Falling for Keats

Winter in Korea is not easy, especially for a Californian. It snowed on Tuesday and the stuff, instead of melting away to nothing as it does in Albuquerque, has gone from charming white fluff to hard, menacing ice. Navigating sidewalks is dicey, no matter how practical my footwear is (I wore sneakers to work yesterday).

What with the weather in its dismal state (-20 degrees Celsius? How does that really actually happen?) and me with my warm, cozy little nest, I haven't felt the desire to do anything, least of all blog. I'm sorry about that, to all four of you that read my blog.

However, I ran across a poem by John Keats today that tugged at me. I'm not really great with reading poetry- I allow my emotions to dictate whether or not I like something, and I don't really pause to analyze or delve into the poem until I've read the thing a few times.

This poem got me upon my first reading, to the point that I read it again, aloud, because I wanted to hear the words:

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art -
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like Nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors -
No - yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft swell and fall,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever - or else swoon to death.

It's a little overly dramatic (he wasn't a Romantic poet for nothing) and even, perhaps, juvenile, but it still grabbed me, took my interest, and actually made me feel something. I'm thinking that I should watch "Bright Star" this weekend, though I haven't heard great things about the movie.

I just love the feelings that this poem evokes, so I'll tentatively hope for a similar outcome from the film.

No internet and no TV in my apartment (officetel) yet, but I have a bed, table, and chairs. Still a rather empty place, no decorations to speak of ... but it's easy to clean and I don't really need more stuff, other than broadband. Having no internet is like chopping off a leg, but this winter weather makes me lethargic and incapable of doing more than the most menial of tasks. Seriously, why don't humans hibernate?

Work is a stormy. The company is in flux. I don't think I should blog about it, so I won't. My workdays, for the moment, are confined to (less than) eight hours, so I'm going to be content with that.

Randoms:

- I was a little stunned and sad to read about Heather and Jon Armstrong's marriage breaking up. It's irrational, I know, because I don't actually know those people, but I've been reading Dooce for years, and I felt like those crazy kids would make it.

- Just learned this week that Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz got married. What the what?

- Haven't watched American TV in months and am not missing it. Not even "Glee" or "House" or "Boardwalk Empire." There may be something wrong with me.

- Have been reading a ton of P.G. Wodehouse and Arthur Conan Doyle, because when one has no TV in one's house, one resorts to reading e-books to pass the time.

- Also been playing Tiny Tower and Pucca's Restaurant. Ridiculously addicted to both.

That's it. I have some phone photos to post ... next week. The weekend is for lazing about and avoiding the outdoors (and the tundra-like temperatures) as much as possible. Whee!