Skip to main content

The End Of Summer


British Summer (if not British Summer Time) ends tomorrow, as Autumn begins.  According to the latest BBC news on radio 4, the week ahead will actually warm up to mid-20s Celsius - so, an Indian Summer, then.  The last fortnight has been generally miserable, weatherwise - a wash-out of rainy days and unsunny skies.  Meanwhile, the world has been gloomy economically, and otherwise.  One small silver lining - there appears to have been no major air disaster in August - which, given the fact this is the busiest month for flying - is an achievement.  Eyewear looks forward to the start of the new term.  Sharp new pencils.  Clean new Silvine Excercise books.  Poetry readings.  Launches.  Crisper air.  Pumpkins.  Poppies on lapels.  Christmas parties.  And then a new year.  It all starts tomorrow.  Today, grab that BBQ and ball cap and have yourself a last fling of summer.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I thought summer ends september 20 something? Was reading Michael Hamburger put a dampener on the month of August in WG Sebalts 'Rings of Saturn' by saying it's the month when everyting rots gaudy on its branch but I'm not sure it's the fall yet. Or are you talking about the summer holidays being done with? If so it don't signify alot to those beyond the walls of the Academy.
EYEWEAR said…
According to the BBC, summer ends, culturally, in the UK, the last day of August.

Popular posts from this blog

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart?  A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional.  Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were.  For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ?  Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets.  But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ?  How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular.  John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se.  What do I mean by smart?

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and  Silence of the Lambs .  I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".

THE SWIFT REPORT 2023

I am writing this post without much enthusiasm, but with a sense of duty. This blog will be 20 years old soon, and though I rarely post here anymore, I owe it some attention. Of course in 2023, "Swift" now means one thing only, Taylor Swift, the billionaire musician. Gone are the days when I was asked if I was related to Jonathan Swift. The pre-eminent cultural Swift is now alive and TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR. There is no point in belabouring the obvious with delay: 2023 was a low-point in the low annals of human history - war, invasion, murder, in too many nations. Hate, division, the collapse of what truth is, exacerbated by advances in AI that may or may not prove apocalyptic, while global warming still seems to threaten the near-future safety of humanity. It's been deeply depressing. The world lost some wonderful poets, actors, musicians, and writers this year, as it often does. Two people I knew and admired greatly, Ian Ferrier and Kevin Higgins, poets and organise