And Now For Something Completely Different

“The Haunted Palace” by Edgar Allen Poe

In the greenest of our valleys
By good angels tenanted,
Once a fair and stately palace -
Radiant palace - reared its head.
In the monarch Thought's dominion -
It stood there!
Never seraph spread a pinion
Over fabric half so fair!

Banners yellow, glorious, golden,
On its roof did float and flow,
(This - all this - was in the olden
Time long ago,)
And every gentle air that dallied,
In that sweet day,
Along the ramparts plumed and pallid,
A winged odor went away.


Wanderers in that happy valley,
Through two luminous windows, saw
Spirits moving musically,
To a lute's well-tuned law,
Round about a throne where, sitting
(Porphyrogene!)
In state his glory well befitting,
The ruler of the realm was seen.


And all with pearl and ruby glowing
Was the fair palace-door,
Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing,
And sparkling evermore,
A troop of Echoes, whose sweet duty
Was but to sing,
In voices of surpassing beauty,
The wit and wisdom of their king.


But evil things, in robes of sorrow,
Assailed the monarch's high estate.
(Ah, let us mourn! - for never morrow
Shall dawn upon him desolate!)
And round about his home, the glory
That blushed and bloomed
Is but dim-remembered story
Of the old time entombed.


And travellers now, within that valley,
Through the red-litten windows see
Vast forms, that move fantastically
To a discordant melody,
While, like a ghastly rapid river,
Through the pale door
A hideous throng rush out forever
And laugh - but smile no more.


This is going to be a quirky post, so firstly, this month's poems are going to be spooky and ghoulish in themes, motifs and/ or subject matter. I hope you enjoy them!

Secondly, I must admit how thoroughly ashamed I am of myself for missing the anniversary of Monty Python’s Flying Circus' premier on October 5, 1969.


Here is one of my favorite Monty Python sketches, "The Philosophers' World Cup" - Germany v. Greece, to make amends:



"If I can get you to laugh with me, you like me better, which makes you more open to my ideas. And if I can persuade you to laugh at the particular point I make, by laughing at it you acknowledge its truth." –John Cleese


Thirdly, this morning I took Heidi to the vet and while she was in the back getting her nails clipped, I went to find a sink to dump out my coffee because it tasted like soap. As I walked out of the lobby's bathroom, I hear, "Julie! Julie, come here! Julie, now!" You can imagine how perplexed I was, and turned around to face the voice. The voice belonged to a nurse and she was talking to a 3-legged dog, whose name is also Julie. My name is awesome.

Have a great day! As they say in the best children's film ever, Adventure is out there!