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Was Keats wrong?
Fire
Posts: 19,096
Random question: do fruitful apple trees in the UK get very mossy?
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
Is it more likely that Keats in fact writing about lichen? I but have read that lichen tends to grow on elderly, dying trees. He was a Londoner born and bred and not greatly given (I would judge) to closely investigating botanicals, unlike, say, John Clare.
Or is the hyphen in the wrong place? You will see from this manuscript, there is no hyphen (in this draft, at least). Could the moss actually be growing on the cottages (near Winchester)? Which would might make more sense. He revised the poem a lot between writing and publication.
I would be interested in your thoughts.
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
Is it more likely that Keats in fact writing about lichen? I but have read that lichen tends to grow on elderly, dying trees. He was a Londoner born and bred and not greatly given (I would judge) to closely investigating botanicals, unlike, say, John Clare.
Or is the hyphen in the wrong place? You will see from this manuscript, there is no hyphen (in this draft, at least). Could the moss actually be growing on the cottages (near Winchester)? Which would might make more sense. He revised the poem a lot between writing and publication.
I would be interested in your thoughts.
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I remember the orchard where we once played
The trees so old and knarled yet fruitful still
Between the trees the soft green grass
Where boys and girls would ofttimes lay
as of fresh sweet ripe fruit we ate our fill
Sunlight through leaves shining like stained glass.
Anyone who was brought up with an orchard and a walled garden with those walls covered with fruit trees can tell you old and still lively trees have litchens on them.
We climbed the trees, tore our knees, went home with green clothes form the litchens to mothers ire. Keats may well have used poetic licence but he was correct.
My doggerel is from memories of carefree days, times children today very rarely see more is the pity.
Frank.
Moss on U.K. apple tree. http://www2.mmu.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/story/?id=5413
Seems to depend on what type of apple. Must have been a Bramley.
What is life if full of care
We have no time to stand and stare.
We are all guilty we have a jobs list and get on with it, as I got older I decided to do a couple of jobs then sit and just look, apart from being restful it is also very calming to the soul, I am sure that is what the Poet's are saying, stop look and enjoy, we only ever see that moment in time once.
Frank.