Summer's Day Mosaic Poem by Jonathan ROBIN

Summer’s Day - (see notes below)

“A great while ago the world begun,
and we’ll strive to please you every one! ”


1 Mist melted from the mountain grey,
2 my road wound uphill all the way,
3 the stroll had bowled my breath away.
4 Below, beneath the rays of May, -
5 the briny beaches of the bay
6 whose level sands stretched far away.
7 I lay down in the heat of day
8 where ivy leaves curled up astray
9 ‘neath furze unprofitably gay.
10 Beyond, a sparrowed hedgerow lay
11 where patient silken spinners’ sway,
12 their multicoloured webs would play
13 with passing flies, a buzzing prey.
13A The spider weaves by night and day
13B although she’s heard a whisper say
13C a curse is on her if she stay.
13D She fears no curse, knows no dismay,
13E and so weaves on upon her way
13F a magic web with colours gay
13G with little other care today.
14 Bright bluebell buds in bursting spray
15 breathed perfum’d balm in sweet array, -
16 incomp’rable sweet summer’s day!

17 Bright blooms burst through in fairest hue
18 dressing the grounds in garlands new,
19 violets waved where green grass grew.
20 From far at sea a salt breeze blew
21 from foam-flecked waves whence - cry and hue –
22 white seagulls wheeled with plaintive mew.

23 From too much walking tired limbs ache,
24 while fingers flexed with feeble shake
25 from every effort one must make.
26 My thirsty grief the vine did slake,
27 I supped alone, but half awake,
28 then slumbered hours without a break.
29 Lowly plowman limped his way
30 with lowing herd, unheard were they.

31 From dreamless sleep I did not stray,
32 thus missed the sad decay of day
33 which mortal man may not delay,
34 spared from spite by sprite, elf and fay
35 while hawk winged homewards, would not stay.
36 Sun, sinking, bid the birds asleep
37 though thorny hedgehogs on did creep
38 and tickled trout rose from the deep.

39 My spirit, it was sealed so deep,
40 no snore, no sigh, nor timid peep,
41 nor sound disturbed the sleeping sheep,
42 no lamb strayed far from shepherd’s keep –
42A few, few should part where many meet
42B or moor may be their winding sheet.
42C Near bank where wild thyme blew so sweet,
42D where oxlips, nodding violet greet
42E the senses, woodbine, musk rose mete,
42F together twine, round oak trees’ feet,
42G there hateful fantasies, deceit,
42H were banished by dream lull’d heart beat.

43 Then from repose with sudden leap,
44 I rose to see on hillside steep,
45 two brave buck deer who’d butt and bray
46 together met in mortal fray.
47 Their antlers locked as flesh did fray
48 til one, the elder, brought to bay,
49 strength fled, - fell! Flat his form did stay, -
50 ne’er more to taste the scent of day.

51 Grey shadows glided by the brake;
52 the tawny owl and spotted snake
53 and playful badger cubs did wake, -
54 these rolled at ease where farmer’s rake
55 once furrowed for his harvest take.
56 Soft winds the moonlit leaves did shake
56A while here and there a foamy flake
56B winds whipped on silvery waterbreak.

57 On forest’s ferny floor a few
58 phantom horses’ hooves first flew,
59 then halted, fairy fronds to chew.
60 I felt as if their feet once knew
61 the road that wound the wan woods through,
62 now almost overgrown with yew.

63 Green glow worms glittered in the dew
64 blinking back to the star-backed blue.
65 No marks of Man here marred the view.
66 The pearls that string the Milky Way,
67 I numbered them at dusk that day, -
68 and when the sun rose where were they?
69 All happened here but yesterday,
70 now ended is our brief sweet play –
71 Time, gipsy man, no more could stay...

See References below :) 2

8th and 29th April 1975



Note: obviously the World Wide Web did not exist in 1975 notes have been added to facilitate either research or interest or both. Lines 13A – 13E,42A – 42H written 29th August 2005 while seeking links.


“A great while ago the world begun,
and we’ll strive to please you every one! ”
William Shakespeare Twelfth Night Act V Scene i

1 Mist melted from the mountain grey,
The mist has left the mountain grey

Sir Walter Scott: Hunting Song

A mist is making night more dark....
Misty vale and mountain grey are all the scene we're needing!
Faust - Johann Wolfgang v Goethe

mountain grey, and the blue dazzle of Morecambe Bay,
... The mist, the heavy mist, that was like a ghastly curtain, ...
The Sexton's Hero Elizabeth Gaskell

the mist that sleeps on a waveless sea.
... on the mountain grey

2 my road wound uphill all the way;
Does the road wind uphill all the way?

'the road wound uphill all the way'

The road wound uphill not quite all the way
Ode to Skylarks

3 the stroll had bowled my breath away. JR

4 Below, beneath the rays of May, -
All there is here are rays of May
You’re connected and subjected
To a place that’s dedicated
To a thing most have desecrated
Yet few have demonstrated
Erin Beyond Reality is where I fell

5 the briny beaches of the bay
sandy beaches of the bay of the Mount-SaintMichel

6 whose level sands stretched far away.
The lone and level sands stretch far away.'
Percy Bysshe Shelley: Ozymandias

7 I lay down in the heat of day
I lay in the heat of day awaiting her to return whiling and watching
the movement of all the humming of the forest the buzzing and clicks
David Arthur Adams N’kima Speaks


8 where ivy leaves curled up astray
In the wild world astray.
It was a dream; I'm home again!
I hear the ivy-leaves
Tap-tapping on the leaded pane!
Oh, listen! how the laughing rain
Runs from our cottage eaves!
Mathilde Blinde The Message


9 ‘neath furse unprofitably gay.
Beside yon straggling fence that skirts the way
With blossomed furze unprofitably gay.
Oliver Goldsmith: The Village Schoolmaster

Goldsmith calls the Furze 'unprofitably gay, ' but Furze is not 'unprofitable.' It is usually cut once in three years, and its ashes, after burning, yield a serviceable dressing for the land.
M. Grieve: A Modern Herbal

10 Beyond, a sparrowed hedgerow lay
Beyond the hedgerow lay the cornfield. Wild bee-orchids grew in profusion
Irma Dolphin Our Village

11 where patient silken spinners sway,
make even the silken spinners of the Reagan era seem primitive by comparison.'
... If corporations can play the talk radio game
Weapon of mass communication

12 their multicoloured webs would sway
Weave yer magic multicoloured webs Dame Ariadne, keep catching
them pesky flies that try tae eat my rationales

13 with passing flies, a buzzing prey.
Not half so thin their webs the spiders weave,
Which the most wary, buzzing prey deceive.
Ovid Metamorphoses Book IV

Just as Arachne when buzzing prey
Entangle, flutter, and would wing away,
From watchful ambuscade insidious springs,
Gentleman’s Magazine 1740
On The Death of The Famous Flyer on The Rope at Shrewsbury

fly-infested curtain where once neat green shade-rollers had hung.... a spider seized his buzzing prey and scampered back into a hole in the wall.
George A England Darkness and Dawn

13A The spider weaves by night and day Tennyson: Lady of Shalott
13B although she’s heard a whisper say Tennyson: Lady of Shalott
13C a curse is on her if she stay. Tennyson: Lady of Shalott
13D She fears no curse, knows no dismay,
13E and so weaves on upon her way
13F a magic web with colours gay Tennyson: Lady of Shalott
13G with little other care today.
There she weaves by night and day A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say, A curse is on her if she stay
Lines 13A B C F Alfred Tennyson The Lady of Shalott

14 Bright bluebell buds in bursting spray
Bluebell Buds

15 breathed perfum’d balm in sweet array, -
Can you, ye flow'rets, spread your perfumed balm
Mid pearly gems of dew that shine so bright?
Percy Bysshe Shelley: Despair


OH! bear me to the groves of palm, Where perfum'd airs diffuse their balm
Hemans, Felicia Dorothea Browne Song

Thy perfum'd breath a venom'd shaft conveys, /.And balm to cheer the fainting herbs and flowers
Joanna Baillie

16 incomp’rable sweet summer’s day!
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date
Shakespeare Sonnet XVIII

17 Bright blooms burst through in fairest hue JR

18 dressing the grounds in garlands new, JR

19 violets waved where green grass grew.
And the green grass grew over me
Author Unknown 18th Cent. Died for Love

20 From far at sea a salt breeze blew
a salt breeze blew her hair.... There's a sense of purpose in tides and the sea, '
A matter of Relativity
A fresh salt breeze blew in from the bay, bringing with it the tang of sea
Waiting for Xena

21 from foam-flecked waves whence - cry and hue –
the foam–flecked waves of the swelling seas,

John McKenny Ireland

Foam-flecked waves beat on the shore
With tidal currents running deep.
The stormy gales around us roar
But rock us in our sleep.


22 white seagulls wheeled with plaintive mew.
Joyce prised them both away by yanking on their hair, ignoring their plaintive mewling as... Overhead the seagulls wheeled, crying wanly in the warm morning air.

23 From too much walking tired limbs ache,
Limbs ache while walking; gait unsteady; increasing debility.
Constantine Hering Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica

the back and limbs ache, and the patient feels bruised and tired all over; weak and faint
Essentials of Homeopathic Therapeutics

24 while fingers flexed with feeble shake
My fingers flexed, testing your resiliency. Your skin was pliable and... I could
feel your hands start to shake


25 from every effort one must make.

26 My thirsty grief the vine did slake,
When thirsty grief in wine we steep, When healths and draughts go free,
Fishes, that tipple in the deep, Know no such liberty.
Sir Richard Lovelace To Althea from Prison

27 I supped alone, but half awake, JR

28 then slumbered hours without a break.
Working for hours without a break can be dangerous to health. 'It's very exhausting to work a full shift without eating, '
David Bacon No Rest for the Weary

29 Lowly plowman limped his way
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
Thomas Gray: Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard


30 with lowing herd, unheard were they.
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
Thomas Gray: Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

31 From dreamless sleep I did not stray,
What does it take to come back from dreamless sleep'? The transition is created through the re-enchantment of Eros,
Journal of Heart Centred Therapies

He woke again from dreamless sleep, and there was a change. From his corner, as he raised his heavy eyes, there met them what seemed an unbearable brightness;
Robert Hugh Benson: Lord of the world

I wake from dreamless sleep. For the first time since my unplugging, I feel refreshed
Following Serenity

Waking me up from dreamless sleep To quench this thirst for blood so deep.
The night is now young but for how long? Hunting in the night so lonely...
Carpe Noctem

32 thus missed the sad decay of day
And dayly spectacle of sad decay
Edmund Spenser: The Faerie Queen Book II


33 which mortal man may not delay, JR

34 spared from spite by sprite, elf and fay
Welcome prince and princess gay, Elf and fay and sprite at play, Dancing till the dawn of day
Ida Coe: Story Hour

35 while hawk winged homewards, would not stay. JR
36 Sun, sinking, bid the birds asleep
The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders
At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep;
Then to your offices and let me rest.
William Shakespeare Midsummer Nights Dream


37 though thorny hedgehogs on did creep
But, they do square, that all their elves for fear
Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there../.
You spotted snakes with double tongue,
Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
William Shakespeare Midsummer Nights Dream

38 and tickled trout rose from the deep.
When thirsty grief in wine we steep, When healths and draughts go free,
Fishes, that tipple in the deep, Know no such liberty.
Sir Richard Lovelace To Althea from Prison


laughing waters, which carried the joke to the tickled trout in the pool below
William Davis 1935 Nimrod of the Sea

39 My spirit, it was sealed so deep,
A slumber did my spirit seal; I had no human fears:
She seemed a thing that could not feel The touch of earthly years.
William Wordsworth: A Slumber did my spirit seal

40 no snore, no sigh, nor timid peep, JR

41 nor sound disturbed the sleeping sheep,
... and the rest of the citizens of this country are merely sleeping sheep who
are waiting to be herded into the elites next planned experimental genocide.
While the sheep are sleeping, the predators move in

42 no lamb strayed far from shepherd’s keep -
Where no man went; and if from shepherd's keep
A lamb strayed far a-down those inmost glens,


42A few, few should part where many meet JR

42B or moor may be their winding sheet.
Few, few should part where many meet
The moor shall be their winding sheet.
Thomas Campbell Hohenlinden

42C Near bank where wild thyme blew so sweet,
42D where oxlips, nodding violet, greet
42E the senses, woodbine, musk rose mete,
42F together twine, round oak trees’ feet,
42G there hateful fantasies, deceit
42H were banished by dream lull’d heart beat.
42C – 42H Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream Oberon at II, ii)

know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine.
There sleeps Titania some time of the nght,
And there the snake throws her enamell’d skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:
And with the juice of this I’ll streak her eyes,
And make her full of hateful fantasies http: //library.thinkquest.org/25592/acttwo.htm

43 Then from repose with sudden leap
They dance in maddest music high, . Or, with a sudden leap or bound, . Dash on like
bolts of destiny.... IMAGINATION! rouse thee from repose,
John Rollin Ridge

44 I rose to see on hillside steep
and see the pattern of each field counting the blessing of its yield...
through valley dark and hillside steep hear thy voice calling, and come home....
Jane Tyson Clement

45 two brave buck deer who’d butt and bray
46 together met in mortal fray.
All round them paused the battle, While met in mortal fray
The Roman and the Tusculan, The horses black and gray.
Lord Macaulay Lays of Ancient Rome


47 Their antlers locked as flesh did fray JR
48 til one, the elder, brought to bay,
When gainst the oak his antlers fray’d
You shall see him brought to bay
Sir Walter Scott: Hunting Song

49 strength fled, - fell! Flat his form did stay, -
When I approached the spot, the battle was at its height. Two huge bull moose were panting heavily, their antlers locked.


It can also happen that two deer get their antlers locked together and die from exhaustion.

NATIONAL WILDLIFE

50 ne’er more to taste the scent of day.
She could smell the forest on him - could almost taste the scent of pine needle, snow, and wood smoke that clung to his skin and hair.
Late Fragments: Ascian

taste the scent of the tree on the wind.
Wittgenstein’s Logic of Language: Parable of the born-blind people


51 Grey shadows glided by the brake;
two grey shadows glided in the dim light. 'They're early this year, ' the shepherd said....
Muhtar Auesov: Fierce Gray


52 where tawny owl and spotted snake
You spotted snakes with double tongue, Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
William Shakespeare Mid Summer Night’s Dream

53 and playful badger cubs did wake, -
And the badgers roll at ease
Rudyard Kipling: The Road through the Woods


54 these rolled at ease where farmer’s rake JR
55 once furrowed for his harvest take. JR

56 Soft winds the moonlit leaves did shake.
... she came through the shining moonlit leaves, bending down towards him...
as two flowers are blown together in the mild soft winds of summer; ...
Ouida Signa Book 3

56A while here and there a foamy flake JR

56B winds whipped on silvery waterbreak.
And here and there a foamy flake./. with many a silvery waterbreak
Lord Tennyson: The Brook

57 On forest’s ferny floor a few
“Is there anybody there? ” said the Traveller, Knocking on the moonlit door;
And his horse in the silence champed the grasses Of the forest’s ferny floor;
Walter de la Mare The Listeners

58 phantom horses’ hooves first flew, JR
59 then halted, fairy fronds to chew.
But only a host of phantom listeners That dwelt in the lone house then
Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight To that voice from the world of men:
While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,
Walter de la Mare The Listeners

60 I felt as if their feet once knew
And now you would never know There was once a road through the woods
Rudyard Kipling: The Road through the Woods

I slowly walked up the path my feet once knew so well...

a constant reminder an echo, the periscope I use to see the world my bare feet once knew
Devon Koren Bobbing for Apples

61 the road that wound the wan woods through,
They shut the road through the woods Seventy years ago.
Rudyard Kipling: The Road through the Woods

62 now almost overgrown by yew.
Two dilapidated Norse Mills were once powered by this little stream but are now almost overgrown by bracken and flags
Hebrides

View the inscription on that gravestone, which is now almost overgrown with thorns.
Hannah More Stories for the Young

63 Green glow worms glittered in the dew
in the rainforests of Darien. Glow-worms glittered and bats swerved before our noses

The morning sun glittered on the dew-dappled grass behind him,
and the breeze contained invigorating scents and promises....

64 blinking back to the star-backed blue.
... The periwinkle grass and forgotten hiding places sung soft lullabies. He collected his thoughts and emotions, blinking back to reality....

Marcus Aurelius - Writings

65 No marks of Man here marred the view.
In contrast to the view to the west, this one looking east has no marks of man - no TV antennae, no firebreaks, no road cuts....
Charlton Flat to Mt. Mooney and Devil Peak


The white sandy shore, formed of disintegrated granite, was much trodden over by
deer and other animals, but there were no marks of man discernible....
McCormak Journey across Newfoundland 1822


Unfortunately smog marred the view to the west
Kerry Alta Peak http: //kevingong.com/Hiking/AltaPeak.html

66 The pearls that string the Milky Way,
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
Byron Destruction of Sennacherib


The brightest and largest of the Milky Way's satellites at 50000 ly wide or more, ... began to appear like pearls in the mid 1990s
NASA Supernova 1987

67 I numbered them at dusk that day, -
Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown
That host on the morrow lay wither’d and strown.
Byron Destruction of Sennacherib

68 and when the sun rose where were they?
and when the sun rose it was scorched and since it had no roots it withered away
Parable of the Sower: Mark 4,6

Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown
That host on the morrow lay wither’d and strown.
Byron Destruction of Sennacherib

And when the sun rose and lighted up the house on the morrow, a mist came into the head of each of the three, so that they fell as if dead on the floor....
Finn and the phantoms

69 All happened here but yesterday,
It's all happened here before.... I play the ones from yesterday....

70 now ended is our brief sweet play –
Go, songs, for ended is our brief, sweet play;
Go, children of swift joy and tardy sorrow:
And some are sung, and that was yesterday,
And some are unsung, and that may be tomorrow.
Francis Thompson Go, songs, for ended is our brief, sweet play

71 Time, gipsy man, no more could stay...
Time, you old gipsy man, will you not stay
put up your caravan just for one day
Ralph Hodgson: Time, you old gipsy man

A great while ago the world begun, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain;
But that’s all one, our Play is done And we’ll strive to please you every day. Epilogue to Twelfth Night William Shakespeare