Dear
Members, Alumni, & Friends of the James Scholar Advisory & Leadership
Team (JSALT):
Our
venerable organization has changed its name, so the name of our fortnightly
Quotemail needs to change, too! J
With expanded roles to play in new initiatives for the ACES James Scholar
Honors Program, the JSMT became the JSALT on February 17th following
a vote by our Executive Board, and the University of Illinois’s Office of
Registered Student Organizations has been notified of, and officially
recognized, the change of name. But Quotemail goes on, as before – so here we
go! J
Wednesday,
February 18th marked the beginning of the Lunar New Year in the
traditional Chinese calendar. The New Year (or Spring Festival) usually occurs
on the second New Moon after the Midwinter Solstice (December 21 or 22). This
week, the Year of the Sheep begins as the year 4713 dawns in East Asia and
around the globe. To celebrate the Lunar New Year, I have selected the poem
“Kubla Khan” (by Samuel Taylor Coleridge) to share with you because it
celebrates the splendor of medieval China under the aegis of Emperor Kublai
Khan (reigned 1260-1294), the grandson of Genghis Khan.
“Kubla
Khan” a/k/a “Xanadu” (1816)
By
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
In
Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A
stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where
Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through
caverns measureless to man
Down
to a sunless sea.
So
twice five miles of fertile ground
With
walls and towers were girdled round:
And
there were gardens bright with sinuous rills
Where
blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And
here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding
sunny spots of greenery.
But
O, that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down
the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A
savage place! as holy and enchanted
As
ever beneath a waning Moon was haunted
By
woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And
from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As
if this Earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A
mighty fountain momently was forced;
Amid
whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge
fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or
chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail:
And
‘mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It
flung up momently the sacred river.
Five
miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through
wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then
reached the caverns measureless to man,
And
sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And
‘mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral
voices prophesying war!
The
shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated
midway on the waves;
Where
was heard the mingled measure
From
the fountain and the caves.
It
was a miracle of rare device,
A
sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!
A
damsel with a dulcimer
In
a vision once I saw:
It
was an Abyssinian maid,
And
on her dulcimer she played,
Singing
of Mount Abora.
Could
I revive within me,
Her
symphony and song,
To
such a deep delight ‘twould win me,
That
with music loud and long,
I
would build that dome in air,
That
sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And
all who heard should see them there,
And
all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His
flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave
a circle round him thrice,
And
close your eyes with holy dread,
For
he on honey-dew hath fed,
And
drunk the milk of Paradise.
Although
I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing it yet, the planet Venus is slowly
climbing in the western sky after sunset each evening – another astronomical
event! Here’s a poem about Venus as the Evenstar, shining through the late
winter gloaming.
“February
Twilight”
By
Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)
I
stood beside a hill
Smooth
with new-laid snow,
A
single star looked out
From
the cold evening glow.
There
was no other creature
That
saw what I could see --
I
stood and watched the Evening Star
As
long as it watched me.
Happy
Lunar New Year to all our subscribers! J
Rob
