Fun_People Archive
17 Dec
LIT BITS V2 #350

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 99 22:38:24 -0800
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Subject: LIT BITS V2 #350

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Excerpted-from: LITERARY CALENDAR V2 #350

Today is Saturday, 18 December 1999; on this day,

320 years ago (1679),

	John Dryden is set upon by minions of the Earl of Rochester, who
     suspect him of writing the _Essay on Satire_, actually by John
     Sheffield.

129 years ago (1870),

	Saki (H. H. Munro) is born in Akyab, Burma. A member of the Royal
     Fusiliers, the British humorist (_The Unbearuble Bassington_) and
     master of the short story will die in battle in France in 1916.

53 years ago (1946),

	Damon Runyon's ashes are scattered over Broadway by Eddie
     Rickenbacker, flying overhead in a large transport plane.

Today's poem:

                Ah, How Sweet It Is to Love!

	Ah, How Sweet It Is to Love!
       Ah, how gay is young Desire!
     And what pleasing pains we prove
       When we first approach Love's fire!
     Pains of love be sweeter far
     Than all other pleasures are.

     Sighs which are from lovers blown
       Do but gently heave the heart:
     Ev'n the tears they shed alone
       Cure, like tricklng balm, their smart:
     Lovers, when they lose their breath,
     Bleed away in easy death.

     Love and Time with reverence use,
       Treat them like a parting friend;
     Nor the golden gifts refuse
       Which in youth sincere they send:
     For each year their price is more,
     And they less simple than before.

     Love, like spring-tides full and high,
       Swells in every youthful vein;
     But each tide does less supply,
       Till they quite shrink in again:
     If a flow in age appear,
     'Tis but rain and runs not clear.

                                                 John Dryden

© 1999 Peter Langston