Apr 2020 – Sermons in stones

The present lockdown situation brought to John’s mind ‘Sweet are the uses of adversity’. In this speech from As You Like It, the Duke is finding the upside of his being ‘exempt from public haunt’, in his case in exile in the Forest of Arden.

Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.

As a result of re-reading this I revisited Larkin’s ‘Toads’ and ‘Toads Revisited’, and noted the consistently off-rhyme schemes of both. In the end, Larkin also finds something good in the toad, as he asks it to help him down Cemetery Road.

Let’s hope that we can indeed find good in every thing, and continue to appreciate it when this crisis has passed.

During the 2020 Covid lockdown members shared a number of their own poems electronically, some written in response to the situation. These are Tonia Bowden’s ‘Magic at Christmas‘ and ‘A toast to the NHS‘, Kathy Short’s ‘Psychotherapy‘ and ‘Villanelle‘, Chris Short’s ‘Tarantella‘, ‘Window seat‘, ‘The Masque of Anarchy 2020‘, ‘The Music of Bach‘ and ‘Twenty‘, Ken Gambles’ ‘Covid-ity‘, ‘Iles Lane‘ and ‘The old envy‘, and David Aldred’s ‘Songs of despair II‘ and ‘Water Lily‘.