How Many Angles?

                                         Brenda Bryant

THEME THURSDAY
http://themethursday.blogspot.com/
'Triangle'
 

Purists will cringe I know! But once the word 'How' came into my mind I couldn't help echoing the rhythms of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's beautiful poem.

At least it's given me a chance to publish her poem on my blog too!

HOW MANY ANGLES?

How many angles? Let me count them all.

A triangle in black first takes my eye

Cutting the tiny window to the sky.

That is, in fact, the ceiling in the hall.

Then comes the stair-rail angle to the right

Making a neat perspective with a line.

Somewhere those lines are certain to combine

Up to the left and somewhere out of sight.

Then comes the painting, never hung askew,

Which now seems tilted down as though to fall

And clinging quite uncertain, to the wall,

Deceiving us with angles all untrue.

Finally come the angles of the light!

My staircase! Such an optical delight!

                                       Me

 

The powerful original

HOW DO I LOVE THEE?

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of everyday's

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

I love thee with a passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

                                                             Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

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TECHNOLOGY
An Acrostic

True, it's brought us gadget toys beyond our wildest dreams!
Everything that can be made is being made it seems!
Clever people keep 'improving life', or so they say.
Happily we grasp at every brand new chance to 'play'.
Now we have the whole world in our grasp with just one click!
Ordinary people are becoming 'wise' and 'slick'.
Letters once were written with such elegance and grace;
(Oh, what we have lost pursuing this, our faster pace!)
Gains are always matched by losses, downsides must exist.
Yes! We've gained an awful lot.
But should we now desist?
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