the road not taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost (1874–1963). Mountain Interval, 1920.

eternal sunshine of the spotless mind

"How happy is the blameless vestal's lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd." –
Alexander Pope

transience

The reputation which the world bestows
is like the wind, that shifts now here now there,
its name changed with the quarter whence it blows.
Dante Alighieri 1265-1321: Divina Commedia 'Purgatorio'

Like that of leaves is a generation of men.
Homer 8th century bc: The Iliad

He who binds to himself a joy
Doth the winged life destroy
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in Eternity's sunrise.
William Blake 1757-1827: MS Note-Book

Look thy last on all things lovely,
Every hour.
Walter de la Mare 1873-1956: 'Fare Well' (1918)



tran·sient /ˈtrænʃənt, -ʒənt, -ziənt/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[tran-shuhnt, -zhuhnt, -zee-uhnt]
–adjective
1. not lasting, enduring, or permanent; transitory: "the transient beauty of youth"
2. passing with time; existing briefly; temporary: transient authority.
3. staying only a short time: the transient guests at a hotel.
4. Philosophy. transeunt.
–noun
5. a person or thing that is transient, esp. a temporary guest, boarder, laborer, or the like.
6. Mathematics.
a. a function that tends to zero as the independent variable tends to infinity.
b. a solution, esp. of a differential equation, having this property.
7. Physics.
a. a nonperiodic signal of short duration.
b. a decaying signal, wave, or oscillation.
8. Electricity. a sudden pulse of voltage or current.

—Synonyms 2. fleeting, flitting, flying, fugitive, evanescent.

I shall be released...

They say ev'rything can be replaced,
Yet ev'ry distance is not near.
So I remember ev'ry face
Of ev'ry man who put me here.
I see my light come shining
From the west unto the east.
Any day now, any day now,
I shall be released.

They say ev'ry man needs protection,
They say ev'ry man must fall.
Yet I swear I see my reflection
Some place so high above this wall.
I see my light come shining
From the west unto the east.
Any day now, any day now,
I shall be released.

Standing next to me in this lonely crowd,
Is a man who swears he's not to blame.
All day long I hear him shout so loud,
Crying out that he was framed.
I see my light come shining
From the west unto the east.
Any day now, any day now,
I shall be released.

word of the day

intransigent \in-TRAN-suh-juhnt; -zuh-\, adjective:
Refusing to compromise; uncompromising.

Sometimes I was intransigent, and proud of it. At other times I seemed to myself to be nearly devoid of any character at all, timid, uncertain, without will.
-- Edward W. Said, Out of Place: A Memoir