Quotemail's 21st Anniversary Edition! :)

Hello everyone! :)

Tuesday, November 8^th marks the 21^st birthday of the Quotemail emailing list AND the 21^st birthday of my younger cousin, Zenaida.

The list now known as the RHC Quotemail began during my graduate school days in the German Department at the U of I. Its original name was REEL – Rob’s Eclectic Edutainment List. It was primarily aimed at friends and colleagues in the German Department, but it began to expand slowly but surely as my worksites changed over the years. When I moved to the Graduate College Information Office in 1997, this list became the “Quote of the Week,” and when I moved to the ACES James Scholar Honors Program in 2000, it was simply called “Quotemail.” Today, this list can boast over 160 members who receive snippets of poetry and prose, mixed in with some inspiration and humor, every other Friday.

In honor of these two birthdays, and the longstanding interest in astronomy that I share with many of our listmembers, here’s a selection of my favorite poems about the planet Venus. Venus has returned to the evening sky; whenever it appears in the west after sunset, it is known as the Evenstar, and when it appears in the east before sunrise, it is known as the Morningstar. Skywatchers can be on the lookout for Venus during evening twilight, about half an hour after sunset; Venus is unmistakable, as it is the third-brightest object in the sky (after the Sun and Moon). Although the planet is a beautiful sight from our world, it is in fact a victim of a runaway greenhouse effect; surface temperatures on Venus can exceed 900 degrees Fahrenheit.

We begin our celestial selection of poetry with an invocation to Urania, the Greek Muse of Astronomy:

From Paradise Lost: Book 7, Lines 1-20

By John Milton (1608-1674)

Descend from Heaven, Urania, by that name
If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine
Following, above the Olympian hill I soar,
Above the flight of Pegasean wing!
The meaning, not the name, I call: for thou
Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top
Of old Olympus dwellest; but, heavenly-born,
Before the hills appeared, or fountain flowed,
Thou with eternal Wisdom didst converse,
Wisdom thy sister, and with her didst play
In presence of the Almighty Father, pleased
With thy celestial song. Up led by thee
Into the Heaven of Heavens I have presumed,
An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air,
Thy tempering: with like safety guided down
Return me to my native element:
Lest from this flying steed unreined, (as once
Bellerophon, though from a lower clime,)
Dismounted, on the Aleian field I fall,
Erroneous there to wander, and forlorn.

The Evenstar in Old English!

(Cynewulf, 8^th Century CE):

    éala éarendel engla beorhtast

    ofer middangeard monnum sended

Which means:

“Hail Day-Star! Brightest angel sent to man throughout the earth!”

“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.

“Evening Star” (1930)

By H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937)

I saw it from that hidden, silent place

Where the old wood half shuts the meadow in.

It shone through all the sunset’s glories – thin

At first, but with a slowly brightening face.

Night came, and that lone beacon, amber-hued,

Beat on my sight as never it did of old;

The evening star – but grown a thousandfold

More haunting in this hush and solitude.

It traced strange pictures on the quivering air –

Half-memories that had always filled my eyes –

Vast towers and gardens; curious seas and skies

Of some dim life – I never could tell where.

But now I knew that through the cosmic dome

Those rays were calling from my far, lost home.

May It Be

(Words & Music by Enya – Composed for Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy)

The Evenstar is a beacon of hope to the peoples of Middle-Earth in J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy writings (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, etc.). The inspirational song “May It Be” expounds on this aspect of the Evenstar as a harbinger of hope. You can watch a video of “May It Be” as performed by Celtic Woman on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RugSclNY4y8). The non-English lyrics interspersed throughout the song are in Elvish (one of Tolkien’s invented languages). May you always find an Evenstar when you need one, and may you also be the Evenstar to others.

May it be an evening star
Shines down upon you
May it be when darkness falls
Your heart will be true
You walk a lonely road
Oh! How far you are from home

Mornie utulie (Darkness has come)
Believe and you will find your way
Mornie alantie (Darkness has fallen)
A promise lives within you now

May it be the shadow's call
Will fly away
May it be your journey on
To light the day
When the night is overcome
You may rise to find the sun

Mornie utulie (Darkness has come)
Believe and you will find your way
Mornie alantie (Darkness has fallen)
A promise lives within you now

“A promise lives within you now” – a message to us all, as we face the future with HOPE. :)

Happy Birthday!

Rob