Another Spirit Advances

I wanted to post a couple of poems that I found in a copy of the 1939 edition of the World Anthology of Poetry. If my house were burning to the ground I would run in to save this book. I found the book at an estate sale in the attic of the house next to an old book of a play in Spanish. I was only 12 or 13 at the time but my grandmother agreed to buy them for me for a collective price of 50 cents. The poetry book still contains the original handwritten receipt of purchase from Goldsmiths on Jan 4, 1940 for $1.89.

The first poem is entitled "Another Spirit Advances" and is by the French author and poet Jules Romains. I have to admit I don't read much poetry but this is my favorite by far and the only one I can claim to have memorized. Enjoy :)

What is it so transforms the boulevard?
The lure of the passers-by is not of the flesh;
There are no movements;
There are flowing rhythms and I have no need of eyes to see them there.
The air I breathe is fresh with spirit-savor.
Men are ideas that a mind sends forth.
From them to me all flows yet is internal;
Cheek to cheek we lie across the distance,
Space in communion binds us in one thought.


Here is the second poem translated from Latin and appearing in the same book by Decimus Junius Juvenalis called "Celestial Wisdom" the following are the first four lines of the poem:

Must hapless man in ignorace sedate,
Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate?
Must no dislike alarm, no wishes rise,
No cries invoke the mercies of the skies?


I have to point out a few things about the poems. First the poet Decimus Junius Juvenalis, I'm guessing was a Roman as the years of his life are marked as 60-140 in the book. M. Romains 1885-1972) is also the founder of the Unanimism movement in French literature. I am currently acquiring and reading his multi-volume work entitled Men of Good Will or Les Hommes de bonne volonté in French.

The Happy Life

A video from YouTube of a scene from the Showtime series The Tudors (4th season) with the Duke of Suffolk and the Earl of Surrey. Suffolk reads a poem that Surrey is working on and it's a pretty awesome poem. But the best part in my opinion is Surrey's comment after Suffolk's reading.

Ain't Life Grand

For the first post here is a video made by khataroo on YouTube set to the song Ain't Life Grand by Widespread Panic :)