald change of some kind depending on personal background and circumstance.

Untold history -"Always the historian sees as in a mirror darkly, the reds and the golds rendered drab by the shadows of time"

 From a strip by Bill Watterson: Calvin & Hobbes

At a loose end one afternoon this festive season, I turned to Netflix, began watching Oliver Stone's documentary series The Untold History of the United States, recently added to the Netflix menu. I didn't realise until some time afterwards, while searching my tags for something else, that I had mentioned Oliver Stone's series in the past - in Feb. 2013 - when the series was originally aired, on Showtime.

Here's what I wrote in 2013:

Revisionist history has to be treated with the utmost caution - heck, in my opinion all historical narrative has to be treated with caution.

What brought this on? A reading of reviews and articles about Oliver Stone's Showtime TV series The Untold History of the United States. I've neither seen the series nor read the book, so am really not in a position to comment on Mr Stone's views in particular. From threads of comment here and there I picked up the idea that Stone has views about World War 2 that conflict with mine. I could be barking up the wrong tree, however. Commenters may be the real culprits. There's quite a bit of the: "Greatest Generation?" That's rubbish!" kind of attitude slung around; I was happy to note, also some intelligent counter argument.

Anyway, thinking again on this issue which has always irked me: historians, even the most fastidious of 'em, can only view events of the past from the perspective of their own time. It is impossible to walk in the shoes of those who made decisions, carried out orders, lived within the situations in the time in question. And this is the kicker: historians always know the end of a story. That makes an enormous difference. Those characters being written about, and oft critcised, did not know how their story would end. Added to that factor, even contemporary with the event there would always have been multiple perspectives of what was occurring and why. There's no single answer to any question about an event in history.

In the case of revisionist history writers the situation for the reader gets worse. Added to the above, revisionists almost always have axes to grind, their own agenda be it political, religious, financial/attention seeking or other. Such authors will tweak and massage, in insidious ways, what has become accepted history - which is already unlikely to be 100% accurate for reasons offered above.

After typing these few lines and mentioning the topic to my husband, he handed me the day's local newspaper and pointed to a half-page article headed Abe Lincoln's Conflicting Views by Walter Williams. In the first paragraph there is mention of the recent Lincoln movie, a book by Thomas Di Lorenzo, said to expose the Lincoln myth: Lincoln Unmasked, and another book, Lincoln Uncensored by Joseph Fallon. The last mentioned author is said to have examined 10 volumes of Lincoln's writings and speeches. "We don't have to rely on anyone's interpretation", says Walter Williams. No, we have to rely on anyone's cherry-picking of items to match their agenda - don't we, Mr Williams?

Having now seen three or four episodes of Mr Stone's series, as far as the cold war period, I've yet to decide whether to continue. There wasn't anything presented that I hadn't seen or read before, and more than once - nothing really "untold". Emphasis by Mr Stone and his co-writer American University historian Peter J. Kuznick, is more focused on Henry Wallace (how different would things have been had Wallace been FDR's Vice-president, and president on FDR"s demise?) Also, there's some strong emphasis on Russian involvement in World War II without which, outcomes and the present as we know it, could have been very different.

So far, Messrs Stone and Kuznick aren't revising as much as simply re-focusing historical detail, of which most viewers will already be aware. The facts have long been available, just not emphasised in exactly this way, at least not often.

On two or three occasions in the early episodes, I noticed some jabs at The British Empire and felt a wee bit of antagonism creeping in. Back in the time of British Empire-building, that was "the thing to do" - build empires - every European country was having a go at it! It's altogether wrong to look at events and aims critically through 21st century eyes without taking into consideration the atmosphere of those times. Britain itself had been occupied by, and had been part of, the Roman Empire. In 1066, William of Normandy conquered England. During the reign of Henry II, England was part of the Angevin empire, which included Ireland and most of western France....Some good bite-size historical information on the British Empire is here: at The British Empire Through Time.

The empire-building bug infected certain sectors of the human race almost from Day One - it does still! I suspect that Americans like to point the finger at the wrongs of British Empire builders and colonialists (and admittedly there were many wrongs) to allow themselves to feel a tad better: "We are bad but THEY were worse!"

If I can get myself in the right mood to continue watching the rest of this series, more on the topic could well be posted in due course.

Today's post title, by the way, came from this quote:

No one can really know the life of his own day, let alone that of times long past. Always the historian sees as in a mirror darkly, the reds and the golds rendered drab by the shadows of time.
~Earl R. Beck, On Teaching History in Colleges and Universities

Postscript:
My archived blog-post on Oliver Stone himself (and his almost astro-twin) is HERE.

Capricorn Considered

In his book, Astrology published 1964, Louis MacNeice, not an astrologer, but a poet and scholar, gathered together much of interest from a variety of sources, ancient and modern. On zodiac sign Capricorn, through which the Sun now travels, he wrote the paragraphs below, quoting from some professional astrologers whose works may now be less known by the average astrology fan - some related links are added at the end of this excerpt.
(Illustrations here were added by me.)

Capricorn the Goat
December 22 to January 20


A cardinal, earthy sign; also an equinoctial sign, the equinox of course being the winter one. So Capricorn's ruler, predictably, is frosty old Saturn. "One does not invite to dinner on the same evening Leo and Capricorn"; so writes Gleadow. With this sign one is (in western Europe) at the midnight of the year, so no wonder Morrish makes this the stage for "control of the mind". Tucker says that if Capricorn is your Sun-sign you should avoid alcohol in any form, if it is rising you will be inclined to be very pessimistic, and if you have Moon in Capricorn you will be very disagreeable if you don't exercise control - witness Napoleon.

 Capricorn by Erté

In the mid-19th century, when astrology was getting more mixed up with biblical symbolism, Frances Rolleston (author of an odd book called Mazzaroth, the Hebrew name for the Zodiac) equated Capricorn with the kid of sacrifice. But then she had already equated Aries (of all the signs!) with the lamb of innocence and meekness. From more orthodox angles A.J. Pearce ascribed to this sign a "disposition subtle, collected, calm, witty, and yet melancholy" and Ingrid Lind speaks of "action allied with common sense." through the ages Capricorn has been more often than not represented as a goat with a fish tail: Varley comments that while some Capricorn people look like goats, others look like fish. Symbolically, however, we can go deeper - or higher - than that: This is a fish with ambition that would like to clamber up the mountains.


Barbault stresses the opposition - and complementary relationship - of Capricorn and Cancer: Cancer is to Capricorn what the mother is to the father, the base to the summit, etc. In Capricorn we are getting away from matter (compare Morrish). Collectivization is coming in and the state or religious conscience may take over. Saturn is casting a chill or a shadow and yet he may be a liberator. If Saturn the ruler is actually in this sign, then everything is cut to the bone: You get people like Kant and Mallarmé. Among other Capricorn types Barbault instances Queen Elizabeth II (Capricorn rising and in sextile to Saturn, so strongly Saturnian), the stolid Marshal Joffre (both Sun-sign and ascendant), Kepler (of whom more later), Pasteur, Woodrow Wilson, and, above all, Stalin. The last named had his Sun in Capricorn, in aspect with all the slow-moving planets, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Get the idea?

 Capricorn by David Palladini

Capricorn people are thought to be born traditionalists, yet they are not so much disciplinarians as diplomats. They like traditional ceremonies, religious or civil, and are upset if they are dressed wrongly for the occasion. It is also conceded that many of them are religious in deeper sense; this might provide a bridge from traditional astrology to Morrish's astro-psychology. For Morrish, Capricorn is the gate to the spiritual life just as Cancer was the gate to "form-life." We are now getting into yoga (under Capricorn, like a yogi, one practices control) and are on the brink of spiritual rebirth, which for Morrish is represented by the next sign, the last but one in the Zodiac.

Astrologers mentioned:
André Barbault
W.J. Tucker
Frances Rolleston
A.J. Pearce
John Varley
Morrish (L. Furze-Morrish?)
Ingrid Lind
Rupert Gleadow

Backward Glances to 2016

I saved these two images as souvenirs of 2016 - that peculiarly upsetting 12 months we've just lived through. It'll be necessary to click on one, or both of the images for a bigger, better view, or on the link to the original articles. My only quibble with the Sgt Pepper illustration - I can't find astrologer Jonathan Cainer in there.

The Beatles’ iconic “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album cover has inspired a tribute to all of the celebrities who died in 2016.

George Michael, Prince, David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Gene Wilder, Robert Vaughn, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Leonard Cohen were among the dozens of famous faces featured in Chris Barker’s poignant creation. There are also references to major world events, such as Donald Trump’s presidential election win and Britain’s Brexit vote to leave the European Union:

Nearly Everything That Happened In 2016, In One Highly Detailed Illustration
From “Stranger Things” and Bernie Sanders to the death of Bowie, it’s all here.


Click on this one!

Another souvenir: Dave Barry's Review of 2016 is an entertaining long read, taking the reader through the exceptionally peculiar 2016, in light enough vein to produce many a chuckle.

It's Music Monday.....


For all those gone before:




As we move into 2017:

Arty Farty Friday, Saturday and Sundry New Year Babes

J.C. Leyendecker, one of the USA's hugely talented early 20th century illustrators, had a regular "gig" providing pleasing and apt illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post. (There's an old post partially on Leyendecker HERE.) Particularly memorable were his New Year covers. These depicted the incoming 12 months as a wee baby, appropriately occupied to indicate whatever was expected to be prominent in the year ahead.

I've captured a few images of Leyendecker's New Year babes and wonder if, because history is said to rhyme, any of them would, rhyming-wise, be appropriate to what lies before us as we trundle, dazed and confused, into 2017.

The general idea

 Middle East Concerns?

 New Infrastructure jobs?

 Attempt to capture peace?

 Bringing jobs back to the USA?

 Ready for climate change?

 Ready for a painful landing?

 Under the iron grip of....?

Finally...

 Always my favourite!

Ring-a-dingly

29 December - 5th Day of Christmas = 5 gold rings. It doesn't take much search time to find out that the 5 gold rings of the traditional song are not of the 24 carat, or any carat variety, but, like the gifts given on days 1 to 4, related to a winged rather than a fingered lifeform. Some sources point to the fairly common ringed pheasant, who has a white feathered ring around its neck area. I suspect it more likely the 5 gold rings in the song referred to the less common golden pheasant - look below! Its rings are multiple and golden!

 Ringed Pheasant

 Golden Pheasant

See also a post from a blog called Pixiebirding with further information on the golden pheasant.

Also an interesting read is this article at Brownielocks.com on the history, meaning and symbolism of the entire dozen gifts sung of in The 12 Days of Christmas.

"Sing, and the hills will answer; Sigh, it is lost on the air."

I'm tired of gloom and doom, political fear and frenzy, but I'm also tired of oft recommended self-help measures to deal with the aforementioned. Sometimes I get to the point of just not caring any more!

A century or so ago there was a poet who, in her day, acted much as self-help gurus do today, but whose words I much prefer:
Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

Unsophisticated, sincere, clear and optimistic, those are characteristics which shine through the poems of Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Let the literary elite scoff, her poems have pleased many more people than those of gloomy, suicidal, self-obsessed poets.

As well as a poet Ella was a mystic, and a Rosicrucian. She was born 5 Nov 1850 in Johnstown Wisconsin. Her Sun and Mars in Scorpio no doubt led her into mysticism, while Moon possibly in Sagittarius with Venus, led the optimistic attitude for which she became famous.

12 noon chart shown as no time of birth is known.



The writer's planet Mercury was in fair and balanced Libra, along with Jupiter. These two planets were opposed from Aries, Mercury by Uranus and Pluto, Jupiter by Saturn. The Mercury opposition was sweetened by harmonious sextile to Venus and trine from Venus to Uranus/Pluto, setting up a powerfully helpful configuration for her writing. The opposition between Saturn and Jupiter held Ella's exuberant hopeful spirit, which might otherwise have gone "over the top", in check and at a reasonably credible level.

"Ella Wheeler Wilcox is one of America’s great writers. Her prolific prose and poetry are a tour de force of optimism, of the triumph of hope over despair, of victory over failure, of good over evil, of kindness over selfishness. She gave no quarter to negativity. The harshness of life was but an opportunity to change lead into gold. She was a transcendental alchemist. She had a mastery of expressing with words the play of light and hope and creativity upon dreariness and hopelessness and destructiveness.

We have many good, more sophisticated writers. However, Ms. Wilcox’s strength is her simplicity. She had the knack of getting to the heart of the most complex of everyday human problems. Then, she’d come up with the most simply worded and highly potent answers. She’d do this in prose. She’d do it with a poem. For example, she appreciated the need for, and the beauty of, our diverse religious faiths. However, she recognized the danger of adherents of any one faith considering their faith the only true one for all humanity. Deftly, she steers her readers away from the dangers of divisiveness. She simply stressed the basic core of all faiths when she wrote:

So many Gods, so many creeds,
So many paths that wind and wind,
When just the art of being kind
Is all this sad world needs." (From HERE)

A quote from her poem "Solitude" - opening lines are well-known:

Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone.
For the sad old earth must borrow it's mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.

Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go.
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all.
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life's gall.

Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a long and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain.