New Horizons @ Ultimate Thule + The Eclipse of the Full Wolf Moon!

Hello everyone –

If the weather will cooperate, Midwesterners will get to see a total eclipse of the Full Wolf Moon on Sunday evening, starting about 9:00 PM and lasting until about 1:00 AM. In honor of his occasion, and also in celebration of the New Horizons probe’s historic flyby of the remote Solar System object “Ultima Thule” (it looks like a snowperson in photos!), here are some poems to start off what promises to be a snowy winter weekend!

Note: Ultima Thule was the Latin name for a remote northern country, probably Iceland, that was visited by the Greek mariner Pytheas in the 4^th century BCE.

“Seneca’s Prophecy”

From the tragedy Medea (Penned ca. 50 CE) by Seneca the Younger (4 BCE-65 CE)

“In later years, a time shall come in which the ocean shall relax the bonds of things, and a great land shall be discovered. Tethys shall unveil new worlds, and Thule shall no longer be the utmost extremity of the Earth.”

“The King of Thule” (1774)

By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

Translated by Edgar A. Bowring (1853)

In Thule lived a monarch,

Still faithful to the grave,

To whom his dying mistress

A golden goblet gave.

Beyond all price he deemed it,

He quaffed it at each feast;

And, when he drained that goblet,

His tears to flow ne'er ceased.

And when he felt death near him,

His cities o'er he told,

And to his heir left all things,

But not that cup of gold.

A regal banquet held he

In his ancestral ball,

In yonder sea-washed castle,

'Amongst his great nobles all.

There stood the aged reveler,

And drank his last life's-glow,

Then hurled the holy goblet

Into the flood below.

He saw it falling, filling,

And sinking 'neath the main,

His eyes then closed for ever,

He never drank again.

“The Law for the Wolves”

By Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936)

Excerpted from The Second Jungle Book (1895) – Chapter 2

Now this is the law of the jungle, as old and as true as the sky, 

And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.           

As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk, the law runneth forward and back;          

For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.      

Wash daily from nose tip to tail tip; drink deeply, but never too deep;         5

And remember the night is for hunting and forget not the day is for sleep.    

The jackal may follow the tiger, but, cub, when thy whiskers are grown,         

Remember the wolf is a hunter—go forth and get food of thy own.     

Keep peace with the lords of the jungle, the tiger, the panther, the bear;        

And trouble not Hathi the Silent, and mock not the boar in his lair.               10

When pack meets with pack in the jungle, and neither will go from the trail,  

Lie down till the leaders have spoken; it may be fair words shall prevail.       

When ye fight with a wolf of the pack ye must fight him alone and afar,          

Lest others take part in the quarrel and the pack is diminished by war.          

The lair of the wolf is his refuge, and where he has made him his home,                 15

Not even the head wolf may enter, not even the council may come.     

The lair of the wolf is his refuge, but where he has digged it too plain,

The council shall send him a message, and so he shall change it again.

If ye kill before midnight be silent and wake not the woods with your bay,    

Lest ye frighten the deer from the crop and thy brothers go empty away.               20

Ye may kill for yourselves, and your mates, and your cubs as they need and ye can;

But kill not for pleasure of killing, and seven times never kill man.       

If ye plunder his kill from a weaker, devour not all in thy pride,           

Pack-right is the right of the meanest; so leave him the head and the hide.     

The kill of the pack is the meat of the pack. Ye must eat where it lies;           25

And no one may carry away of that meat to his lair, or he dies.

The kill of the wolf is the meat of the wolf. He may do what he will,     

But, till he is given permission, the pack may not eat of that kill.           

Lair right is the right of the mother. From all of her years she may claim       

One haunch of each kill for her litter, and none may deny her the same.                  30

Cub right is the right of the yearling. From all of his pack he may claim          

Full gorge when the killer has eaten; and none may refuse him the same.      

Cave right is the right of the father, to hunt by himself for his own;     

He is freed from all calls to the pack. He is judged by the council alone.          

Because of his age and his cunning, because of his gripe and his paw,         35

In all that the law leaveth open the word of the head wolf is law.         

Now these are the laws of the jungle, and many and mighty are they; 

But the head and the hoof of the law and the haunch and the hump is—Obey!

“Eldorado”

By Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

Gaily bedight,

A gallant knight,

In sunshine and in shadow,  

Had journeyed long,  

Singing a song,

In search of Eldorado.

But he grew old—

This knight so bold—  

And o’er his heart a shadow—  

Fell as he found

No spot of ground

That looked like Eldorado.

And, as his strength  

Failed him at length,

He met a pilgrim shadow—  

 ‘Shadow,’ said he,  

 ‘Where can it be—

This land of Eldorado?’

‘Over the Mountains

Of the Moon,

Down the Valley of the Shadow,  

Ride, boldly ride,’

The shade replied,—

‘If you seek for Eldorado!’

Until next time –

Rob

Wintertime Skies

Hello everyone –

Happy New Year 2019! I was able to view the winter stars, the planet Venus, and the Moon over the Yuletide holiday break, and I’d like to share some of that stelliferous magic with you through this edition of Quotemail. So here are some poems about the North Wind and the stars (from the archaic Greek Orphic Hymns), along with a poem about the North Star (Polaris) by H. P. Lovecraft, and a song by Peter, Paul, and Mary about a famous star that graced the night-time sky over 2000 winters ago and what it means for us today.

FROM THE ORPHIC HYMNS

Editor’s Note: The annual cycle of the seasons and its effects on our natural surroundings are recurring themes throughout world literature. The Orphic poets – a guild of ancient Greek philosopher-bards named after their legendary founder, Orpheus – celebrated the changing of the seasons, the wonders of the natural world, and their lofty ideals in poetic chants, several dozen of which were preserved in written form after centuries of oral transmission. In the poetic forms of their prescientific age (ca. 1000-500 BCE), the Orphic poets chose to personify the forces of nature, the celestial orbs, and abstract ideals in order to explain how and why the natural world and the human social order function in the ways that they do.

Orphic Hymn #6: To the Stars

With holy voice I call the stars on high,

Pure sacred lights and genii of the sky.

Celestial stars, the progeny of Night,

In whirling circles beaming far your light,

Refulgent rays around the heavens ye throw,

Eternal fires, the source of all below.

With flames significant of Fate ye shine,

And aptly rule for men a path divine.

In seven bright zones ye run with wandering flames,

And heaven and earth compose your lucid frames:

With course unwearied, pure and fiery bright

Forever shining through the veil of Night.

Hail twinkling, joyful, ever wakeful fires!

Propitious shine on all my just desires;

These sacred rites regard with conscious rays,

And end our works devoted to your praise.

Orphic Hymn #79: To the North Wind

Boreas, whose wintry blasts, terrific, tear

The bosom of the deep surrounding air;

Cold icy power, approach, and favoring blow,

And Thrace a while desert exposed to snow:

The misty station of the air dissolve,

With pregnant clouds, whose frames in showers resolve:

Serenely temper all within the sky,

And wipe from moisture, Aether's beauteous eye.

FROM THE POEMS OF H. P. LOVECRAFT (1890-1937)

Editor’s Note: H. P. Lovecraft is regarded by literary scholars as the “Edgar Allan Poe” of the 20^th century. He was an imaginative author of “weird fiction” – a genre that combines science fiction, fantasy, and horror – and also an accomplished poet. His work has inspired, among others, the creators/writers of Babylon 5 and Doctor Who.

“Polaris” (1920)

Slumber, watcher, till the spheres,

Six and twenty thousand years

Have revolved, and I return

To the spot where now I burn.

Other stars anon shall rise

To the axis of the skies;

Stars that soothe and stars that bless

With a sweet forgetfulness:

Only when my round is o’er

Shall the past disturb thy door.

“THE MAGI (The Heart of Man's a Palace)”
Yarrow/Henry- Silver Dawn Music & Cool Hand Music ASCAP

Oh the magi were the prophets
And they wandered through the desert
They saw the star above them
And they knew they'd find their way
Through the valley of the shadow
With the hope of human kindness
They were strengthened by the vision
Of a new and brighter day.

Chorus:
And the wise men spoke of peace on earth,
Of harmony and struggle
Know you now a cycle's gone and a new one is revealed.
In the weaving of your fingers
In the whisper of a love that's born again
In the weaving of your fingers
In a promise that we made that never ends.

Well now each man is a pilgrim,
Yes, we all must make the journey
And it seems that time is telling us to be all that we can
To help lift up the fallen, we must sow the seeds of goodness
The torch is passed among us now to light the way of man.

For the heart of man's a palace
And his dreams are as the sunlight
They burn away the darkness, as they warm the freezing cold
As an eagle flying higher, as a river through the canyon
The diamond star shines down upon, a pathway to the soul

(Chorus)2x

In a promise that we made that never ends.
In a promise that we made that never ends.

Until next time – be sure to go outside or look out your favorite window on a winter evening, and enjoy the view!

Rob